Perth Voice Interactive

SHARING your life story through a memoir can be somewhat nerve-wracking, particularly when your insights about your community could make some a little uncomfortable.

First-time author Khin Myint’s Fragile Creatures will almost certainly push buttons when it’s launched at the this coming Friday (June 7), and he admits to having some nerves ahead of the event.

“I feel a mixed set of emotions about that, because it’s my local community, and then people will just know so much about my life,” Myint says.

The son of a Burmese father and English mother, he grew up in Rossmoyne struggling to fit into either the European community, or its small but growing Asian population.

It was the era of notorious racist Jack van Tongeren, whose firebombing of the Man Lin restaurant in Karawara sparked fear across the city; the son of the Chan family who were the victims of the attack was a fellow Rossmoyne student.

Myint presents a searing account of the terrifying bullying he and others faced during that tense era, and while he says Perth has come a long way, he still sees racism around him.

“Racism in Fremantle is not overt, in my experience as a 40-something, mixed-race guy, but it’s definitely there. 

“When I want to talk about race, ideas around race or racial identity, I often feel it’s not a welcome conversation here.”

The book also delves into mental health, with Myint’s sister Theda’s looming suicide a pervading theme. 

His family, the medical establishment and the alternative healers were split on whether her illness was wholly mental or wholly physical, and he says one of the aims of the book is to challenge readers to look at a middle ground.

“I want them to remember in their own lives, and think about in their own lives, how the culture that we that we live in, that we swim in, defines how we look at the things around us and look at other people, and how there can be a lot of a lack of nuance in how we see other people.

“The culture encourages us to think in stereotypes, to think in binaries – for example, binaries around the illness.”

Myint also wants a more critical look at masculinity, arguing that there are contrary notions of how young men in particular are supposed to behave.

He says it’s largely boys and men being pulled towards the right, and he fears that’s in part from the left constantly telling them they’re the problem.

“As we’re critiquing them, I think you need to be compassionate towards that; you need to flow into it and understand what’s going on a little bit,” he said.

Fragile Creatures
Khin Myint
Launches Friday June 7,
7pm, Chesterton Lounge
Orient Hotel, Fremantle

by STEVE GRANT

THE City of Perth has asked the Cook government to ensure locals get a say on development around the UWA/QEII precinct after it was stripped of the lead role.

Last month WA planning minister John Carey announced the government was looking at establishing an “improvement plan” for the precinct after it was identified as a state-significant activity centre.

“The UWA-QEII activity centre is one of the largest health and knowledge precincts in the southern hemisphere and it is critical that its potential to deliver employment, economic development and housing is reflected in the future planning framework,” Mr Carey said.

“An Improvement Plan would transfer planning responsibility for the precinct to the State and preparation of a future planning framework would be subject to consultation with key stakeholders and the community.”

At the council’s last meeting, Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas said while it made some sense for the state government to take over the planning for the precinct, the City had been blindsided by the announcement.

Consultation

“There was no consultation that this decision was coming to take it back in, and take it off the City of Perth,” Mr Zempilas.

He said instead, the council was given just five working days to provide a submission to the planning, lands and heritage department.

Perth CEO Michelle Reynolds wrote to the department’s director general Anthony Kannis asking for the community not to be ignored.

“Community engagement is an integral element in the preparation of any strategic and land use planning instruments,” Ms Reynolds wrote.

“Beyond economic growth, an active and thriving community is at the heart of a successful precinct.

“The City requests that DPLH undertake extensive and genuine community engagement in the preparation of an improvement scheme for the area beyond any statutory consultation requirements.”

Mr Zempilas said the City was firm on that request after receiving strong representations from the community concerned about the state’s decision to take over the project.

PADDLERS from Australia’s oldest dragon boat team will be jetting off to Hong Kong to compete at the International Dragon Boat Festival in June. 

Twenty-four athletes from the Fremantle Swan Dragon Boat Club will be competing against 4000 athletes from over 170 international teams. 

FSDBC president Wade Spackman says the club has a longstanding tradition of attending the festival in Hong Kong, which he says is the “biggest competition” in the region. 

World stage

“On the world stage, you can compete in Canada, the USA, Italy,” Mr Spackman listed, “and we’ve been to Penang, Macau, China.

“Hong Kong is definitely the hub of dragon boating though.”

The oldest functioning club in Australia, the FSDBC was founded in 1981 by David Blackley.

Based at the Swan Yacht Club in East Freo, they didn’t actually have a dragon boat in their possession so used a decorated surf boat to train.  

They’ve come far, however. 

The club competes at state, national regattas and international regattas, but this year marks eight years since Fremantle was represented in Hong Kong. 

They’d planned to travel to the Festival in 2021 for their 40th anniversary but were prevented by WA’s border closures during Covid. 

“It’s been on the cards for a good five or six years,” Mr Spackman said.

Rosalie and Stewart Routledge will be flying to Hong Kong in honour of their husband and father, Kim, a founding member of the club and its first coach and captain, who died in 2022. 

As a kid, Mr Routledge grew up around the club while his dad was coaching, and even represented the team as its kangaroo mascot in Hong Kong in 1985. 

Cooler

“Paddling would have been lot cooler than hopping around in the Hong Kong heat in the Skippy uniform,” Mr Routledge laughed. 

“There’s going to be hundreds of teams competing in Hong Kong this year, compared to what was just a very small number when I was there in 1985,” he said. 

“You can sense the team’s excitement.”

Mr Routledge says he and his mum Rosalie are “really excited” to be able to join the team and “carry on the tradition” of their involvement with the club. 

“It’s not easy to get everyone at a small club banded together internationally to compete,” Mr Routledge said. 

“It’s a great effort for the heavily involved members who’ve been pushing forward and driving for this to happen.”

The Fremantle Swan Dragon Boat Club will be competing at the Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Festival on June 15-16.

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER

IF you’re of a certain vintage, where do you go to make new friends or find romance?

Dating apps can be intimidating and the quality of candidates patchy to say the least – some look like extras from Night of the Living Dead – match-making agencies are expensive, and if you don’t belong to any clubs or societies, opportunities to socialise can be fleeting.

This can leave older people feeling lonely and isolated with no knight in shining armour on the horizon (for the record it could be a female knight, see Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones)

Freo local Sarah Booth decided to address this dating void by holding a casual, monthly mingler for singles aged 60 or over at the Ode to Sirens pub in the heart of Fremantle.

Older folk will probably feel at home as the walls are lined with classic LP covers.

Smart

“The idea came for the event when my smart, funny, wonderful 75-year-old neighbour Mary needed to find a partner,” Booth says. “She didn’t have much success on the apps – and I don’t blame her – so I decided to start a whole event for her, and all the other 60-plus singles in Freo, instead.

“Ode to Sirens I love because it is a cool place, nicely lit, cosy and relaxing – the perfect environment for a mingle.”

Booth says the debut event in April attracted a “really nice crowd” and moving forward she hopes to hold it on the last Thursday of every month. 

“The event is very casual and low key, everyone gets a name tag on arrival and then can just buy a drink and have a chat,” she says.

“The last event attracted a really nice crowd, so it wasn’t too nerve wracking for anyone.”

So what are the chances of finding your dream partner later in life? A study from the University of Bath revealed the odds of finding love after 60 are 1 in 562 – but only if you leave your chances to fate. 

If you are proactive and take steps to socialise and meet new people, the odds dramatically reduce.

Call the Chook soppy and sentimental, but we believe it’s a bit of both – fate and effort – and if you don’t buy a ticket to the raffle, you ain’t going to win.

There are apps and online dating sites for older folk including Silver Singles, Singles 50 and Mature Dating, but Booth says there is no substitute for a socialiser where things happen naturally and are less force-fed.

“I don’t believe apps for any age group can replace the feeling of face-to-face connection,” she says.

Chemistry

“That’s not even old school, it’s just chemistry! What I wanted to create was a place that people felt comfortable and safe getting to know others in the Fremantle community – whether it’s romance or friendship it’s a great opportunity just to connect and have fun.”

In a recent interview with the Voice, 82-year-old Freo resident Sandra Ramini-Harris – whose illustrious broadcasting career included interviewing John Lennon and Yoko One during their peace lie-in – says older people need to embrace the third act of their life, and advocates for a positive shift in perspective on ageing.

She says many have fallen for the ‘young is everything’ message of mass media. She criticises the trend of cosmetic procedures aimed at reversing the ageing process, advocating for authenticity and embracing the beauty that comes with age – grey hair and wrinkles.

Ramini-Harris also rejects the notion that merely existing is a worthwhile goal. 

She wants to live life fully, savouring every moment, experiencing new adventures, and cherishing milestones like witnessing grandchildren flourish, and says others should do the same.

The next 60-plus Encore event is scheduled for Thursday June 27 at Ode to Sirens, 25 High Street in Fremantle.

BAYSWATER council is poised to hit land-bankers with big rate increases in an effort to force them into developing their vacant lots.

At Tuesday’s meeting, councillors voted to seek approval from local government minister John Carey to apply differential rates to vacant commercial and residential properties for the first time.

The council is proposing to raise rates for vacant commercial properties by 34.9 per cent, and for vacant residential blocks by 19.3 per cent, with deputy mayor Elli Petersen-Pik saying residents had made it clear they were sick of the gaps in the city’s commercial precincts.

But most of Tuesday’s debate centred around a proposal to split residential and commercial properties, with businesses facing a 7.43 per cent increase and homeowners 3.8 per cent.

The introduction of differential rates was recommended in a report by the Paxon Group, and brings Bayswater in line with most of its neighbours.

But councillor Dan Bull argued the increase faced by businesses was “radical”, even though an amendment by Cr Petersen-Pil had reduced it from an original target of 8.4 per cent.

Baked in

“This is not just an incremental increase,” Cr Bull said.

“You have to remember that it’s 8.4 per cent this year, and this amount is baked in into the future.”

Cr Bull said it meant businesses, who were facing some of the toughest economic conditions they’d faced in years, would now be subsidising a more modest rise for residential ratepayers.

He believes there are other levers available to the council to keep rates low, saying they’d worked over the last decade, where each increase had been kept below 5 per cent.

Mayor Filomena Piffaretti said the move to differential rates would put the council in a more financially sustainable position, but noted the Metronet works on the Bayswater train station had hit businesses hard.

She noted a large number of objections to the rate increase had come from the Bayswater town centre.

“Of the submissions that did not support rates for commercial properties, over 70 per cent were specific to businesses in the Bayswater town centre due entirely to the financial hardship they have experienced over the past few years due to the state government’s Metronet works in Bayswater,” Ms Piffaretti said.

“I understand the challenges.”

She’d proposed a concession for those businesses which was carried through, though Cr Bull warned that might just land those businesses with an even bigger rates bill in following years if it was removed.

Cr Nat Latter warned that the differential rates aimed at commercial landlords were misplaced, as the costs would be passed onto tenants, whether directly or bundled into their rents.

“Hiking up commercial rates creates a disincentive to open a new business in this area, and it may contribute to businesses closing or moving,” she said, adding Vincent council’s commercial rate was significantly lower than Bayswater’s.

Hiking

Cr Latter said businesses didn’t use many of the council’s services like the library, so it was unfair to be saddling them with higher bills than residents.

But she and Crs Bull and Sally Palmer were the only dissenting voices.

The council can still adjust the proposed rates if it gets approval from the minister, as nothing is set in stone until this year’s budget is adopted.

by STEVE GRANT

A RECENT study shows that urban trees shape how we connect or how we fail to connect to the places where we live. 

A team of researchers at the UWA School of Biological Sciences and the School of Psychological Science recently published a study, indicating that local trees affect people’s attachment to the places they call home.

Co-author Cristina E Ramalho said that with Perth having the lowest tree coverage among all Australian capital cities, the team wanted to understand how people’s connection with where they lived was influenced by trees.

Decline

“This study is timely, given the widespread decline of trees, due to drought and warming, and also considering the state government is currently seeking public input on their Perth and Peel Urban Greening Strategy,” Dr Ramalho said.

The study involved 638 respondents from the Perth metropolitan area, with survey responses including: 

● “Even though plane trees are not native to Australia, I love the immense shade and coolness they provide in Perth’s hot, relentless summers.” 

● “My favourite trees are callistemons and grevilleas; they’re native, colourful, and provide food for birds and insects.” 

●  “On the corner of Lawley Crescent and Clifton Crescent, there is a large magnolia tree my grandmother walked by daily on her way to school. It provides a lovely memory of her whenever I pass it.”

However, some opinions against urban trees are also noted: 

● “I do NOT like GUM TREES. They constantly drop leaves, which accumulate in my garden. I have to continually rake, only to find a new batch shortly after.”

● “[A Eucalypt] was planted too close to our driveway, causing its roots to be disruptive.” 

● “We removed about six native gums from our property years ago when one fell on the house.” 

Key points from the study included that residents were much more satisfied with the benefits of trees than dissatisfied with any negatives. 

Focusing on reducing issues caused by trees such as protruding roots or falling leaves was less effective than improving tree benefits like shading and aesthetic reasons for promoting place attachment.

Losing mature trees causes significant distress. 

With increasing urban infill leading to canopy loss in Perth, it’s crucial to have policies to protect established trees on private property. 

This ensures that higher-density living doesn’t cause emotional distress or a loss of connection to the place.

A final key point was residents feeling like they had control over trees within their surrounding areas was strongly linked to place attachment, highlighting the need for local governments to involve residents and communities in decisions about local urban trees.

“This study offers scientific evidence highlighting four key areas for governments to consider: retaining and protecting mature trees, increasing overall canopy cover on streetscapes with native trees, diversifying tree species across neighbourhoods, and protecting healthy trees on residents’ front verges,” Dr Ramalho said.

“These actions create greater place attachment and are likely to deliver psychological and well-being benefits to local residents.” 

Dr Ramalho said the study connected with today’s research looking into the health benefits of green spaces: “Previous studies have shown that people who are attached to where they live, feel more relaxed, have better social relationships, and are more satisfied with their life. Overall, they experience greater well-being, facilitated through the benefits of having trees around them.” 

by JENS KIRSCH