Perth Voice Interactive

AFTER a two-year heritage battle the last in a series of 16 murals has been finished in Maylands town centre.

Leo Flavel from Studio 281 curated the 16-mural project in 2016 in a bid to revitalise and beautify the town centre.

The murals were so impressive Lonely Planet mentioned them when it rated Maylands as one of the three coolest suburbs in Australia in 2017.

But the State Heritage Office was reluctant to approve the final mural, by Daek William, because it was on the side of a heritage-listed building on Whatley Crescent, used by Mrs S Cafe.

“This was the only job that didn’t get completed,” Mr Flavel says. “For me, I needed to finish this last piece off. It was the last piece of the puzzle.”

At first he didn’t have much luck with the heritage office: “Initially they just flatly said ‘no’.”

But in 2017 Bayswater council hired place makers to coordinate efforts to improve its town centres, following a notice of motion by Cr Catherine Ehrhardt.

Maylands place maker Emma Snow went in to bat for the Mrs S mural, working with Mr Flavel, the owner and the council to get things moving.

Mr Flavel says the heritage office’s main concern was that the planned mural didn’t have any connection to the building’s history.

“That’s when we commissioned a researcher to go back through the archives at the state library, and produce a report on all the first businesses that were in those locations.”

Researcher Jo Campbell came across an early figure associated with the building: Mrs S E Harpon, who ran a confectioners and tea-room at nearby 202a Whatley Crescent in 1925.

They reworked the mural design into a homage to Mrs Harpon, incorporating the tea and candy elements.

Mr Flavel told the heritage office the mural would encourage young people to learn about the history of the building.

With the new plan in hand, and funding from the council, Mrs S owner Andrew Ho and a donor who wanted to stay anonymous, they got approval from the heritage office.

International visitors

The Mrs S mural was finished this week and Mr Flavel says the overall project has had a tangible effect on Maylands: “Not just commercially, but it has strengthened the community spirit for all the retailers.”

In November 2017 Lonely Planet listed Maylands as one of the three coolest suburbs in the country, citing the coffee strip and the artwork in the entry.

“We’ve had more international visitors,” Mr Flavel says, “they’re coming and seeking them out and wanting to do walking tours.

There has been some hard years but when that article went out, all the shops in the suburb were pumped, excited and proud and it created a real sense of community.”

by DAVID BELL

HERITAGE PERTH could be history after commissioners at Perth council voted to stop funding the not-for-profit organisation at the end of this month.

The council created the organisation in 2006 to be an advocate for the city’s history, and under the infectious enthusiasm of executive director Richard Offen it’s achieved just that – running the hugely successful Heritage Weekends and holding booked-out lectures and tours.

Mr Offen retired from the independently-run organisation late last year.

Partnership

At last week’s council meeting, commissioners Gaye McMath and Andrew Hammond endorsed a staff recommendation to discontinue the principal partnership with Heritage Perth, with the existing funding agreement to expire on June 30.

Any funds that were on the on the books for the 2018-19 year will be “repurposed” so the city can employ it’s own in-house heritage staffer and run its own version of the Heritage Weekend.

The recommendation from staff said: “Heritage Perth was set up with the intention to raise the profile of heritage conservation work in the city”. The report acknowledged they’d done that well, but went on to say; “the model of an independent organisation is no longer cost effective, nor the optimal way of achieving the City’s strategic aims. There is also no evidence that Heritage Perth could ever achieve greater financial independence, as was the original intention”.

The city gave the organisation $143,110 last year. The total handed over since it was started is north of $3 million.

We contacted Heritage Perth to ask what’s next. Its statement says; “the city and Heritage Perth are exploring options to transition Heritage Perth into the City of Perth.

“Heritage Perth is an independent incorporated organisation and will consider options for ongoing operations at a board meeting on 7 June 2018.  Heritage Perth has for 12 years had significant positive impact in raising the profile of heritage in the city with education, tours and the Heritage Perth weekends over the years.”

Commissioner McMath said ahead of the vote: “I applaud the work done by Heritage Perth to date and look forward to working with them further.” The city will now consult with any heritage-related stakeholders and come up with its own overarching heritage strategy.

by DAVID BELL

PLANNING minister Rita Saffioti has blanked the Mt Lawley Society after they wrote to her to preserve Beaufort Street’s historic streetscape.

The state government is currently evaluating a set of new planning rules for the Walcott-Salisbury Street stretch of Beaufort, submitted by Stirling council after an exhaustive and award-winning consultation process.

Nearly three months ago the society penned a letter to Ms Saffioti asking her to ignore changes made to the plan by the WA planning Commission — but she hasn’t replied.

Society president Paul Collins says the delays are “frustrating”, and is “putting character heritage buildings on Beaufort Street at risk of degradation while we’re in this waiting period. And if the minister adopts the recommendations of the WAPC, it will be an even worse outcome than what we currently have now.”

Three months

Whilst happy with most WAPC changes, the society balked at the removal of a rule forcing new developments to be sympathetic with one of four architectural styles, like Art Deco, which give Beaufort  its unique flavour.

It also specified that any redevelopment along the three kilometre stretch be at least two storeys, infuriating Mr Collins, who called it “draconian” and so prescriptive you’d expect it came from the Moscow or Beijing planning commission.

Other changes include a maximum height of five storeys around the old state heritage-listed Inglewood Police Station and Quarters, which the Society says will dwarf the old building. The Society is also concerned about maintaining view corridors around St Patrick’s Anglican Church.

Come June 15 it will be three months since they met Mt Lawley MP Simon Millman and Maylands MP Lisa Baker at state parliament to hand over a letter to Ms Saffioti outlining their worries and requesting a face-to-face meeting.

The Voice contacted Ms Saffioti’s office but we didn’t hear back.

by DAVID BELL

NORTHBRIDGE live music bar Jack Rabbit Slim’s has joined venues across the country in cancelling their scheduled performance of musician “Riff Raff”, after rape allegations against the US rapper.

On Thursday April 31 Melbourne-based Eliza Stafford posted her account on Facebook stating: “In 2013 I was raped by a man whose stage name is “Riff Raff”.

She said she had been invited backstage and drugged. Friends witnessed her being put into a car. Aged 19 at the time, she wrote: “I woke up as Riff Raff was pulling out of me and getting in to the shower. I crawled – truly, on all fours – out of the hotel room and managed to get outside where I booked a taxi who wouldn’t take me because I was ‘too drunk’.”

Her post, which has been shared more than 3100 times, said “he is performing at the corner hotel next Friday night. I will be 50 metres from my rapist all night.

The rapper, whose real name is Horst Simco, on Tuesday posted an image to his Instagram account with the message: “Haters pop up with lies so I keep Versace shaes on my eyes bitch ass internet trolls on the attack but Marilyn Munroe got my back.”

He then takes the opportunity to plug an upcoming album.

The Corner Hotel was the first to act, contacting Ms Stafford and then announcing they had cancelled Riff Raff’s performance.

Jack Rabbit Slim’s quickly joined other venues—the Cambridge Hotel in Newcastle and the TBC Club in Queensland—and cancelled his performance.

“The Riff Raff show scheduled for 17/6/2018 has been cancelled following allegations of sexual assault,” JRS’s statement said.

“We take all allegations of this nature extremely seriously, and we will always stand with the victims of such crimes. We aim to provide a safe and inclusive space for everyone.

“We appreciate your messages this morning, and apologise for any hurt this event has caused.”

Tour promoters Audiopaxx then cancelled his Australian and New Zealand tour.

The rapper hasn’t made a public statement.

On June 5 a US-based woman made allegations against him, saying he’d trapped her in his tour van’s bedroom, aggressively tried to coerce her into having sex and repeatedly grabbed her.

She said after the 2015 attack: “I am scarred for life”.

LAST week the Voice reported on Vincent council’s new verge rules that’ll let you stick a swing or a cubby in a verge tree (“Swing and a roundabout”, June 2, 2018).

The article incorrectly stated council approval was needed, but as long as rope ladders, swings, cubbies, seats, logs or rocks meet the city’s criteria they can be put up without any red tape.

The new verge policy will now go out for public consultation for 21 days and then come back to Vincent council for a final vote.

Before councillors make the final call, staff will prepare a risk assessment report.

The council has already been consulting with its insurer LGIS.

LGIS says there have been no claims from anyone tripping over a verge treatment, despite illegal installations being pretty widespread across the city.

It’s also a lot tougher to win a personal injury claim these days: 9/11 massively drove up insurance premiums and they started to become unaffordable for sports clubs, charities and social clubs.

In response each state changed its legislation – the Civil Liabilities Act in WA – to make it harder to win personal liability suits.

The new changes meant councils just had to take precautions that a “reasonable person…would have taken”.

The number of successful “slip and fall” cases plummeted.

But some councils are still playing it very safe.

In 2012 the Town of Cambridge voted 6-3 to remove a kids’ treehouse from a verge on Barrett Street, fearing it was too much of a liability.

by DAVID BELL

HUGE overhauls are underway at the City of Perth as commissioners clean up the messy aftermath of a long-running civil war.

Commissioner Andrew Hammond tabled a raft of motions at the last meeting, saying “these motions are very pivotal to our role as commissioners in being charged with restoring the City of Perth to good governance”.

The changes include overhauling the way councillors and senior staff communicate, after the relationship had become strained.

Previously all communication was funnelled through the CEO, but under Mr Hammond’s motion commissioners—and councillors when they’re unsuspended—will have regular contact with the city’s senior directors in the “Executive Leadership Group”.

Mr Hammond said at the meeting “we’re all aware there has been issues in the past related to communication. As a group we have to move on from that”.

He’s also proposed getting a consultant to do an independent review of problematic areas, including the way the Executive Leadership Group handled concerns raised in last year’s internal survey, which found low morale among staff.

Bullying

The report found “the culture of the City has deteriorated, with trust, staff morale and positive engagement decreasing across the organisation”.

The consultants will also look at the city’s health and safety situation.

Some staff in the survey described the work culture as “toxic”, and council CEO Martin Mileham went on stress leave, claiming “bullying” of staff by councillors via “aggressive, rude or repetitive” communications.

Chair commissioner Eric Lumsden was not at the meeting, but sent a statement strongly supporting the motions, and Ms McMath said they would help to “leave a firm foundation when the role of the commissioners finishes”.

The commissioners also voted to review a slew of policies relating to elected member privileges.

Councillors’ $13,360 yearly allowance for clothes, shoes and haircuts was lowered to $3000 last year, but some councillors—Reece Harley, Steve Hasluck and Jemma Green—wanted to scrap the allowance altogether.

The allowance will now be reviewed, along with councillors’ interstate and overseas trips and their dining room privileges (the swanky dining room on the 10th floor of Council House has been closed pending this review).

Mr Hammond said “we’ve got to discuss what a fair and reasonable expense is in the context of a contemporary local government, and also obviously in the context of what the local community views as being acceptable,” so they’ll put it out for public comment.

by DAVID BELL