Perth Voice Interactive

HOMELESSNESS is rife in areas near Weld Square despite a line of empty Housing Authority homes crumbling away on nearby Parry Street.

Local resident John Collins says he often sees homeless people in the area, and when Voice was there a man rocked up to his makeshift camp on the porch of one of the empty two-bedroom houses. Mr Collins reckons there’s about six empty department properties on Parry Street.

“We have a considerable number of people who are still homeless, in the park and in the area,” he says.

“Why are there properties left vacant? 139 and 141 [Parry Street] have been vacant for over 12 months.

“141 was perfectly liveable when the lady moved out.”

The Voice understands that one of the heritage-listed houses had some termites, but answers from the Housing Authority weren’t big on detail.

Homeless

“Six of the public housing properties in the Parry Street precinct are currently vacant and require extensive refurbishment,” says department of communities’ Greg Cash.

“The department is currently considering options for their future use.”

The nearby Stirling Towers, a large Housing-owned block, has been empty for four years.

The department announced it’d be demolished back in January 2016, with plans to replace it with a mix of social housing and commercial apartments.

They advertised the tender to demolish it in December 2016.

That never went ahead and in July last year they put up a colourful fence, painted by mural artist Mel McVee, to make it less of an eyesore.

Mr Cash says the department “expects to make an announcement about the demolition and redevelopment of the Stirling Towers site towards the end of 2018”.

In the meantime, much of it’s boarded-up to stop people trespassing.

by DAVID BELL

WA Labor’s “Missing” posters have gone, well, missing.

Last week the party put up posters across the city, poking fun at the Liberal party for not fielding a candidate for the federal Perth by-election on July 28.

Now the “missing” posters are missing, and when we contacted Labor HQ to ask if they took them down, they didn’t get back to us.

Perth candidate Paul Collins says Labor’s cheeky poster campaign has backfired and gave him some free publicity.

He’s a Liberal party member who’s running as an independent, after feeling let down that  the Blues didn’t field a candidate.

“Apart from the fact many of the posters are illegally placed on street poles and at signalled intersections, the posters have been a great help to me because they are encouraging the electors to actually look for a Liberal candidate,” Mr Collins says.

He says he’s the only member of the Liberal party running in the by-election, but acknowledges he’s had disagreements with the party in the past over issues like council amalgamations.

The posters were authorised by E. Whiteaker, WA Labor, 54 Cheriton St, Perth.

by DAVID BELL

WA is getting some woefully low return numbers on the first day of pre-polling for the Perth and Fremantle by-elections.

Australian Electoral Commission figures show that the Perth pre-poll had just 264 votes and Freo had 238.

Meanwhile Mayo’s by-election in South Australia got 968 people lodging a ballot on the first day, and Longman in QLD had 676.

Braddon in Tasmania also turned out in better numbers, with 535 first-day voters.

Labor Perth candidate Patrick Gorman said it’s important that people have their say.

“Our community has an important choice at this election and I don’t want anyone to waste their vote,” he says.

“I have been an election observer in Afghanistan and know how lucky we are in Australia to have a healthy democracy.

“If you need to vote early you can go to the Morley Markets and have your voice heard.” There’s also a CBD pre-polling booth at the QBE building on St George’s Terrace.

THIS month Victoria Gardens in East Perth will say goodbye to its oldest resident – a tree more than 140 years old.

The Hoop Pine was one of the first trees in the 1877 garden – the same year WA got its first, single telegraph line connecting Sandgropers to the rest of Australia.

Jeff Broun from the East Perth Community Safety Group says the tree has “been on life support for a while”.

“It is a sad day for our oldest resident of East Perth,” he says.

As a tribute they are holding a “goodbye” on Sunday July 29.

Perth council’s veteran gardener Alan Dolphin, who’s been with the city since 1975, will be onsite with information about the tree and to answer any questions.

Rather than having the tree woodchipped, the group is arranging for it to be carefully taken down, then cut up at a mill.

Drying out will take about a year, and in the meantime they want to hear ideas on what to make out of their share of the  timber (email info@eastperthsafety.net or call Mr Broun on 041 993 4623).  It’s a high quality timber, often used for joinery and furniture.  The tree farewell, which coincides with National Tree Day, is at 3pm at Victoria Gardens, at the end of Royal Street.

by DAVID BELL

A POOR duck with its neck constricted by plastic has been evading rescue efforts for more than two weeks at Lightning Swamp bushland in Noranda.

Photographer Muneer Al Shanti was at the bushland on Sunday July 1 when he spotted the Pacific black duck and took a picture.

At first he didn’t realise what was around the bird’s neck, thinking it was too big to be a tracking device.

When he took a look at the photos and boosted the brightness he saw it was a piece of plastic, possibly a discarded coffee cup lid.

Members of WA Sea Bird Rescue have made several attempts to rescue the duck, sending people out there every day for weeks, but it’s too timid and won’t come close.

They briefly netted the duck on July 12, but it escaped.

Friends of Lightning Swamp posted on Facebook they were keeping an eye out for the stricken bird.

by DAVID BELL

A MAMMOTH new mural by artist Mel McVee – paying homage to the historic general stores of the area – has been painted on the side of the Good Grocer Leederville IGA.

The concept was to draw on the elements of the old grocery stores – delivery trucks, fresh food, orchard trees and food-producing animals, and it was co-funded by store owner Brindle Group and Vincent council.

30m long and 5m high, McVee aka “Melski” brought in some helpers to add a few licks of paint to her usual whimsical style—which can be seen nearby on the toilet block in the carpark.

It used to be one of the area’s eyesores before she brought it to life with one of her colourful works in 2014.