Perth Voice Interactive

FOR two weeks, 90-year-old Jim Grace has been showering with a bucket and been unable to use his gas stove.

He is one of more than 100 Maylands tenants affected by gas being cut off following the detection of leaks in their Tenth Avenue strata complex.

Mr Grace and his neighbours have been told by the complex’s strata manager it could take another four weeks for a budget to be allocated to repairs and upgrades, plus more time to fix the system.

“I mostly feed myself with toasted sandwiches and a lot of microwave meals. It’s the only way you can eat,” he told the Voice.

ATCO set up 16 portable showers in the nearby Kennedy Street carpark, but Mr Grace says he has already fallen down the stairs five times trying to exit his building, and broke his leg in January, so he is unwilling to risk the daily trips to the outdoor showers.

He says no maintenance or cleaning has been done on the portable units and they are filthy.

“A lot of the people have two or three children. They have to shower, then mum and dad have to have a shower. So, I said no, I can’t shower like that.”

He is disappointed the complex has been allowed to deteriorate, saying the Sydney-based owners have visited the place once in 20 years.

“It’s not just one item. What I’m talking about is deterioration over the years,” he says.

He says wiring is also poor, and he has nearly electrocuted himself twice.

Local MP Lisa Baker says the situation is unacceptable.

by MARTA PASCUAL JUANOLA 

WITH a few final pleas of support from locals, Vincent city council voted Tuesday to give a symbolic thumbs up to WA transport’s bike boulevard plan for Shakespeare Street in Mount Hawthorn.

The project’s designed to make the street safer for bike-riding, slowing traffic down to 30kph and installing treatments to make it crystal clear to motorists that bikes rule.

Mayor John Carey told the Voice it was up to the street to decide if it wanted the council to support the department’s watered down version. Most did.

The mayor is concerned the chosen design could hinder the project’s success.

A key sticking point is it’s too hard to get onto the boulevard from busy Green Street.

“I think it could set up the bike boulevard to fail,” he says, “because people will ask how do you use Green Street to get onto the bike boulevard?

“It’s a very unsafe street, with the slope of the hill, the number of cars, the speed, and I don’t think that any family is going to cross Green Street to get onto the bike boulevard.”

The boulevard is now in Transport’s hands.

by DAVID BELL

DARRYL MOORE and Alannah MacTiernan see eye to eye at last — they’ll both be disappointed with last weekend’s Liberal preselection decision for the federal seat of Perth. The party’s candidate in 2013, he had hoped to get the nod for this year and retiring Labor MP MacTiernan had hoped he would too. But no, the Liberals instead heaped the honour on employment consultant Jeremy Quinn, who’ll take on Labor’s Tim Hammond and the Greens’ Tim Clifford. A Voice spy says it was a tight decision at the Liberal State Council, with just one vote separating Messrs Moore and Quin.

THOUSANDS of small dead fish have been found near Lake Monger, floating together in vast rafts of rotting flesh in the waterway between the lake and Mitchell Freeway.

The stench hung heavy in the air as another species — larger and darker — weaved through the corpses, competing with birds to nibble at the dead.

The dead fish are European carp so their demise goes unlamented for the most part, but their deaths could be a warning sign for other aquatic inhabitants.

A passer-by said she’d been walking the Lake Monger paths for years and had never seen anything like it. She’d spotted a duck swallowing one of the dead fish and had worried for the bird’s health.

Cambridge council has stuck up signs warning people of blue green algae in the area.

CEO Jason Buckley says the town’s monitoring the area and will continue removing dead fish till water quality improves.

Lake Monger’s long had water quality issues: PhD theses have been written on the myriad problems, from nuisance midges, algal blooms, historic botulism outbreaks and previous fish kills observed back in the ‘60s and ‘80s.

“While the management of the water quality at Lake Monger is an ongoing and complex process, the fish deaths seen by users of Lake Monger over the past week have been the result of an increase in nutrient levels in the water following early rainfall in the past fortnight leading to an increase in algae,” Mr Buckley says.

by DAVID BELL

IT’S not the thing you expect to hear from one of Perth’s heritage experts but Richard Offen describes the thoroughly modern glass-clad exterior of the new city of Perth library, in the midst of historic Cathedral Square, as “the heritage of the future”.

While many might picture heritage buffs as pernickety fusspots complaining a building’s drain pipes aren’t painted the exact same colour they were during the Crimean War, Mr Offen has a more fluid definition.

“We’re not about preserving things in aspic,” the Heritage Perth chief says. “I look at [the library] as being the heritage of the future.”

He’s gearing up for another one of his popular (and free) series of walks and talks, this time through the newly revamped Cathedral Square, which has the modern library within a stone’s throw of historic buildings dating back as far as the 1857 “Pownall’s Parsonage” (the old deanery).

This more practical approach to heritage is one that’s been important for the square: without a compromise approach the historic Treasury building would have likely continued to fall into ruin.

The Treasury was empty for 20 years after the WA government moved its offices out, Mr Offen says. It’s now home to eateries, offices and a swank hotel that’s picked up several armfuls of awards, and that development has seen it restored to “superb” condition in far better nick than during the years it lay fallow.

His walk and talk series so far have been hugely popular—the last round featured a chat with theatre history expert Ivan King sold out so quickly they had to hold a second date—and it’s not just the grey army that’s been coming along. Mr Offen schedules them during the day so people can quickly nip out during their lunch hour.

“We’re just blown away by the number of people who want to come along. We’ve had lots of young people come along keen to know about their city.”

Along with the Treasury, the walk through Cathedral Square covers the 1906 St Andrew’s Presbyterian church, the gothic St George’s Cathedral, and Burt Memorial Hall, built as a legacy to two sons killed in action near the French village of Montauban in 1916.

The walks are on April 26, one running noon to 1pm and another running 1.30–2.30pm, and it’s free but they’re ridiculously popular so bookings are open April 11 at http://www.heritageperth.com

by DAVID BELL

WA police pipe band is turning 50, and to celebrate it will organise a Ceilidh and additional performances.The band, which performed in the Royal Edingbrough Military Tattoo in Melbourne just a few weeks ago, will hold a dinner and dance on April 8 to raise funds for future performances.

The event will include a meal and performances of the Scottish Highland dance academy and the Gaelic girls Irish dancing troupe. On May 12, the band’s official birthday, it will perform on James Street Mall, in Perth. And on October 1 it will fight to keep its grade 1 national title trophy for the third time in a row. Tickets for the Ceilidh can be purchased online at wapol.com.au.

POSTPONUS AGEISTUS! Adult Pottermaniacs desperate to attend a Harry Potter day reserved for children have cast a spell, causing the event to be postponed so organisers can figure out how to cater to a wider age group.

The City of Perth library vastly underestimated the legion of grown up Harry fans dead-keen to get into an event designed for 12-18-year-olds.

“What’s with the age restriction!!!” Maddy Lewis posted to the Facebook page in her best Moaning Myrtle impression. “I’m way older than 18 and desperate to go.”

Calling themselves ”professors of youth services”, library staff at first drily explained the day had been “carefully designed with activities and content relevant for this age range”.

“We are overwhelmed with the response from people outside of the teenage bracket and may consider events suitable for other age brackets in the future.”

That was met with Deatheater-like venom: ”Bullshit not good enough,” 24-year-old Heaven-Leigh Rawinia Ormsby posted. “There’s a kid in every adult so not happy!”

A few days later the library announced it was postponing the event.

“Dear witches, wizards and muggles. Thank you for the tremendous interest in the Harry Potter event, the professors here at the City of Perth library are both thrilled and overwhelmed by the response.”

While the original plan had been to cater for under-18s and get them familiar with the new library and staff through the lens of a Harry Potter night, “we want to be able to provide a magical experience for all library patrons”.

Meanwhile, there’s some respite for wizened wizard worshippers: Northbridge venue Jack Rabbit Slims reckons there’s so many drinking-age Potterheads around Perth it’s banking on being able to fill 10 Harry Potter-themed quiz nights across May, June and July.

by DAVID BELL

BAYSWATER council is finally showing commitment to greening its city, says councillor Chris Cornish.

At the annual autumn festival last weekend the council handed out 3000 native plants.

“There was a dozen choices, from up to two-metre high trees to ground cover,” Cr Cornish told the Voice. “There was a big focus on plants and trees. It was great!’

The council also updated its street tree request form, which allows two native trees planted on a  verge at no cost, set up a native forest with 25 species, and had an ideas tree where residents posted thoughts and ideas about vegetation.

The council says it will give away 6000 native plants to residents over winter.

by MARTA PASCUAL JUANOLA