Perth Voice Interactive

VINCENT council is set to allow Manna Inc to keep running its homeless meal service at Weld Park, despite complaints from local Perth residents.

Manna’s approval to operate there runs out this month, and while some neighbours would like to see an end to the food service—which draws homeless to the area—Vincent council staff have recommended the service operates there for another six months and mayor Emma Cole flagged that she wanted to look at a year’s extension.

Manna’s Hot n Healthy food program provides 250 lunches per day for six days a week (soon to drop to five days due to a funding shortfall and difficulty getting volunteers, meaning no more Sunday lunches).

They were meant to find an indoor spot back in 2014 to operate from, but they couldn’t find somewhere big enough that’d be affordable so they were granted an extra year in 2015 and another extra year in 2016.

Neighbouring shop owners, restaurants and residents have complained for years that the service brings threatening people to the park, and we’ve heard stories of some occasional violence.

In the past 12 months, the Nyoongar Outreach Services have been called in 16 times to resolve violence and unrest, and homeless people themselves report feeling nervous queuing up when there’s a fight going on.

And now other outreach services have been coming down to the square making it a bit of a homeless hotspot.

Many of those who use the service are in dire need: a Curtin University School of Public Health study released in June, revealed that 56 per cent of people using food services had gone without food for one day in the previous week, and 27 per cent had taken food from a rubbish bin.

The six-month approval that Vincent councillors will vote on next week comes with conditions: Manna volunteers will need to pick up all rubbish left by their clients before they leave, and the council’s administration will meet with WA Police, Manna, Salvation Army and other groups to “determine a consolidated approach to service delivery at Weld Square that balances a response to homelessness with reasonable park amenity for local residents”.

by DAVID BELL

REPAIRING broken items used to be a necessity of life in more austere times, but now a lot of barely-damaged items end up in landfill.

Thankfully, some Perth folk have got together and started a “Repair Cafe” in Mount Hawthorn, fixing items like clothes, bikes or toys that’d otherwise get binned.

One of the organisers Angie Kings-Leonne says “we unnecessarily throw away too much stuff in Australia.”

“Even things which practically have nothing wrong with them, and which could easily be used again after a simple repair.

“Unfortunately, many people have forgotten that things can be repaired—Repair Cafe wants to change that.”

To begin with they’ll be running RC once a month at The Maker Movement, 58 Angove street.

Expert MacGyvers skilled in different fields will be on hand to fix whatever you might bring along.

It’s part of a global movement that started in the Netherlands in 2009, and now there’s about 1300 around the world.

The organisers also want to bring neighbours together and show them that practical know-how can be found close to home.

Elle Gonzales-Skuja says “if you repair a bike, a CD player or a favourite jacket together with a neighbour who you didn’t know before, you’ll have connected with someone in your community.”

Along with saving money and reducing waste, she says “Above all, Repair Cafe just wants to show how fun repairing things can be, and how easy it often is.”

The first Repair Cafe session is November 18, 10.30am to 12.30pm, and the future dates are up on their Facebook page, Repair Cafe Perth.

by DAVID BELL

This weekend as part of Open House Perth, local skater Morgan Dyson will give a brief history of skateboarding in the city and show the different ways skateboarders see and use architecture and public space.

He’ll tell some stories about the positive results that have come from accepting and integrating skateboarders into the cultural fabric of Perth, compared to the days when a grumpy security guard would chase them away from grinding on a park bench.

A collaboration between Open House and Janes Walk Perth (part of a global movement to better appreciate cities on foot, in memory of the late urban activist Jane Jacobs), the event starts at Beyond Skate City, 15 Howard Street, Perth, this Saturday November 11, at 10am. Most events are a “turn up at the right time” affair but book for this one at openhouseperth.net

IS there a baby killer on the loose in Hyde Park?

A UWA study has revealed that the oblong turtle population at the park is large and healthy, but old, with very few juveniles found in the last 15 to 20 years.

“Once they reach the limit of their natural life, the population may suddenly collapse,” Vincent council staff reported.

City of Vincent commissioned the study after concerns grew about a lack of turtle babies at the lakes in recent years, leaving them looking like a turtle retirement home.

The oblong turtle species is classified as “near-threatened” and urban populations are under threat across the city.

Across 2015/16 a total of 114 mature turtles were captured, tagged and released back into the Hyde Park lakes, but not a single hatchling or juvenile was caught, and not many were found at lakes in Claremont, Jualbup and Booragoon either.

The $5000 UWA study by Blaine Hodgson and Roberta Bencini suggested a few reasons for the lack of young turtles: either they’re being eaten as eggs in the nest, or as hatchlings, or the grown ups are not reproducing.

The turtles should be breeding, as ultrasound scans of the captured females showed many of them were egg-bearing.

It’s also not a sex imbalance issue: at some urban lakes there are many more male turtles than females (because females sometimes venture out of the lake and cross roads to make new nests and get run over).

At Hyde Park they only go back and forth between the two lakes, so there’s a pretty even mix with only slightly more lady turtles.

The 2013 Hyde Parks lake restoration project has slightly improved the turtle’s prospects, with soft beaches at parts of the lake that turtles can shuffle out of, where there used to be steep walls.

The water’s also cleaner with filters stopping road run off, and more vegetation (especially on the eastern island) should make it easier to nest.

But four years on, the bubbies are still missing.

The researchers also captured a southern shortfin eel, a carnivorous predator that could eat hatchlings, probably an ex-pet released into the lake.

Another one was taken out four years ago, and in previous years there were sightings of an exotic red-eared slider turtle that competes with the native oblongs.

The report recommends further study to work out what’s going on, possibly involving setting up fake nests to see if foxes are eating babies.

Vincent councillors will vote on whether to spend about $28,000 to extend the study for another four years at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

by DAVID BELL

THE little-known Brookman and Moir Street precinct has been named a winner in the global 2017 UNESCO heritage awards.

It earns the neighbourhood a distinguished place alongside other  2017 winners, like Shanghai’s 19th century Holy Trinity Cathedral and Hong Kong’s famous “Blue House Cluster,” a set of humble shophouses that survived the island’s heavy densification, despite a lack of space.

Brookman and Moir Streets feature 58 Federation Queen Anne-style cottages from the 1890s.

Built during the gold rush for ordinary workers, they were relatively unadorned compared to a lot of the grand old heritage buildings that have been retained.

The UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) jury gave it an “award of distinction”, the same class as the Shanghai cathedral. Only the Blue House Cluster was given a higher award among the field of 13.

“The restoration of late 19th-century workers’ cottages along Brookman and Moir Streets has thoughtfully revived a modest but historically significant housing district dating back to the WA gold boom,” read The UNESCO jury’s statement. “Individual homeowners undertook the loving refurbishment of the simple Federation Queen Anne semi-detached dwellings which had suffered from years of unsympathetic change and dilapidation.

“With financial support from the City of Vincent and the local heritage council and technical guidance from conservation professionals, the original architectural character and material palette of each red brick building was carefully recovered.

“Catalysed by the renovation of a single house which then inspired other nearby residents, the project has revitalised the streetscape and returned a sense of community to the area. The revival of the Brookman-Moir precinct underscores the importance of recognising and safeguarding everyday urban fabric as part of a holistic strategy in sustaining historic urban landscapes.”

Other award winners included the Royal Opera House in Mumbai, the Great Hall and Clock Tower in Christchurch, which was restored after massive earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, and India’s Gateways of Gohad Fort, a 15th century archway and chain gate that’s still used by locals today.

by DAVID BELL

A CROWDFUNDING campaign’s been launched to try and raise extra cash for the Light Up Leederville Carnival.

City of Vincent kicks in most of the cash ($65,000 was put on this year’s budget) along with a bunch of businesses, and this year’s long table dinner to raise funds on Wednesday is the biggest one yet.

But in a tough economy, organisers are hoping the public can raise $5000 to boost the kitty.

Their crowdfunding page on chuffed.org states, “The carnival is for sure one of the highlights of the year in Perth,” having drawn 65,000 people to the streets with its pop up bars, markets, food, music and rides, “but there’s a problem. In the last two years the economy in WA performed poorly, especially in retail spending, construction, business investment and employment, influencing directly our local traders and communities.

“After a tough year in Perth, we want to deliver the best festival ever, and to do that, we need your help.”

Jimmy Murphy from Upbeat Events says “the extra funding will allow us to stage a one-off, fashion-inspired event involving local fashion retailers and to create a ‘family zone’ for younger festival-goers.”

“We want to deliver the best festival ever, and crowdfunding is a good way for the community to help us achieve that.”

The Next Level Festival is like a second mini-youth festival nested in the carnival, with three stages of live music in the all-ages area at HQ, along with a skate competition and food trucks.

They’re offering some rewards for donors like VIP packages, and if you donate $60 you can get “The Royal Flush” reward…which gets one of the portaloos dedicated to you with your name on it.

THE young people living at Foyer Oxford have been busy crafting 350 flags to hang as bunting for the Light Up Leederville Carnival, diverting a huge load of old cloth from landfill.

Foyer Oxford, which provides accommodation for young people who don’t have a stable place to live while they study or work, has had their staff make bunting in previous years, but this time the residents got involved in a big way, and it was so popular they’ve now got more flags than they can use.

Vincent mayor Emma Cole says the bunting project was a good way to get different sections of the community involved and make the festival more than just a one-day event.

Made from old dresses, blouses, and other odds and ends, the bunting will be strung up between the streets at the end of the month in time for the festival.

PERTH is the first city to trial an Australian-invented new technology that will alert an older person’s family if they have a mishap when alone.

“AbiBird” is a sensor that can be put in a senior’s home to track their movement during the day.

The sensors can be placed throughout the house and then paired up with a smartphone that a family member or carer can keep on hand, and it sends them an alert if there’s unusual “excessive” activity or if motion stops for a period of time.

AbiBird’s GM James Tucker says it’s the “perfect antidote to the normal worries people have about the wellbeing of their older parents.

“My mother is one of the 3.1 million Australians who are aged 65 and older,” he says.

“She is fiercely independent, continues to live an incredibly active life and is perfectly happy in her own home.

“AbiBird’s app lets me check that mum’s up and about as usual, without being a nuisance to her. If something unusual does happen, like activity at the front door late at night, or a change in routine, it will send me an alert.

“It also means that when I call, mum knows I’m calling to chat rather than check up on her.”

There are wearable monitors, but the AbiBird’s designed to be a bit less intrusive and doesn’t need to be strapped on every day.

Falls are one of the major causes of injury for older folk and most happen in the home getting out of bed or while in the bathroom.

In an average year, one third of people over 65 will have a substantial fall. 30 per cent of those need medical attention.

Half of people aged over 80 will have multiple falls.

To trial the device, AbiBird’s looking for 500 families in Perth to give it a go free for three months between November and January.

Participants have to be 65 or older, and have a family member, friend or carer who lives in a different property who can get the app and pair their smartphone with the AbiBirds, and then there’s an anonymous survey after 10 weeks use to get feedback on how it worked out.

There’s an information session on the trial at the Perth & Tattersalls Bowling and Recreation Club (corner Terrace Road and Plain Street, East Perth) on November 16 from 6pm.

Register interest at enquiries@abibird.com.au or call 1300 13 21 21