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THE Australian Islamic College in Dianella and Methodist Ladies’ College in Claremont have fostered a friendship which holds the promise of lasting understanding between cultures.
Once per term, a contingent from each school visits their Abrahamic counterpart to attend classes, exchange ideas, and form friendships.
With a buddy system in place, the year 9 and 10 girls have been swapping emails for almost a year and have met twice, so they were getting along like a house on fire during last week’s visit for MLC’s Heather Lamont festival.
• Students from AIC Dianella and MLC Claremont form lasting friendships in a new exchange program. Photo by Trilokesh Chanmugam
Cake
While bonding over a shared love of cake, the AIC and MLC students said they had a lot in common despite obvious differences like dress-code and prayer habits.
Chess, cooking, drama, photography, music, and crafting were some of the activities planned to keep the girls busy while they mingled.
Islamic college principal Wahaj Tarin hopes the program will kindle life-long friendships, and break down harmful stereotypes about Islam, while also showing the Muslim students that most of Australian society is not hostile towards them.
Mr Tarin says AIC teaches Arabic language and Islamic values alongside the Australian curriculum, so their school is not unlike other faith-based schools in WA like MLC.
Embracing
“It’s pleasant to go out and see that the rest of Australia does not see Islam as grim as it might be portrayed in the media,” Mr Tarin says.
“It reinforces that the majority of Australia is a very warm, accepting and embracing society.
[The students] have basically transcended socio-economic indexes and cultural, religious differences and have basically clicked.”
AIC’s Fazida Razak and MLC chaplain Rev Hollis Wilson developed the initiative, and were awarded the Uniting Church Synod of WA’s interfaith award for their efforts.
The two schools hope to make it an established part of their school calendars.
THE Carter family has made another offer to sell a wetland at the centre of a development controversy to Bayswater council.
The land on King William Street near the Eric Singleton Bird Sanctuary was partly cleared in July to give access to a block owned by the D’Orazio family which had been approved for sub-division.
After community outcry Bayswater councillors resolved to try to purchase the Carter land to save the remaining wetlands and rehabilitate the parts that had been cleared.
The potential purchase is up for debate at the November 15 council meeting after the family put forward an offer. The council has called for its own valuation and will compare the two before making a decision, although the offer only stands until November 18 so there’s not much room for negotiation.
Staff warn in a report that if the offer is not accepted, the Carter family may pursue other options such as developing the land, but on the flip side there’s no money in the long-term budget for the purchase.
• Bayswater mayor Barry McKenna and environment coordinator Jeremy Maher accept a premier’s award for the Eric Singleton Bird Sanctuary this week. It’s right next door to a wetlands the council passed up for sale which has now been partially cleared.
State funds
Maylands’ Labor MP Lisa Baker has called on the state government to stump up cash to contribute to the purchase.
The council will also write to premier Colin Barnett and a raft of departments seeking funds.
If the council purchases the land and preserves the wetland, it could also throw a spanner in the works for the D’Orazio development.
When the WA planning commission approved the sub-division, it recommended no development should occur on the D’Orazio land until the Carter block was cleared because of the potential for bushfires.
Cr Chris Cornish on his blog pondered how this would affect the development: “The WAPC approval is conditional on a bushfire management plan being approved by the local government and/or DFES, yet I am unsure how an approval can be given until lot 14 is cleared for development.”
THE family of former mayor John D’Orazio has offered to compromise over a controversial development next to a Bayswater wetlands, giving up a 4.5m buffer and 30sqm of land by redesigning access roads.
But the offer wasn’t enough for Bayswater councillors who rejected it 8/3 for a variety of reasons, including community opposition, the fact a 10-metre buffer had previously been sought and because it involved a legal agreement the city could not sign up to.
Last week Greg D’Orazio, son of late Bayswater mayor John, predicted the knock-back when he broke his silence over the issue on the Bayswater Urban Tree Network’s Facebook page.
“[This] “compromise is coming from a family that is already approved on this site. But my bet is that council … will reject this offer!!
”Unfortunately we have tried to work with them but I don’t believe the council officers are qualified or knowledgable enough on a development of this type and will be found wanting again.”
Mr D’Orazio complained that environmental groups and residents opposed to the development hadn’t contacted his family to get its side of the story.
“We’ve watched as you’ve managed to contact every government department with no joy, accuse us of wrong-doing, breaking the law, dirty underhanded tactics. But yet every department says we comply! Why? Because we do!” Mr D’Orazio wrote.
“Every step has been by the book, by the letter of the law!
“Yes, I understand it hasn’t been to everyone’s taste but it’s still by the book. I can’t sit here any longer silently and watch councillors deflect every bit of blame to everyone else but themselves!
Three deputations
“I personally pleaded in numerous phone calls to every councillor, emailed every councillor countless times, went through three deputations trying to get them to work with us knowing the sensitivity of the site.
“I’ve lived on this land for 20 years, my family since 1955 and they still do!
“Instead we got an arrogant response from council,” he says, referring to a majority of councillors opposing the development going ahead.
Mr D’Orazio said the family’s compromise came despite having approval to go ahead once subdivision conditions had been met.
Councillors voted to fund a specialist consultant to work out alternatives and keep negotiating with the D’Orazios.
IT’S been 10 years since two buddies called Ryan started a walking tour business.
Canadian immigrant Ryan Mossny was always asking local pal Ryan Zaknich questions about the city and its history, and the pair soon realised there was a niche market and Two Feet & A Heartbeat was born.
Mr Zaknich said they knew from the beginning they were in for the long haul, but he was at first surprised that locals made up 60 per cent of customers.
“We realised people give a toss about their city,” he says.
They’ve earned a bunch of awards over the years, along with having a hand in founding the Museum of Perth.
Ten years on they’re marking their birthday with a series of quirky one-off walks including a few urban dog walking tours in places pooches aren’t normally welcome.
“Over the past decade we have shown tens of thousands of visitors, locals and their families through the city”, Mr Zaknich says. “Dogs are also a part of the family, why should they miss out?”
• Two Feet GM Ryan Zaknich with his spoodle Steve, checking out the Spanda at Elizabeth Quay.
Opened doors
He says there’s a pack of suburban dog-walking communities, but very little in the CBD.
“You don’t see them as much. It’s not like Paris where everyone’s got a handbag with a poodle in it,” Mr Zaknich told the Voice.
The pair’s enthusiastic approach has opened doors not usually open to pooches.
“We’ve received special permission to take dogs into many of the beautiful parks and gardens in Perth city, including the normally off-limits Government House gardens.
The Four Paws and a Heartbeat tours are on December 4, 11 and 18 and they’re keeping them to small groups of 20 with one person per dog.
Owners will also have to bring their own yellow poo pouches as current governor Kerry Sanderson’s love of dogs probably doesn’t extend to picking up after other owners’ mutts.
ANOTHER large development in Vincent has been approved with discretionary heights by a state-controlled development assessment panel where local councillors were outvoted.
The development at 330-334 Charles Street will include seven storeys, 47 units and four offices.
Vincent council staffers had recommended the DAP reject the proposal because the council’s draft built form policy limits development in the area to four storeys, but there’s wide discretion in the city’s existing town planning scheme, which is long overdue for an update.
Discretionary
Mayor John Carey described the DAP vote as “disappointing” and says the city is in the throes of community consultation to do away with the discretionary heights.
“I would have urged the DAP to hold its position, to resist this, because we’re giving away these bonuses, we’re not making developers earn it,” Mr Carey said.
“This is why I believe these decisions should come back to council, because I think we would take a far more stringent approach.
“This is an example of why we are scrapping the variations policy; we’re just having maximum heights.”
The development had previously been rejected by the DAP, but Phoenix Lake Pty Ltd appealed to the state administrative tribunal. After a round of mediation and some “small but important” reductions in height, state-appointed panel members Megan Adair, Brian Curtin and John Syme voted to approve the amended plans. The DAP’s council members Josh Topelberg and Matt Buckels voted against the development.
Thirteen locals lodged objections to the project along with a petition against it, while three were in support.
Planning Solutions, on behalf of the owners, argued in their application that the building’s a good fit for that “eclectic” stretch of Charles Street and will help usher in a better quality future for the area.
“A number of buildings in this local centre are beyond their economic lifespan and are prime for redevelopment. Accordingly, there is a clear transition taking place which will uplift the centre from its current form to a high quality mixed use local centre,” the planner’s application said.
It said the height “will ultimately contribute to a vibrant local centre”.
THE Barnett government is already considering sites for an inner-city high school, says Liberal Perth MLA Eleni Evangel.
Responding to Opposition leader Mark McGowan’s decision to distance Labor from a new high school in the Liberal strongholds of the western suburbs in favour of one in the hotly-contested Perth electorate, Ms Evangel revealed the government has already considered the soon-to-be-vacant Princess Margaret Hospital site in Subiaco or the education department buildings next to Wellington Square in East Perth as potential sites.
There’s no funding for the school on the horizon, with the education department committed to an $84 million upgrade of the former City Beach High School to take pressure off Churchlands.
“The fact is we need both, the new western suburbs school now and an inner city school in the near future as well,” Ms Evangel said.
•Education minister Peter Collier and Liberal colleagues including Eleni Evangel at the announcement the Liberal party will fund an $84 million upgrade of City Beach high school.
The Voice understands the East Perth site is the favoured option, with Wittenoon Street likely to be closed so the school could link directly to Wellington Square across the road.
But Mr McGowan doubts the government’s education plans, saying that despite promising $182 million to upgrade City Beach and expand Shenton college, Carine high school and several primary schools, the government’s budget was $94 million short. He says they should be focussing on the growing inner city over the western suburbs.
“If you drive there from here, that’s nine kilometres away,” Mr McGowan said.
“The real pressure is in suburbs like Mount Lawley, Perth, Highgate, Mount Hawthorn, North Perth; that’s where lots of families are moving into, that’s where there’s a lot of pressure,” Mr McGowan said.
• Opposition leader Mark McGowan and education shadow Sue Ellery have thrown a spanner in the works, saying Labor would focus on a school in the highly marginal Perth electorate.
Shadow education minister Sue Ellery said inner-city schools like Mercedes, Trinity, and St George’s were some of the oldest in the state and were built on small plots of land, so Labor would be looking to build more schools in high density areas.
But Ms Evangel says Labor’s plans would be a “kick in the guts” to families in Mount Hawthorn and Leederville who can’t get into an already crowded Churchlands, while the remaining funding would be announced in the government’s mid-year budget report.
“What this has done is destabilised families and households, because it’s unclear if a Labor government is elected whether we’ll have a western suburbs school at all,” Ms Evangel said.
PERTH city council says it can’t wait until 2050 to get an inner-city subway.
The Barnett government included the idea in its recent metropolitan transport plan, but it’s not slated for construction until Perth’s population hits 3.5 million.
But the council says that’s too long, and in a submission approved by its planning committee earlier this week, says it’s prepared to negotiate over inner-city density targets if it can be bought forward.
The submission also requests an overhaul of the metropolitan bus network and more ferry routes, and opposes plans for an east-west traffic tunnel link between Canning Highway and Mounts Bay Road because it would interfere with plans to expand the convention centre and bring more traffic to East Perth.
The submission will need endorsement from the full council before being mailed off.
MAYLANDS residents will have to wait a little longer to find out if their four-year battle to stop a Dan Murphy’s liqour outlet on Railway Parade has been successful.
The WA Supreme Court was due to rule on Woolworth’s appeal for a liquor licence this month, but it has deferred the decision to early next year, blaming a busy court schedule.
It was a disappointing anti-climax for locals opposed to the 1117sqm liquor store, but Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker says they will regroup in January and appeal the decision if it doesn’t go their way.
“The community does not need or want another liquor store of this size and nature in this residential area,” she says.
Cheap alcohol
“This giant booze retailer promotes itself as selling at the ‘lowest price’ and claims to ‘beat any price’.
“The department of health and WA Police agree that access to cheap alcohol on offer by the Dan Murphy’s will exacerbate the issues of crime and street drinking that business owners and residents have been working hard to stamp out.
“In February the WA liquor commission agreed with the community and rejected the liquor licensing application made by the ALH group, including the Dan Murphy’s liquor store, by a majority decision.”
Perth Voice Interactive 