Perth Voice Interactive

THE MT Lawley Society says a plan flagged by Stirling council to allow Colorbond fences in heritage areas threatens to ruin the streetscapes.

Fencing between front gardens in the Mt Lawley and Inglewood heritage protection zones are currently restricted to timber, stone, wrought iron and brick fences less than a metre tall, allowing open viewing along the strett.

But council staff say after some precedents where other materials have been approved, it’s time to update the guidelines. They’ve also recommended a height of 1.2 metres for the opaque fencing.

The society reckons that’s “the beginning of the end” for the streetscape.

The society say part of the heritage zone’s unique appeal is being able to view the quaint front gardens all the way down the street.

Society president Paul Collins says “our members have consistently supported open gardens.

“The ability to see through and across front gardens is an important and original character feature of the heritage protection areas as well as the use of masonry, limestone, wire and timber.

“In recent times wrought iron has been added as an approved fencing material.

“Introducing modern Colorbond in the front garden up to 1200mm will detrimentally change the character of the Inglewood and Mount Lawley heritage protection areas forever.”

Mr Collins says eventually you’d only be able to enjoy the heritage homes by standing directly in front of them.

“We’re already seeing this in parts of North Perth.”

He says it will also make suburbs less safe, as sight lines along the street will be impacted by fencing.

When Stirling councillors vote on the proposed fence rule, it’ll be a test case for the Mt Lawley Society, being the first council decision affecting the organisation since October’s local government election. For many years the society has enjoyed strong support from veteran councillors Rod Willox (retired) and Terry Tyzack (who lost at last year’s election after 40 years on council). They were both made life members of the Society in December for their commitment to local heritage, the first non-members to be conveyed the honour.

by DAVID BELL

DEVELOPERS building in Bayswater will need to retain and plant new trees under a proposed council plan to control greenery on private property.

The new policy comes amid fears that left to our own devices we’ll leave Perth a barren Nullarbor.

Bayswater’s aiming to hit a tree canopy coverage of 20 per cent by 2025, but council staff warn that’ll be hard to achieve.

The goal “is significantly compromised by the loss of trees on private property…without intervention, landowners and developers are unlikely to retain or plant trees on private land of their own accord,” they say in a report.

Research by nearby councils supports that conclusion: Stirling estimates that if it doesn’t intervene to stop developers clearing trees, its tree canopy will be a piddling 12.4 per cent by 2030, because 60 per cent of trees being lost are on private residential land.

The new rules will mean developers have to provide one decent-sized tree per 350sqm on a typical R25-zoned piece of land, wich roughly equates to one tree per dwelling. Builders will also have to leave a 2m radius around trees 4m high and over, and a 3.5m radius around trees 12m high and over.

Verge trees also have to be kept, or new ones planted where there isn’t one.

The new policy’s supported by Bayswater councillors Chris Cornish, Sally Palmer, Filomena Piffaretti, Lorna Clarke, Catherine Ehrhardt, Giorgia Johnson and Elli-Petersen Pik.

Cr Brent Fleeton, who’s not keen on telling people what to do with trees on their own land, lodged the sole no vote.

He said “there seems to be a lot of stick around the policy and very little incentive for owners”.

He also thought having a safe-space radius around trees was un-policeable.

Stirling and Vincent councils offer incentives for developers who retain or plant trees, giving them some leeway in the planning requirements.

by DAVID BELL

WA POLICE are on the hunt for a potential arsonist who could be behind Tuesday’s bushfire at Kings Park.

The fire started early morning in the bushland, near a gravel track between May Drive and Royal King’s Park Tennis Club, before strong winds fanned it west towards Thomas Road.

DFES got to the blaze around 1am and 40 firefighters contained it by 7am, giving the all clear at 6pm.

The fire burnt through about 16 hectares.

Detectives from the arson squad’s “Strike Force Vulcan” (the Roman god of fire) want to hear from anyone with information via Crimestoppers, 1800 333 000, especially if you saw a suspicious person, or vehicle in the area between 12.30am and 1am on Tuesday.

THE debate around changing the date of Australia Day saw numbers soar at the annual Invasion Day rally.

Hundreds of people marched from Forrest Chase to the Supreme Court Gardens on Friday, chanting “Australia was and always will be Aboriginal land” with signs reading “No pride in genocide”.

The rally temporarily blocked off traffic on St Georges Terrace, but marchers reported drivers were supportive, giving them the thumbs-up as they passed.

A small number of police, including a couple on horseback, surveilled the scene.

The march culminated at Supreme Court gardens for the start of the Birak concert, a City of Perth event celebrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture through music, dance, art and food.

The Perth march was part of a series of nationwide rallies, with Melbourne the biggest, pulling in huge crowds (estimates vary wildly from 7000 to 60,000)

Earlier in the day about 30 Reclaim Australia supporters gathered in the CBD for a rally to keep the January 26 date.

CONSUMER PROTECTION is hoping Perth’s infamous “rogue tree lopper” leaves town.

The watchdog recently issued another warning not to do business with Sean Robert Weinthal (aka…John) and his nephew Mitchell Craig Grisbrook, who distribute flyers offering tree lopping services in mailboxes around verge collection time.

Even Consumer Protection’s calling them “dodgy”, saying they’ve had complaints of misleading and deceptive conduct, failing to offer a cooling off period for unsolicited sales, wrongly accepting payment, failing to carry out, or complete the work as agreed, trespassing, bullying behaviour, carrying out unauthorised work and damage to property.

CP commissioner David Hillyard saying “it is with great frustration and exacerbation that CP is again issuing yet another alert about Mr Weinthal who, despite being prosecuted and the cause of numerous warnings for many years now, continues his misconduct when dealing with WA consumers”.

CP’s received 44 enquiries and 18 complaints against Mr Weinthal in the past year.

Mr Hillyard says “Mr Weinthal can no longer be trusted to operate a business either ethically or legally.

“He has no appreciation of his obligations under consumer law and uses bullying tactics to intimidate consumers into accepting quotes and paying for work that has either not been carried out, is only partially complete or, if complete, does not meet the standard or fulfil the expectations of his customers.

“We can’t recommend strongly enough for consumers to avoid Mr Weinthal, Mr Grisbrook and their various businesses when getting quotes for tree lopping services.

“Usually they drop flyers in letterboxes in areas where verge-side rubbish collections are scheduled by local councils.

“If you receive one of their flyers, ignore it and ensure you get multiple quotes from other more reputable businesses.”

Mr Weinthal has used several business names, including Specialised Arborist Services (aka SAS Tree Services), Advanced Tree Specialists, Manageable Tree Services Metropolitan Tree Services, and West Australian Tree Services.

AUTHOR Jeff Apter talks about his book High Voltage: The Life of Angus Young, at the City of Perth library on February 15.

The bestselling book is the first biography to focus exclusively on Young from his life in working class Glasgow, to Sydney, and chronicles his time keeping AC/DC on the rails. It’s free at 5pm, register via http://www.eventbrite.com.au and search “Jeff Apter on ‘High Voltage’.”

THE first Ultimate Fighting Championship event to be held in WA will kick-off next weekend at Perth Arena.

The hexagonal arena used in UFC was banned by the former Liberal government in 2013, amidst perceptions that “cage fighting” was too brutal, with then-premier Colin Barnett describing it as a “gladiatorial” sport, and the WA branch of the Australian Medical Association opposing it.

But last year Mark McGowan’s Labor government lifted a state-wide ban on the hexagon-shaped cage used by mixed martial arts.

Despite the sport getting the political nod of approval, local MMA fan Martin Nathan, 25, says he still gets a few negative reactions when he tells people about his passion.

A bakery manager by day, he did Taekwon do and became interested in the sport when UFC bantamweight Ronda Rousey became hugely popular a couple of years ago.

“A lot of people still just see it as cage fighting,” Nathan says.

“But I used to watch it with my brother and his friends, and they’ve all got a martial arts background as well, and it wasn’t the violence that drew us to it: we loved watching athletes who are really great at what they do…If you’re into martial arts or boxing, or whatever code it is, you really appreciate what they’re attempting to achieve.”

UFC, which is the peak league, can also be less brutal than some of the less prominent leagues like Bellator MMA, which sometimes have mismatched fights and end up being gory slugfests with more blood strewn across the mat than a typical UFC fight, which tends to be more skill-based.

Many matches are ended via advanced jiu jitsu techniques, an art so intellectually-entwined it’s described by practitioners as a “human chess match”

“That’s part of why I prefer the UFC to Bellator, because I find the fighters that are signed to the UFC are much more technical and enjoyable to watch.” Nathan says.

“I find Bellator to be a bit more of a slugging match.”

UFC continues to be divisive, with many disliking the caged element of the sport.

The UFC hierarchy argue that boxing rings are actually less safe for MMA, where fighters could slip out of the ring during ground-based wrestling, while the hexagon has a fine mesh all the way to the ground.

And MMA supporters point out that football’s rife with head injuries, and whereas boxing is solely strike-based, many MMA matches end because one fighter out-grapples the other, with little blood spilled.

Perth’s first UFC event has lost a bit of its shine for Australian fans, as Aussie UFC fighter Robert Whittaker dropped out of the title defence fight against towering middleweight Luke Rockhold.

Even so, tickets for WA’s first UFC event are expensive: the cheapest seats were snapped up,  leaving only tickets in the $206 to $511 price range.

by DAVID BELL

THE origins of many urban legends are lost in time, but a few WA yarns can be traced back to travelling storyteller Glenn B Swift.

Travelling from town to town, conjuring yarns based on the area’s history, the modern day bard has been telling tall stories, often for school kids, for more than 30 years.

He’s been asked many times by teachers and librarians over the years “Where can we read some of your stories?”, so he decided to finally release his debut book, The Ghost in the Belltower.

The tale of a tragic figure named “Noisy Jack” who haunts the tower, is a mix of history and Swift’s imagination.

And there’s a rich past to plunder: 12 of the 18 bells are from the London church, St Martin’s-in-the-Field, and date back to at least the 1300s.

They were recast at the order of Queen Elizabeth I in the 1500s and eventually shipped to WA in the 1980s.

Characters Zachariah Pearce, the first incumbent priest of St Martin’s, and poor John Saucer, who would eventually haunt the bells as “Noisy Jack”, are inspired by real-life figures from the 1700s.

Mr Swift found their names inscribed on the bell and let his imagination run riot.

He says he hopes that “long after I’m dead people will be telling the story”, just like any good campfire tale.

While the story gets a touch grisly, Mr Swift says it’s suitable for kids from age 10.

The book’s available at glennbswift.com/Storyteller, or at a bunch of bookshops around town, including Oxford Street Books, Paper Bird, Elizabeth’s, New Edition, and Saga Bookshop in Fremantle.

by DAVID BELL