Perth Voice Interactive

THE popularity of winter sports is set to get a significant boost in WA, with the first figure skating championship where competitors can earn international points to be held later this month.  

The WA Figure Skating Club’s Swan Trophy will be allow figure skaters to gain points necessary for national and international selection, the first time this has been available in Perth. 

WAFSC representative Alana Davis says it is “really significant” for WA based skaters to have access to a local competition that will allow them to compete on an international scale. 

“It’s quite difficult for WA skaters to compete because it can be so expensive just to travel,” Ms Davis said. 

“When travelling to an interstate competition, you have to pay for accommodation, competition entry, meals, and flights as well.

 “It’s really great that we are creating these opportunities here for our WA skaters.

“Their parents are sacrificing financially for them to be able to skate, but they don’t have the added burden on to them financially to have to travel.”

A majority of the competitors are young teenagers, according to Ms Davis.

“There has to be a lot of coordination, agility on the ice, and strengthening and conditioning to cater for a lot of the injuries,” Ms Davis said.

“It’s not just a matter of having the technical skills required and the composition and presentation, but it’s also a very mentally demanding sport.”

Amongst the Australian competitors is 14-year-old Hana Bath, the first Australian female to land a triple axel jump last year. 

Known as the WAFSC’s “pocket rocket”, Hana has competed all over the world at skating Grand Prix and Junior Worlds, with podium finishes at international level. 

One of Hana’s coaches and former competitive ice dancer Maria Borounov says it is “such an achievement” to make it to the world stage in their own backyard. 

“It’s really rewarding, because as coaches we’re with them from when they’re very young, so you get to witness them growing up, and you get to witness all the obstacles they overcome.

“[the Swan Trophy] is something that WA has never had, and it’ll just be opening those doors for the whole of Australia to become more serious about winter sport, and become more serious about figure skating.

The Swan Trophy will be held at Cockburn Ice Arena from September 23 – 25

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER

THE WA government has given Vincent council $3.8 million to replace the turf and upgrade lighting at Leederville Oval.

The upgrades to the oval, home to both East Perth and Subiaco football clubs, will help make sure it’s up to broadcasting standards.

Vincent has been arguing for the state government to put funding into the oval, now branded with sponsor Sullivan Logistics’ name, since it successfully held the 2022 WAFL grand final there.

“Sullivan Logistics Stadium is the largest football venue in Vincent and one of the state’s leading grounds for WAFL and WAFLW,” mayor Alison Xamon said.

“It is our long-term goal to transform the venue into a local alternative to Optus Stadium and host major AFLW fixtures and AFL Gather Round matches if WA’s pitch succeeds.

“Our goal is to have the revamped stadium ready for the 2025 AFLW and WAFL seasons.”

The turf replacement and lighting works are expected to start in October 2024 and be completed by early 2025.

Federal funding helped reroof the grandstand earlier this year.

FOLLOWING widespread community support, the Town of Cambridge has reverted Lake Monger Reserve to it Indigenous name Galup, meaning ‘place of fire’.

At Tuesday’s meeting the council unanimously adopted the name, along with amended management plan and masterplan.

The renaming will include a five-year transition period, during which the site will be officially referred to as Galup (Lake Monger) before fully adopting the name Galup in 2029, but before all that will need to get the sign-off from Landgate.

Mayor Gary Mack said consultation was thorough and resulted in more than a thousand survey responses.

“The community showed strong support for all proposed actions, including the name change. This marks a significant step in our reconciliation journey,” Mr Mack said.

The draft plan and masterplan were developed in consultation with traditional owners, with an anthropologist facilitating meetings to ensure their cultural and historical perspectives were included in the documents.

The site’s importance as a meeting place and campground for the Whadjuk Noongar people, and an 1830 massacre, have been integrated into the final versions of the plans.

THE City of Perth will launch public consultation for its $720 million vision to transform Perth’s waterfront later this year.

At its last meeting the council adopted the masterplan which is centred around three riverside beaches, a swimming lagoon, cafes, restaurants and additional boat moorings.

Lord mayor Basil Zempilas described the plan, which had its genesis in a series of technical studies in 2018 and a meeting with stakeholders in 2020 as an “opportunity to make a statement” and put forward a “visionary” plan for the community to consider.

“A masterplan that will make the area of Langley Park and Riverside Drive much more liveable, much more sustainable and certainly more prosperous as well,” Mr Zempilas said.

The lord mayor said the plan would help the City reach its population target of 55,000 residents by 2036 and 90,000 by 2050.

“The opportunity to touch and interact with the river, including a swimming lagoon and some amenity that will make the amenity more attractive and more liveable, but certainly increase opportunities for people to come, interact and enjoy the space.”

He said it would keep the essence of Langley Park, with two ovals capable of holding 10,000 and 25,000 people.

“When the Fremantle Dockers or the West Coast Eagles win their next premiership – whenever that might be – we can still have the welcome home party at Langley Park,” Mr Zempilas said.

“The centrepiece in the plan includes three riverfront beaches, includes a lagoon where people can swim, surrounded by breakwater islands, a jetty, a ferry stop and boat moorings.”

He said it would be “the most significant city-shaping project of our lifetimes.”

Councillor Liam Gobbert described it as “nation-building stuff”, with an eye on federal funding which is likely to be necessary given the WA Labor government’s lack of enthusiasm for the proposal so far.

Infrastructure cuts

Squeezing money out of the feds is going to be difficult for the foreseeable future, with the Albanese government culling 50 projects across the nation in November after a review found its $120 billion infrastructure fund couldn’t pay for what was already in the pipeline over the next decade.

But Cr Gobbert said from his experience at Joondalup council when it was planning for the Ocean Reef Marina, it would most likely be a 30-year project anyway.

“It’s a starting point,” he said of the draft masterplan.

“Precincts centred around ecology, events, leisure, play, culture and key themes of the plan that underpin them are what we are seeking feedback on to make sure that progress aligns with community expectations.

“Broadly those themes are; 

“To reimagine the river’s edge with new planting, beaches, boardwalks, terraces;

“The realignment of Riverside Drive to create more usable and safe spaces;

“Promotion of destination attractions and connections to the city with points of interest at the lagoon;

“Cafes, restaurants, landscaping, new boat moorings;

“It’s better wetland and stormwater management and connections to Country.”

Cr Bruce Reynolds told the meeting of a near-200 year connection to the waterfront.

“Almost 200 years ago my great great grandfather John Stanton rode down the Swan as part of the landing party to find water and the nostalgic side of me closes my eyes from time to time on the river and I wonder what he would have seen,” Cr Reynolds said.

“It would have been majestic, and it’s still majestic.

“Change is inevitable and if he was to open his eyes today he would see a lot of positive change that we are all proud of in our city and we have grown into a beautiful city, something that we are very proud of.”

He noted there’d been mixed reactions to the plans from ratepayers, but urged them to participate in the consultation as it was the first draft and they would be given an opportunity to have their say.

by STEVE GRANT

CYCLOPHILES can feed their two-wheeled obsession without the need to don the lycra when the Big Bike Film Night makes its return to Perth on Sunday September 15.

Now in its 10th year, the film nights were the brainchild of New Zealander Brett Cotter, who was looking for ways to raise money to help repair a giant bike statue that had been vandalised in his home town of Taupo.

“I wanted to make an event that celebrated cycling in all its glorious shapes and forms; one that was a tribute to the humble bicycle,” Mr Cotter said.

The screenings were a sell-out.

“Sitting there and watching the audience laugh, clap and cheer and appreciating the collection was really gratifying, and from the successful screenings we raised $2300 towards the giant bike’s restoration,” he recalls.

Since then the freewheeling love has seen the idea continue and this year there are screenings in Scotland, London, Australia and back in New Zealand.

“Each year I set out with just one goal – to bring together the best cycling short films from around the world for our audiences – this collection is awe-inspiring and celebrates the fun, the adventure and inspiration that bikes enable,” Mr Cotter said.

“This global program contains a fabulous Australian film, alongside an incredible assortment of international movies making their premiere in Australia.”

Meter eater

Double Everest follows “vertical meter eater” Ben Hildred on his quest to ride the equivalent of Mt Everest.

“For Ben, it’s just another mountain bike ride, but for us mere mortals, it’s utterly bonkers and brilliant; that’s why I love it,” Mr Cotter said.

On the other end, Undeniably Young: Nora Young and the Six-Day Race restores one of the world’s greatest athletes to the podium after almost drifting into obscurity.

Young was a prodigious athlete and a figurehead of Canada’s golden age of women’s sport in the 1920s and 30s, when women en masse became involved in organised sport. 

Young had grown up playing ice hockey against the boys, her shins protected from pucks and sticks by rolled-up catalogues, and by her late teens had won national championships in cycling, javelin and basketball, while also being handy at baseball and basketball where she later helped her team capture a national championship in 1948.

She retired for a while when arthritis started to affect her, but made an amazing comeback as a masters athlete, winning medals and setting records across numerous sports.

Big Bike Film Night
Sunday September 15
State Library Theatre
6pm
Tix: bigbikefilmnight.nz

by STEVE GRANT