Perth Voice Interactive

FLYING a drone without permission in a Stirling park attracts a $350 on-the-spot fine under proposed new rules.

The same penalty applies to anyone caught “slacklining” — walking across a tightrope between two anchors (usually trees) — throwing a javelin or discus, using a hammer or operating a “motorised device” (we assume this relates to the picnic table cart seen zipping through Scarborough last year).

Critics say the council is clamping down too hard on innocent fun, but the council says it’s striking a responsible balance.

Anyone pinged can have their day in court but if they lose, the $350 fine can go up to $5000, plus $500 for every day the prohibited action continued after the initial fine was issued.

Mount Lawley’s Larissa Ashton wrote to the Voice saying Stirling has “gone too far in regulating what is essentially a recreational activity”.

Council recreation manager Michael Quirk says “common-sense” will be exercised and the council is “looking at options including designated areas for use of drones and/or the inclusion of a permit system”. Locals will be consulted before decisions are made on where drones can fly.

Drones2 shop owner Ben Hart says drones are not a safety nor privacy risk: “Aerial cams can be no more invasive than handheld ones,” he says.

The council will discuss local law changes in a committee meeting Tuesday, February 23.

by EMMIE DOWLING

THIEVES, vandals and litterbugs are undermining the charitable work of the Salvation Army in Maylands.

They’re leaving such a mess on weekends that two staff spend two hours cleaning every Monday before the op shop opens.

Neighbours are complaining to police.

Manager Shane Oliver confirms it’s a big problem.

The donation bin is locked out the back after hours, but scavengers jump the fence and rummage through. Some even climb into the bin: whatever is deemed unworthy of their pillaging is often cast on the ground.

A store worker told the Voice dumped clothes were thrown out: sometimes urine was found on them.

An arsonist once targeted security lights.

Area manager Karen Martino says things had been worse but replacing skip bins with wheelie bins rolled into the shop each night had helped.

She says December and January are the worst months.

“It happens at a lot of Salvos stores, particularly the bigger ones,” Ms Martino told the Voice, adding it’s a nationwide problem.

“In excess of $6 million is spent yearly to clean up dumped goods.”

“That money could be much better spent.”

Ms Martino says by the time police are called and arrive, troublemakers are usually long gone.

She says the damage is dispiriting for volunteers and donors.

“Not only the staff, but the volunteers coming out of the goodness of their hearts … it’s hard on them.”

The shop plans to replace the skip bin with one on wheels that can be brought indoors.

Making the problem worse are litterbugs who use the bus stop across the road from The Rise and Maylands Library, dumping shopping bags and food containers on a small strip of trees and shrubs.

by KATRINA MAHONEY

AN anti-Islamic immigration party, “Love Australia or Leave”, says it may sue Vincent city council for refusing to let it stage a BBQ at Hyde Park.

Instead of a quiet barbie in the park on March 20 it now plans a 2pm protest outside the council.

Party founder and Queensland senate candidate Kim Vuga says she was told by a council staffer that permission was denied as, “the values and beliefs of the party are seriously misaligned to the longstanding culturally accommodating and inclusive approach taken by the city and council”.

She says council managers shouldn’t “get to speak on behalf of the entire rest of the city”.

“Whether you agree or disagree, everyone has the right to have a say,” she says.

Claiming her party is inclusive and everyone would have been welcome to attend, she says there would have been no signs nor stalls.

There would have been the barbie, her, a small PA and some LAL flyers.

Ms Vuga says her party opposes sharia law and what it claims is the Islamification of the country.

It demands “zero Islamic immigration” and says multiculturalism is “destroying our nation”.

Love Australia or Leave also wants harsher penalties levied for violent crimes and more support for farmers and veterans.

by DAVID BELL

OUR reputation as an uncultured bogan state is being blown out of the water, with free talks on our performing arts history being booked as fast as they are announced.

His Majesty’s Theatre historian Ivan King and Heritage Perth’s Richard Offen are getting together to chat about our artsy history, drawing on the extensive collection Mr King curates at the Museum of Performing Arts below the theatre.

“We talk about the buildings we lost, the theatres we’ve lost, and the part the arts play within our daily lives,” Mr King says, “and our subtext is we better value our performing arts heritage — if we don’t no-one else will.”

The first talk the pair organised saw 130 spots booked out in four days. A second event on March 13 is rapidly filling.

Mr King, who received an OAM in this year’s Australia Day honour list for his historical efforts, says the younger generation is embracing the arts much more than in days past, when anyone with a hint of culture fled to the eastern states.

“What I find so exhilarating is the younger crop are claiming this city as their own and using it and living in it, and not having one eye on Perth and one eye on Melbourne, they’re living fully in their own environment and I think that is very healthy.”

Mr Offen says “there is a voracious appetite for Perth’s history these days,” and with two talks booking out so fast he suggested to Mr King “why don’t we just book the arena and have done with it?”.

“I was told when I first got here [from Britain] no-one’s particularly interested in th history of WA,” Mr Offen says. “I have always found that to be a complete fabrication. They are interested, all we have to do is make accessible, interesting things available to them and they’ll support it.”

The pair don’t set out any particular theme for their talk, instead embarking on a rambling chat through the museum’s collection.

“I use, as a base, the theatre museum itself, otherwise we’d get shapeless,” Mr King says.

“It started in 1979 when I was performing at the Playhouse and I started collecting material… tonnes of stuff could have been lost, I’m very proud of the amount of significant material that I’ve saved from the local tip.”

Some of the favourite curios he’ll likely chat about include the dresses of Gertrud Bodenwieser, a Jewish dancer in Vienna in the ‘30s.

“She escaped Vienna and the Nazis: the company came with her and played the Maj in 1940. Her husband stayed behind and she never saw him again.”

Sometimes the finds were unexpected: “I had a collection of programmes for a speech and drama teacher here in Perth from 100 years ago. I put them on display totally oblivious to the fact that on the other side of the world they were about to release a film called The King’s Speech, and the programmes were for Lionel Logue.”

More spots for the second free event downstairs at His Majesty’s Theatre on March 13 are being released this weekend at http://www.heritageperth.com.au

by DAVID BELL

IT’LL cost Stirling ratepayers more than $110,000 for CCTV cameras at a Yokine playground.

Last June the council spent $67,500 on cameras, electrical work and surveillance management for Yokine Play Space, just off Wordsworth Avenue.

Because all that equipment was stolen before project completion — oh, the irony — the council has decided to spend an extra $44,000 on two thief-proof cameras and extra lighting.

A council report tabled in this month’s meeting states: “Given the history of such camera theft it was determined that the reinstallation of CCTV equipment in the same location, and using the same equipment, would in all likelihood end up with the cameras being stolen again.”

Improvements this time around include the use of 6-metre CCTV poles with “anti-climb brackets”.

Cameras will be placed near the car parks and toilets. The installation is a “direct response to ongoing anti-social behaviour issues”, such as graffiti and assault.

by EMMIE DOWLING