Perth Voice Interactive

MAIN ROADS has deactivated contactless sensors it installed around Perth during the Covid pandemic, leaving locals frustrated at the lack of communication and a change in their routine. 

In 2022 the department rolled out the contactless sensors at 70 pedestrian crossings in busy areas across Perth. 

They provided pedestrians with an alternative to pushing the button to activate the crossing; instead they could hover their hand over a sensor. 

WA transport minister Rita Saffioti said at the time the technology would offer reassurance to people who were hesitant to use the pedestrian push buttons during the pandemic. 

But Main Roads says the sensors suffered from “a number of faults” including issues with picking up when someone was trying to use them and also glitches in their audio elements. 

It decided to permanently scrap the trial and deactivate the sensors across the 70 sites.

Fremantle resident Bruce Wilson was concerned about the lack of communication from Main Roads before it turned the sensors off, saying it left people in the lurch.

“They did it without being willing to advise everyone,” he said. 

Mr Wilson said he still observed people trying to use the sensors, describing the situation as an “inconvenience” to people who use the crossings daily. 

He says touchless sensors are good for hand hygiene generally and there should be more of them, while removing them is an “adverse direction to improving community health”. 

Retail worker Ella Cooke is immunocompromised and has been using the sensors to help her cross a busy intersection near work several times a day.

Ms Cooke said she was also concerned about the sensors being deactivated.

”Just because Covid isn’t as prominent any more doesn’t mean there aren’t still dangerous germs around,” she told the Voice.

by SOPHIE KELLY

FOOD trucks, outdoor movie nights and sustainable clothing swaps will be popping up at a new temporary pedestrian-friendly hub in North Perth.

The City of Vincent’s Shortcut Lane: Pop-Up Event will see one side of the area from View Street carpark to the Rosemount Hotel carpark converted into a temporary pedestrian-friendly shared space.

It will feature 10 free events including food truck twilight markets, open-air movie nights, a second-hand vintage market and sustainable clothing swaps and workshops. The events will run all month until Sunday May 26. 

“Our exciting events line-up will have something for people of all ages and abilities such as mini golf sessions, community mural painting, movie nights, food markets and more,” mayor Alison Xamon said.

“We expect to attract many locals, visitors and tourists from across Perth to the laneway and the wider town centre through this series.

“There is huge potential in this area to become a pedestrian-friendly and accessible laneway, so we are grateful to receive support from RAC to bring our vision to life.

“This trial project is a great opportunity to see if the community wants to see more permanent activation and events in the laneway.”

Alfresco seating, greenery in parking bays, festoon lights, and entry statement installations will also be installed in the area. 

During the event period, drivers will still have access to both the View Street and Rosemount carparks, although there will be additional speed restrictions introduced and some reduction in the number of parking bays. 

Days where the space is not activated, the number of parking bays will return as per usual.

For the full event program visit the City of Vincent’s website.

UNIONISTS staged a noisy die-in to pressure the WA branch of the Mediterranean Shipping Company to drop an Israeli collaborator.

A handful of police watched as protesters gathered outside MSC’s office calling for it to cut ties with ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, an Israeli-owned company it signed a collaboration agreement with last year to swap and share vessels and berths.

Rumours have circulated that Zim carried weapons components and white phosphorous for the Israeli Defence Forces for the war in Gaza, though the company’s CEO has reportedly denied it.

The local Unionists for Palestine protest was part of a international action by A15 Action who state their aim as to: “Identify and blockade major choke points in the economy focusing on points of production and circulation with the intention of causing the most economic impact” to Israel.

Protesters in T-shirts covered with fake blood lay surrounded by sacks of flour while others shouted into megaphones in support of Palestine or condemning Israel for what they claim is a genocide. 

The group shouted support for an “Intifada” or uprising against Israeli occupation ofn the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

by KATIE SMOUT

IMMERSED in the stunning landscape of the Torbay Inlet near Albany and far from madding crowds, acclaimed fiddler Robert Zielinski’s head filled with music.

Inspired by the gentle awakening of dawn and  serene starlit nights under the karri forest’s canopy, Zielinski listened deeply to the sounds around him and was inspired to compose a suite he says will transport the audience to the Great Southern at its world premiere at the Perth Concert Hall on Sunday May 12.

Kiangardarup – The Torbay Suite, takes its name from the Minang Noongar word for “kangaroo place” as the traditional owners knew the inlet, and was gifted to Zielinski by local elder Vernice Gillies.

“I didn’t set out to write anything but was just inspired,” Zielinski said of the experience.

The studio where he crafts violins, including his own, is in the heart of the karri forest and Zielinski says he’d take daily walks down to the inlet, becoming attuned to the natural rhythms around him.

Listening deeply is part and parcel of Zielinski’s fiddle-playing, as he never learned to read or write music.

But he says composing the suite came naturally, with each piece unfolding in a predetermined sequence. Drawing on years of training to learn music by ear, he skilfully translated the essence of his surroundings into the melodies of the suite. Afterwards, Zielinski played the various parts to fellow musicians, who also learned it by ear and together they refined the composition.

“I never learnt to read or write music, so I don’t,” he said.

“It’s like the piece plays you, you have to get out of the way and let it play.”

The result is a medley of sound that blends Zielinski’s fiddling with Melinda Forsyth’s cello, Manuela Centanni’s wooden flute and Jim Green’s bouzouki, with recordings the composer made of the inlet’s sounds.

Although of Polish decent, Zielinski was adopted by Perth’s Irish community in the early 1980s because of his obvious talent, and when he was 12, local fiddling legend Mick Doherty took him under his wing.

He moved to Ireland at the age of 17 and ended up staying for a 14-year residency studying with the country’s top traditional fiddle players and teaching at the Galway School of Traditional Irish music. His dedication and skill were recognised when he received the Michael Coleman Fiddle Player of the Year Award in 2000.

Zielinski says choosing the Perth Concert Hall to premiere the suite was a natural choice.

“The hall allows the audience to hear the natural sounds of the instruments and the emotions in every note without a microphone.”

The concert is from 4-6pm, and tickets are $35-89 from https://perthconcerthall.com.au/events/event/kiangardarup-torbay-suite

by EZEKIEL WHITE-U

THEY were once a quintessential part of the Australian landscape and a social hub for their communities, but a recent bid to give a Mt Hawthorn corner deli a new lease of life has split the neighbourhood.

Number 5 Berryman Street has been a residential home for the past 62 years, but at the front of the property the iconic square shopfront is still visible, and the owners have asked Vincent council for permission to turn it into a cafe.

They’re hoping to lease the cafe out to an operator who can tap into the sporting crowds that gather at Menzies Park across the road, and have proposed turning just 34sqm of the existing house into a cafe capable of hosting 14 patrons.

But neighbours nearby say they purchased their homes on the understanding it was a purely residential neighbourhood and they’re worried noisy customers might start queuing in their street and create a hazard.

Michael Douglas fronted Vincent’s agenda briefing session on Tuesday evening and said he was representing some of the owners who live directly adjacent to the building.

“Sixty-two years ago when this site last had a commercial component, Australia looked quite different,” Dr Douglas said.

“There were fewer cars and fewer cafes, and people had fewer options to get the things they needed.

“These days locals already have an abundance of coffee options,” he said, noting Scarborough Beach Road’s cafe strip was just a 10-minute walk away and had six similar offerings.

Inconvenience

“For residents with a taste for coffee, this proposed cafe would be more of the same, it’s a matter of minor inconvenience to them,” Dr Douglas said.

“But for the residents I represent immediately surrounding this site, this application would lead to a source of major inconvenience; it will affect their street, their sleep, their kids’ safety and the value of their homes.”

Nathan Ebbs also spoke in public question time to note that patrons would have to walk through the kitchen to use the residential tenant’s toilet, as it was the only one on site. He said it made the application unapprovable.

Mr Ebbs said proposed conditions aimed at preventing customers from milling around outside when they were waiting for coffees would be virtually impossible to police.

“A busy cafe on Berryman Street is at odds with the expectations of the residents and the residential amenity in Mt Hawthorn,” Mr Ebbs said.

But Daniella Mrdja from Urbanista Town Planners said back in the ‘50s the store was a deli that served the Mt Hawthorn community.

“When our clients first approached us back in July last year with their intentions to revive the space back into a cafe, my first thought was that this is exactly what the City of Vincent wants,” Ms Mrdja said.

She said it was in an ideal location, was tiny and was aimed at locals.

“The cafe’s not intended to attract users from outside the local neighbourhood or area, rather the intention is to operate in conjunction with existing users of Menzies Park and to serve the local residents.”

Ms Mrdja said the protracted process to get the application before the council had been very stressful for her clients, a point picked up by councillor Nicole Woolf, who said she’d been fielding calls from ratepayers concerned that the application had been lodged in August but was still kicking around the administration.

But Councillor Ron Alexander was concerned about how the application made it as far as getting a recommendation from staff for approval when it comes before the council for a decision next week.

“I’m sure there’s residents who’ve bought adjacent to this house who’ve done their due diligence and see it’s for single use and all the rest of it, then along comes someone assisted by the City of Vincent who seeks approval to change it,” Cr Alexander told his colleagues.

“It doesn’t at first glance seem fair.”

by STEVE GRANT

THE North Perth Bowling and Recreation Club’s resurgence has put such pressure on its grass greens that it’s decided its time to convert one to a synthetic surface.

Back in 2017, the club was just about on its knees (but not in a great drive to the jack kind of way) with only 50 bowlers and double that in social members, until former secretary Dean Evans launched an ambitious plan to recapture its 1950s glory days “Bowl ‘em over,” Voice, October 13, 2017).

Current treasurer Paul Russell says they’ve now got 1300 members, more than 800 coming from the immediate neighbourhood.

“The club fields pennant teams in three divisions on Thursdays and four divisions on Saturdays, and again this year we have had several of those teams promoted through the divisions,” Mr Russell said.

“Three teams played off for pennants flags of which we won two, making it four flags in the last three years.

“With sustained success on the field comes reputation, and with that comes growth, meaning more pennants bowlers wanting to join the club.”

Mr Russell says the state’s bowling association and other clubs have started to take notice of North Perth’s success, as it’s become a great family hub and has even been bringing in the corporate gigs.

But it has come at some cost to the quality of the playing surface and they’ve got plans to put an application into the federal government for $66,000 to convert one of the greens to a plastic surface.

Synthetic

“A synthetic green, while having environmental benefits, is now a necessity to cater for the sustained, increased use that is putting pressure on maintaining the natural grass surface,” Mr Russell said, adding it would also help the club to continue in its expansion.

The club will need Vincent council’s approval to submit the application, as they’re leasing council-owned land, and councillor Ron Alexander said he’d like to see a “sinking fund” to ensure the club doesn’t come back in a few years with caps in hand.

“In applications like these we hear ‘we’re not going to need a green keeper’ and ‘savings on water’ and all those sorts of things; also, we don’t want to see the same club back here in 10 years’ time wanting to replace the synthetic surface,” Cr Alexander said.