ASH GRUNWALD has one the most prolific and successful blues career in Australian music history, and been at the forefront of the music scene for more than 12 years.
But his natural talent wasn’t nurtured in a music conservatory; guitar lessons were those at school.
His teacher encouraged him to stretch himself with other music styles, but at 12 he’d found his passion.
“Once I learnt to play a bit of blues I wanted to stay with it, I wasn’t interested in diverting. I knew what I wanted,” Grunwald says from his Bali home.
He and wife Dannii Carr, and their two young daughters, moved to the tropical paradise recently, where the surfing mad Grunwald is enjoying the surf.
His song Longtime features Grunwald pulling some very impressive surfing tricks at The Pass, a legendary break at Byron Bay, to a foot-tapping blues rhythm.
One of his early songs was about being saved from a shark by a pod of dolphins, but he has no animosity towards the predators.
“As a surfer I love the fact most surfers and myself think there shouldn’t be culling. They are in their own environment.”
You can catch the Melbourne born musician at the Newport Hotel in Fremantle tomorrow, Sunday July 10.
ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20) Commit to the deeper currents of feeling that are coursing through your veins. There are creative passions in there bouncing up and down to be hatched. Give free reign to your imagination. More is possible if you can only give yourself permission to go for what means the most to you.
TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 20) The Virgo Moon at the beginning of the week helps you to get yourself into gear, to get your scattered intentions into working order. Putting the little things into place will have the almost miraculous effect of opening up much larger possibilities. There’s power in attending to details.
GEMINI (May 21 – June 21) Mercury is near the end of Cancer. This is a particularly vague and misty-eyed place for the ruler of your intelligence and insight to be. Insist upon logical clarity, and you will end up befuddled and frustrated. If you are willing to go with the poetic nature of the moment, you’ll find clarity.
CANCER (June 22 – Jul 22) The Sun and Venus are in a particularly intense part of their journey through Cancer. The feelings, issues and events surfacing presently, demand nothing less than facing hurts, fears and fascinations that have the power to transform. Deal with what’s on your plate. Put nothing under the rug.
LEO (July 23 – Aug 22) The moment is pregnant with opportunity. It would be so easy to get impatient, to jump the gun, to pre-empt possibility. Wait as if you are waiting for a longed for phone call from a beloved who is off travelling overseas. Patience should be a living thing, not a dead or frustrating thing.
VIRGO (Aug 23 – Sept 22) There are more blessings than obstacles around at the moment. Though you might feel like your more expansive dreams are hitting road-blocks, the amount of love, affection and support that is coming your way more than compensates. Understand the full significance of little things.
LIBRA (Sept 23 – Oct 23) There are still bridges to be built. They can only be built by entering into conversations that are real and full of transformative potential. Because difficult feelings are involved, your patience is going to be tested. Real resolution will be found when you shelve preconceptions and listen.
SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 21) Mars continues to power you up and drive you towards the changes you’ve been sniffing in the air for ages. There are no real obstacles, other than the various emotions that are running through your veins. Being a water sign, you will be able to deal with all of your freely flowing feelings.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 – Dec 21) Various illusions are biting the dust. This is a good thing. It’s better to have a genuinely meaningful vision than not. It might also seem like little things are getting in your way. If life is feeling like a bureaucratic obstacle path, step away. Be very kind to the part of you that is impatient.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 19) As long as you stay grounded and take care of the little things, you will find your way around any uncomfortable encounters that life might present you with. The moment you notice yourself being reactive or defensive, step back and own up to your stuff, even if it seems a wee bit unfair.
AQUARIUS (Jan 20 – Feb 18) Relationship is the mirror of choice this week. It’s not exactly a passive mirror. It tends to demand that you look in it. What you see is worth seeing. If you can sheath your defences, you’ll discover a bridge that leads to greater intimacy. Reality is better than dreams. Embrace it completely.
PISCES (Feb 19 – Mar 20) This is a period of rejuvenation, regeneration and reinvention. The first step of course is to let go of your attachment to what’s not working. The easy way to do this is to open your eyes to the many ways that life in general and certain people in particular, are loving and looking after you.
ELEGANT wrought iron gates secured to limestone pillars, and soaring pine trees set the tone for this grand Mt Lawley home on Park Road.
A manicured garden of roses, aged camellias and a stately water feature add to the genteel dignity of the old home, where jarrah flows and dainty ceiling roses are found throughout.
Entering the main bedroom was a ‘wow’ moment, and despite the huge space my eyes only saw the gorgeous iris tiles around the old coal fireplace, which are a veritable Monet in their delicate beauty.
There’s nothing old world about the ensuite, with its polished concrete floor, double vanities and huge bank of mirrored cupboards.
Decorative fireplaces, high ceilings and deep skirting and ceiling roses are everywhere in the original section of the house.
Along with stunning stained glass around and in the front door.
The smell of leather permeates the central formal lounge, where french doors open onto the wrap-around verandah, and I’m sure I could detect the faint whiff of cigars and port from a bygone era.
The rear extension is pure 21st century, with a sweeping open-plan family/dining/kitchen, and banks of bifold doors to the garden and alfresco area.
Caesar stone tops the expanse of bench tops in the huge kitchen with its many drawers and cupboards.
Top of the wozzer appliances look brand new, and there’s a pantry plus a scullery.
All of which makes entertaining a breeze; simply peel back the bifold doors and let the party begin on the raised, covered timber deck overlooking the solar-heated pool. With a mini citrus grove out the back getting a lemon for the G&Ts won’t be a problem.
Or wander down to the bottom of the garden and curl up with a good book under the shelter of a towering pepper tree.
Sitting on a whopping 1012sqm there’s room for raised garden beds and a swathe of lawn for the kids to play on.
But if more is called for sprawling Forrest Park is a two-minute walk away.
The Beaufort Street strip is close by with its myriad cafes, restaurants, shopping and theatre.
And there’s a choice of schools almost on the doorstep.
by JENNY D’ANGER 32 Park Road, Mt Lawley EOI mid $2 million Carlos Lehn 0478 927 017 Acton Mt Lawley 9272 2488
MAYLANDS MP Lisa Baker has called for WA’s parliament to expunge historic homosexuality convictions and offer an apology.
Laws against gays lingered until 1989 but to this day hundreds of men still have convictions on their record. The 1913 law said guilty people could be “imprisoned for hard labour for 14 years, with or without whipping”.
During her budget reply last week, Ms Baker referred to her campaign, calling the convictions “an embarrassing blemish on our moral obligations to a community that I care deeply about.
“We are now the only remaining Australian state that is yet to completely clear the records of these men,” Ms Baker said.
• Lisa Baker at the Palace Hotel. Photo by Steve Grant
“I am talking about the unfair, and unfortunately often legal, targeting of gay men by the WA legislature, courts and police. It is pretty amazing to think that that was not that long ago, that it was a chargeable offence for two consenting adults to have sex with each other in our state.”
There were few places for gay men to meet back then. The Palace Hotel was a popular haunt in Perth in the 50s and 60s: Out in Perth reported one old timer saying: “It seemed to be an unwritten law that you went into the corner bar at the Palace.” By the 70s it was the Shaftesbury Hotel, “then all of a sudden we were down at His Maj, then the Green Room of the Perth Concert Hall”.
But these refuges were routinely raided by police, often using “entrapment” according to a 1991 Australian Institute of Criminology report.
Ms Baker says one of the frequent targets was Fremantle’s “Roo on the Roof”, Paul Rigby’s restaurant at 10 High Street.
“Police would routinely order everyone out of the Roo on the Roof in Fremantle, fill a police wagon with the most “gay” looking men and keep them in the lockup overnight for being drunk and disorderly”.
That was the lightest end of the harassment: “Police would often target high-profile men in the entertainment industry, television personalities and the like and use blackmail against them with a threat that their careers would be ruined if they were exposed for homosexuality,” Ms Baker said.
It was a massive black mark: Ms Baker says men “tarred with the same brush as paedophiles and considered the lowest of the low,” were unable to find work or travel overseas because of the convictions hanging over them.
Ms Baker says it’s not enough to simply offer spent convictions, as it won’t help people seeking security or firearms licences, or applying for jobs where you need a squeaky-clean record, such as a police officer or at the Perth Mint.
When Parliament lifted the law in the 1989 Act, it was begrudging and the debate was littered with gay insults.
Liberal MP Peter Foss moved to insert a preamble noting “parliament disapproves of sexual relations between persons of the same sex”. The Law Society described the wording as “highly discriminatory”.
MLC David Wordsworth called homosexuality “a filthy habit”.
Badge of pride
Barry House, who spoke against the decriminalisation, remains in office to this day, having said in 1989 he couldn’t decriminalise homosexual acts; “just as I could not contemplate the legalisation of incest”.
Ms Baker says it’d be best to have individuals apply rather than offer a blanket expungement. As premier Colin Barnett pointed out in Parliament, “some would prefer not to do it”.
Some old timers wear the conviction as a badge of pride, others, perhaps now in nursing homes, would prefer to just let it lie.
Ms Baker says it would not apply to convictions for having sex with under-age people.
Ms Baker is now drafting legislative amendments and told the Voice she hopes to get them in WA parliament later this year.
BAYSWATER council has sent the Barnett government a 10-point wishlist from ratepayers wanting the aging Baysy train station tarted up.
But despite sinking the station being punters’ top priority, it’s off the table for now.
The station will soon become a gateway to the city for passengers coming from the airport along the new Forrestfield-Airport link.
• Barry McKenna, Geoff Hodder, Andrew Watt, Greg Da Rui and Paul Shanahan are waiting for upgrades to Bayswater train station.
As part of that project the council’s angling for a spruce-up of the station and put out a survey asking for locals’ views.
After “undergrounding”, which got 81 mentions, new buildings providing shelter, seats and toilets were the next priority.
Transport minister Dean Nalder recently told deputy mayor Stephanie Coates that future upgrades wouldn’t be considered until after the railway was opened, which is expected in 2020.
Given that as a distant opportunity, the council will keep a potential sinking in mind when putting together its town centre structure plan.
• A federal Labor government would look at nixing this troublesome overpass, but it comes too late for this Luke Simpkin’s electioneering wagon.
Other wishlist priorities include better pedestrian access, bike storage, more car parking, and altering the nearby rail bridge since boneheads routinely ignore warning signs and try to plow through with their tall vans and lorries.
Meanwhile Labor candidate for federal Perth Tim Hammond says if a Shorten government is elected this weekend it’ll pledge $1 million for a structure plan to sink Bayswater station.
”A major part of the study will look at removing this underpass which has claimed its latest victim,” he said, posting a picture of a van advertising Liberal Cowan candidate Luke Simpkins firmly wedged under the bridge.
HISTORIC Horry’s Tree on Melrose Street, Leederville — the only tree saved when the Mitchell Freeway came bowling through — is to get stronger heritage protection.
The Moreton Bay fig was planted by dairyman Horace Thompson next to his family home in October 1815. He left for the Great War three months later, hoping to see how big it had grown when he returned, but was killed by a shell at the Battle of Passchendaele.
His wife Lily was said to have “died of a broken heart” within a year of the news, but over the decades neighbour Dorothy Jenkins stood vigil over his tree, staving off attempts to cut it down.
The most serious logging attempt came in the 1970s when every other tree in the area was felled by Main Roads for the freeway.
Mr Thompson’s grandniece Fay Maughan compiled a history of the tree back in 2014: “Dorothy was the keeper of that tree… Dorothy used to go down there every day and make sure they didn’t bulldoze it,” she wrote.
Ms Jenkins died June 2014 at 94, just before Ms Maughan’s history was completed and given a Vincent local history award.
Vincent council will classify the tree “category B” in its heritage inventory, meaning it’s not allowed to be touched without the council’s approval.
A THOUGHTLESS fisher tossing away their tackle has killed an oblong turtle on the Maylands foreshore.
The shoreline is stacked with bins specifically for fishing line.
Bayswater council workers recovered the turtle from the Maylands Lakes, describing the animal as “hopelessly entangled in fishing line that was wrapped around its body and neck”.
The species is endemic to south west WA and is listed as “near threatened,” which is a relatively mild category.
• This turtle died entangled in fishing line.
The population in Maylands has had a rough run of late with the environment suffering salinity and acidity problems.
In May a white-faced heron nearly died after being entangled in fishing line nearby, only saved when council workers discovered the beast while working on a remediation trial to fix up Baigup Wetlands.
Last year more than 30 turtles mysteriously vanished from an enclosure where they were being kept during the Eric Singleton Bird Sanctuary restoration. No one knows if they were stolen or eaten.
The fishing line disposal bins were installed by the parks and wildlife department in December 2014 and in the first year they collected 14.7km of fishing line, 2379 hooks and sinkers, 2048 bait bags and 286 other fishing odds and ends.
AN upper house MP wants Bayswater council to remove native vegetation behind her Ingles Place property so she doesn’t have to walk as far to get to the river.
The vegetation is protected as part of the Swan and Canning Rivers Regional Park, but Liberal parliamentary secretary Alyssa Hayden wrote to council asking it to clear a path from her block and that of three neighbours to nearby Ingles Reserve. Otherwise they have to tramp around the block to get there.
Anti-greenery forces have already been at work: Several trees between the blocks and the river have been illegally poisoned, prompting Baysy to put up a large sign in February. The council can’t prove who did it, but the sign confounds any plans to improve views; it’s staying until replacement trees grow to maturity.
• Dead trees and a big sign blight views from Inglis Place.
Ms Hayden says says she and her neighbours could use the path to “enjoy and have access to the reserve, foreshore and pathways” and it’d also provide an alternative exit in case of emergency.
She also wants plants near their fences restricted to 1.8m tall and thinned out to reduce the risk of fires and snakes.
Bayswater staffers say there’s no legal requirement to provide that emergency exit, the vegetation isn’t a fire risk and clearing won’t reduce encounters with snakes.
Councillors deferred the request to mull over their options, and whether to charge $4000 for the works.
Staffers note it’s an emerging issue as development rolls out closer to the river.
“[It’s] a difficult decision to make and may set a precedent for future developments,” the report said.
Any clearing of vegetation will have to be signed off by the department of parks and wildlife.
SCHOOL holidays can cost a packet but the Postal Hall Book Exchange in Cathedral Square offers endless take-home fun – for free.
In perfect synchronicity the first Sunday of the school holidays coincides with a kids book exchange at the monthly Cathedral Square markets.
It’s a chance for youngsters to swap books with other kids – with two glorious weeks off school to read them.
• Kids get a chance to swap books they’ve already read for something new at the Cathedral Square markets. Photo by Rachael Barrett
“[Kids] can be entertained and swap their pre-loved books for a new one while their parents enjoy the huge range of high-quality, WA-focused design, art, fashion and craft stalls,” manager Lucy Searle says.
There’ll be 3D drawing classes, story telling corners and the chance for energetic mini-maestros to try their hand at an interactive musical sculpture.
And the Indigenous Communities Education and Awareness Foundation (ICEA) will be on hand for kids to learn more about indigenous history through NAIDOC week activities.
There’ll also be heritage tours of the old treasury building by heritage architect Ron Bodycoat, 11am and 1pm.
Get along to Cathedral Square, St George’s Terrace, Perth, Sunday July 3, from 11am for a bit of post-election relief.
MATAGARUP activists had their first day in court this week, hoping to get an injunction against further raids on their Heirisson Island camp by Perth city council.
Camping on the island is forbidden under council rules, and it’s recently ramped up raids to confiscate tents, blankets and other camping gear used by Indigenous and homeless people who set up a community there.
Head claimant Bella Bropho, who established the camp in protest against the planned closure of remote Aboriginal communities, is hoping an injunction will let them stay while a Perth native title claim wends its way through the courts.
• Bella and Herbert Bropho and supporters outside the Federal Court. Photo by Steve Grant
She argues higher state and federal laws including the Aboriginal Heritage Act of 1972 grant them the right to be at Matagarup.
Known as “Leg Deep”, the island and surrounding area is a traditional spot for hunting, plant gathering and has significance for birthing women.
Although some of the island is reclaimed land, Ms Bropho’s brother Herbert says other precedents have shown that as long as the original portion is still intact, it will still retain its sacred significance.
About 20 protesters braved the rain Tuesday June 28 as a show of support on the first court date where lawyers locked horns in the initial tête-à-tête, and they’ll be back in court later next month for a more detailed face off.
Perth Voice Interactive 