Perth Voice Interactive

THE little Brookman and Moir Street precinct in inner Perth is the last of its kind, a surviving couple of rows of 58 workers’ houses built back in 1897-98 during the gold rush.

The federation Queen Anne-style houses remain in remarkable nick, though as the Voice reported in recent years one nearly fell into ruin, its owner prosecuted by Vincent city council and copping big fines.

That house’s descent into disrepair was keenly felt by neighbours, who’d long worked to keep their own properties in good condition and had a sense of ownership about the neighbourhood. That house has since changed hands and the new owner’s breathed new life into it.

The precinct’s now been recognised with a WA heritage award, dedicated to past and present owners who kept the homes in good condition and the council’s heritage team who worked with owners (and pounced on the recalcitrant who let his place fall into disrepair).

In awarding the gong for conservation or adaptive reuse the WA heritage council commented: “This is an inspirational story of how individuals can work together, by sharing knowledge and encourage others to restore and adapt their 1890s workers cottages, thus returning this significant streetscape to its original state.”

The award’s a big hairy deal: the precinct is actually a co-winner with the widely celebrated Old Treasury building, and both are now shortlisted for the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award for cultural heritage conservation.

Bliss Brosnan lives on Brookman Street. She rented there back in the early ‘90s and loved the area enough to buy in 1999.

“I absolutely love it: the sense of community, the fact that nobody’s going to tear it down and change it all, we’ll never be built out, we’ll always have our yards, and we have an eclectic group of people,” she beams.

“You see stand-alone heritage properties where owners feel quite alone, it is quite a battle.”

But in this precinct, whenever someone’s renovating neighbours always pop their head over the fence with a bit of advice on the right colour paint, and whenever a place gets brought back into good repair Ms Brosnan says “it’s a sense of achievement for the whole neighbourhood”.

The precinct was built as a workers’ estate by Colonial Finance Corporation in the midst of the gold boom when there was high demand for housing and was built over two or three years in the late 1890s. The modest-scale houses and and smaller blocks were designed for tradesmen, and it’s the last example of a whole neighbourhood of intact working class rental accommodation from the era.

The Perth city council rate book from the times shows listings for occupations such as miner, baker, civil servant, engine driver, painter, lamplighter and barman, and the surnames suggested many occupants hailed from migrant families. Even through the 1960s, occupations included a mechanic, stone worker and wood cutter, but the demographics have changed over the years: a more recent snapshot shows the streets are home to two lecturers, a teacher, a programmer, two journalists, a teacher, a solicitor, a grocer, a housewife and a labourer.

by DAVID BELL

FIVE of the seven Perth city councillors who were signatories to a letter supporting lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi when the corruption and crime commission released a report into her travel troubles have run into gift issues of their own.

Councillors aren’t allowed to accept gifts of more than $300 if the donor is undertaking (or seeking to undertake) an activity involving local government discretion.

Last October during the election councillors Rob Butler, Jim Adamos, Lily Chen, Janet Davidson, James Limnios, Judy McEvoy and Keith Yong signed a letter declaring “united and full support for Lisa Scaffidi… she is a woman of integrity and a strong leader”.

Two days later it was revealed then-Cr Butler took a free trip to Malacca on the Malaysian government’s dime without declaring it in his annual return.

He argued the law didn’t require him to declare it given it was a government-sponsored trip, though the legislation says it applies to “Commonwealth, State and local governments”. He wasn’t voted back in.

Now the city’s finally put its gift register online (as required by new changes in the law), it’s been revealed Crs Chen, Davidson and Yong accepted gifts worth more than $300 from companies the city was either in a sponsorship or partnership with.

Cr Davidson got $550 of tickets for Business News’ 40under40 awards. The West Australian reports Crs Adamos, Yong and Chen also accepted tickets above the limit for sponsored events, with Ms Chen explaining councillors had a duty to go to sponsored events to ensure they’re worth spending ratepayers’  money on.

But the West quotes local government minister Tony Simpson saying sponsorships do constitute an activity involving local government discretion: “Gifts worth more than $300 or more in these circumstances are prohibited,” he said. If there’s been any wrongdoing it’s down to the local government standards panel to sort it out. Since the tickets were accepted the council’s changed its policy of accepting bulk tickets as a condition of doling out sponsorship (Voice, April 9, 2016).

by DAVID BELL

STRANGE, rare and antiquarian tomes will be sold to help buy books for the kids of South Sudan for UNESCO’s World Book Day.

Perth bookseller Robert Muir is opening his shop Muir Books to host nine other rare booksellers like Diabolik, Mainly Books and Penny Bannister who’ll be bringing unusual items to sell off on the day like items of WA history and rare World War I material.

Along with part of the sales going to the charity, shoppers can purchase a symbolic book spine to help fill an empty bookcase, representing the books they’re buying for kids in South Sudan.

Last year the event organised by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers raised enough to buy 1930 books and 500 pens and paper.

It’s on at Mr Muir’s new joint (an adapted stables where he sleeps in the loft) at 17 Lindsay Street, Perth on April 23 (the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death) from 10am to 5pm.

by DAVID BELL

PERTH city councillor Jemma Green has followed Reece Harley’s example in releasing to ratepayers all information about the expenses she claims.

Councillors can claim up to $13,360 a year on expenses like suits, shoes, haircuts and phones but the public can only obtain the records via an expensive and laborious freedom of information process.

Last week Cr Harley publicly released his reimbursements from July last year, showing he’d only claimed expenses for his council mobile and landline, for a total of $491.93.

This week Cr Green released her figures too, saying “when I was elected to the Perth city council in October last year, I committed to good governance; open, transparent and ethical decision making; reasonable and responsible use of ratepayer funds… in line with that promise, I have uploaded my council-related expenses to my website, which I will keep up to date going forward”.

She’s also steered clear of fancy haircuts and designer pantsuits: so far her only expenses are the monthly mobile phone payments, a total of $239.96 since being elected.

Last week the Voice asked all Perth councillors if they’d get on board with this transparency measure. Still no reply from the others, all of whom were signatory to a letter supporting lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi after the corruption and crime commission delivered a finding against her of serious misconduct.

by DAVID BELL

THE Angove Street Festival has been cancelled for this year.

Organiser North Perth Local says it will return next year, with smaller pop-up events like car boot sales and park concerts filling the void. The decision’s similar to Beaufort Street Festival being dropped as a big one-day event and the street playing host to smaller get-togethers  through the year.

The Angove Street festival’s run for six years and North Perth local chair Ida Smithwick says it’s time to try something different: “The festival is run by a small group of passionate and dedicated local business and resident volunteers and because of this, the vast scale means that we need a well-earned break, but we will continue to deliver a number of smaller, community based events throughout the year.”

She says such a big event requires a whole year of planning, corporate sponsorship and community support: “we spend most of our time trying to raise money, relying on grants from Lotterywest and the City of Vincent instead of focusing on building a stronger community.”

Mayor John Carey backs the move to smaller events, having known how much “blood, sweat and tears goes into organising an event of its size” after getting the Beaufort Street Festival established.

The first of Angove Street’s smaller events is a community car boot sale on Sunday May 22, 7am to 10.30am at the North Perth plaza carpark. Locals are asked to fill their cars with unwanted treasures and take it down. Check http://www.northperthlocal.org for more details on that.

by DAVID BELL

“THE council did not want to see the Aborigines living in the camp harassed… The [lord mayor] said ‘if we were to step in and try to clear them from the area it would be most inhumane and only add to the tragedy’.”

Twenty-nine years ago Perth city council faced a situation that closely mirrors the issues at Heirisson Island today, when a group of 30 homeless Aboriginal people were squatting near the Lord Street level crossing in makeshift shelters.

The response from the City of Perth back in 1977 was a far cry from last week’s events, when rangers confiscated tents and camping gear in an effort to uproot people camping on the island in breach of the council’s local law.

The above passage from an article in the West Australian newspaper of June 2, 1977, revealed then-lord mayor Sir Ernest Henry Lee-Steere met with the homeless people, “talking to some of the Aborigines and representatives of organisations trying to get help for them”.

The council also arranged for rubbish bins and temporary toilets at the sight, and the lord mayor said councillors were prepared to “turn a blind eye” to the temporary settlement till the inhabitants’ problems could be solved.

Current lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi has said very little about the Heirisson Island situation, beyond a one-liner hoping for an “amicable” solution.

After last Tuesday’s raid saw a mass of camping gear confiscated, more actions followed through the week, with rangers going back the next day to disperse anyone who returned.

Now there’s just a few people down there, taking shelter under the bridge when it rains.

by DAVID BELL

PERTH city council gave $24,547 of ratepayers’ money to a kids’ science exhibition spruiking liquefied natural gas, held over the Easter school holidays and in the same week Perth is hosting the 18th LNG conference.

Elected members voted unanimously in February to sponsor Scitech Does Gas, paying for the event’s marquee hire and security, and providing in-kind support, including free hire of Forrest Place and promotion.

“The show will be based on the scientific properties of LNG and how those properties are harnessed to solve problems and benefit society,” stated the officer’s report.

The week-long exhibition, aimed at school kids and families, started Monday, just days after a delegation of mid-west farmers arrived at state parliament to lobby MPs of all political parties about the dangers of fracking to water supplies.

We asked lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi where the line between commercial sponsorship and kids’ education starts and ends, and if she was comfortable with the council sponsoring an event associated with the controversial process of fracking; but she didn’t get back to us.

Scitech communications officer Tomi Ellis says the event is not part of the formal proceedings of the LNG18 Conference: “Scitech Does Gas is not sponsored by and does not have any connection with any gas, petroleum or oil company,” she says.  “Scitech had been appointed by the state government to deliver this event for the WA community in partnership with the city of Perth. While we work with different industry partners to achieve our goals in science education, we do not promote any one industry or practice.”

The WA government is hosting LNG18 and Chevron, Woodside Energy and Shell are principal sponsors.

In last week’s edition of ED!, the “education magazine” supplement inside The West Australian newspaper, there was a two-page feature on liquified natural gas (LNG) and a section promoting Scitech Does Gas.

The feature includes “3. What a Fracas!” which states a two-year parliamentary inquiry found fracking posed “negligible” risk in WA, while acknowledging it caused serious problems and contamination of drinking water in some parts of the world. The feature includes photographs supplied by Woodside, Chevron and Shell Australia and was not marked as advertising or promotion.

We asked ED! editor Gail Anthony whether the two-page feature was independent journalism or commissioned content; she passed us up the chain to West editor Brett McCarthy, who declined to comment.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK