ANY ideas for what to call the 12 unnamed laneways running off Beaufort Street?
The Beaufort Street Network and Vincent city council are looking to name them to help build a bit more identity around the area as part of their “placemaking” projects, and it’s a globally recognised technique for creating a sense of place.
They’re looking for short, punchy names up to six letters, that resonate with the area and that could be based on notable locals of the past, or special features of the area (Astor Lane north of Walcott Street being a good example). Easy to spell and pronounce is also a plus.
• Beaufort Street Network’s Dean Cracknell with Vincent city council’s place manager Georgia Lawrence down in one of the unnamed lanes. Photo by Matthew Dwyer
While crowdsourcing names has had disastrous results (the highest voted name in Mountain Dew’s online poll for its new product was “Hitler did nothing wrong”), WA’s geographical naming committee has pretty strict requirements for what’s appropriate.
It won’t let in any any names of living people, no “inappropriate, discriminator or derogative names” and no numbers or symbols (so #LOL Lane is out).
The ‘crats need suggestions in by November 20 and you can get more info from city place manager Georgia Lawrence on 9273 6513 or from vincent.wa.gov.au (click on the wee ‘name the lanes’ button).
IT’S happened again: blockheads have busted the giant Scrabble-like sculpture at Ellesmere Reserve in North Perth.
It’s the third time the artwork imag_ne by Emma Anna has been vandalised since its installation a few years back.
Sturdily reinforced since the last bout of idiocy, a hammer or something similar was taken to it on October 30.
• IMAG NE life without yobbos. Photo by Bob Kucera
Local grand-dad Bob Kucera says the timing’s just awful because on Halloween the local kids come out in their costumes to get their photos taken next to it. “It really is a lowlife thing to do especially the night before Halloween,” the former MP says. “There’s a lot of disappointed kids out there because of this.
“Our fear is that if this continues the council might remove it.”
After reporting the damage, Vincent deputy mayor Ros Harley came out pronto to survey the scene and the council’s assured Mr Kucera it’ll be fixed again.
In other parts of the world the eve before Halloween is known as “Devil’s Night” and is marked by mischief and mayhem. In Australia it’s called “Dickheads’ Night” where morons get drunk and smash stuff.
LOVE being charitable in November but can’t grow a moustache? The friends of Perth writer and artist Kate-Anna St Valentine are continuing the tradition she started with “Meowvember” to raise money for the animal shelter charity SAFE (who don’t just do cats: They’ll even keep guinea pigs safe). Ms St Valentine had cancer and died in January, but friends describe her as a “mega-talented, vegan, animal-loving, supremo babe with a huge heart and a life-force you’d never forget”. Many friends still post to her Facebook wall at least once a week. Ms St Valentine launched Meovember back in 2011 and this year friends and cat fans Miko Katze and SJ Finch are hoping to match the $1500 she raised the first time round. Check out the “Meowvember 2015” Facebook page to keep track of their cat-poem writing and cat-costume wearing adventures.
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WE’VE long heard complaints from residents and traders near Weld Square who are fed up with “anti-social behaviour” but last week problems boiled over big time with a man being stabbed in the neck. At 2.15pm on October 29 police were called to a fight between two men and found a 42-year-old with minor stab wounds to the neck. They shuttled him off to RPH for treatment while the other bloke fled. Police urge anyone with info to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. They describe the offender as dark skinned and short.
AT her first meeting back in the seat as lord mayor an unfazed Lisa Scaffidi swatted aside a barrage of questions, including whether an alternative should step into her seat while the WA local government department continues to investigate the CCC’s findings of “serious misconduct” against her.
Ms Scaffidi has hunkered down and maintained media silence since the election, but city resident Oliver Peterson — a journo with Channel 9 — put the questions in writing for Tuesday’s public question time (unlike other councils, Perth doesn’t permit the proletariat to be actually heard — the CEO reads out the questions).
Ms Scaffidi elected to read and answer the questions herself rather than letting the CEO handle them as usual and didn’t seem to break a sweat in batting them aside.
Many answers relied on “following the procedure” and waiting out the result of the department’s report. Asked if an alternative should take up her spot, she merely said “I am respecting the procedure, this is currently with the department of local government”.
Asked what the council intends to do in the wake of the CCC’s report, Ms Scaffidi said, “I have already acknowledged the error I made” and said she’d been humbled by the support she’d received from residents and the council.
Mr Peterson also asked if she supported all elements of the WA local government act, the piece of legislation that was broken when she did not declare travel contributions from BHP Billiton and Hawaiian. She answered: “Yes.”
IF our recent reports on Hyde Park’s troubled turtle population got you wanting to do more for the scaley pond puppies, Western Sydney uni scientists are asking for your help to keep them safe.
November is turtle month and it’s a dangerous time for the shelled shufflers because they leave the safety of the water to nest. WS uni has launched a mobile app called TurtleSAT which you can use to log sightings of turtles (dead or alive).
That data can then let them know where best to install crossing signs.
•TurtleSAT in action.
WS uni’s Ricky Spencer says “As a result of Turtle Month last year, we had more than 1000 recordings on TurtleSAT, which resulted in the construction of road signs to warn drivers of areas where turtles are crossing.”
Dr Spencer says time is running out for Australia’s turtles: The Bellinger River snapping turtle species is more than two million years old. It was in healthy numbers in January but by March was close to extinct.
But he says there’s still hope and if enough people get on board with TurtleSAT, “we can take measures to protect the fragile populations still left, and help the animals recover”.
Last year Jon Sanders Drive was a Death Valley for turtles being flattened by cars, with one resident finding five dead ‘uns before the breeding season had even fully started.
TurtleSAT is on the appstore now. We took it for a test run and so far there are only a few sightings logged in Perth (near Herdsman Lake), compared to huge takeup in other states. Victoria and NSW have nearly 1500 sightings between their rivers, and South Australia near 500. We have four.
A $2.2millon upgrade of Supreme Court Gardens has been shelved by Perth city councillors.
CEO Gary Stevenson murmured there were time constraints with this project but councillors stuck to their guns and sent it back for more fiddling, save for Reece Harley who wanted to progress it.
The Voice understands the time constraints could relate to next year’s ANZAC day commemorations which are traditionally held in the park, as the five-month timeframe for works means they need to get started pronto if it’s to be in a decent state for the April event.
The upgrades are paid for by the WA government as part of the overall Elizabeth Quay development, and involve installing “a meandering pathway”, formal garden entrances, memorials and heritage restorations, wifi, new turf, and “Paradise Garden” style greenery, all designed to make it more inline with the original intent of “providing a robust place for public recreation” in the city.
The WA government gave the PCC a $3.1million budget to play with but staff found BCL Building Civil and Landscapes could do it for $2.3m.
IT’S coming, slowly: Helipads on the Swan River are one step closer with Perth city councillors unanimously supporting the plan this week. Lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi says “it is a much needed piece of infrastructure in a growing and vibrant capital city”. Deputy James Limnios said it’s “not just for Batman to fly in, but for tourists as well” who can get a great view of Perth’s coast from the sky. The council’s recommendation now goes to the WA parks and wildlife department which has the final call.
REDEVELOPING Bayswater’s sports and recreation grounds will be a hot topic for the new council over the next six months, mayor Barry McKenna says.
Cr McKenna has given the Voice a snapshot of key issues for the council over the next few months.
A big one, he says, is having another crack at developing a plan for Frank Drago Reserve that works for all on-site sports groups and wider community.
He hints at new tennis clubrooms, but is wary of making such a statement before properly consulting with the community.
• Perth-Bayswater Rugby Union Club’s home base at Pat O’Hara Reserve. There have been discussions new clubrooms may be built closer the Morley Sport and Recreation Centre under a concept being discussed by the president and Bayswater council. Photo by Matthew Dwyer
“We know the old council made a lot of mistakes with Frank Drago Reserve, particularly with community consultation,” Cr McKenna says.
There was community backlash after the council drew up $25 million plans for the park, with critics arguing the plans favoured the football club over other neighbouring sports groups.
The Frank Drago plans were subsequently dumped in September.
Meanwhile, over at Morley’s Pat O’Hara Reserve, Cr McKenna says there’s talk of new clubrooms for Perth-Bayswater Rugby Union Club.
• Perth-Bayswater Rugby Union Club’s home base at Pat O’Hara Reserve. There have been discussions new clubrooms may be built closer the Morley Sport and Recreation Centre under a concept being discussed by the president and Bayswater council. Photo by Matthew Dwyer
He says there is an idea to build new rugby clubrooms at the back of Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.
Rugby club president Alister Milligan says the club is is need of a upgrade .
“But we know this involves a number of key stakeholders in the contribution of funding,” he says.
“This year a lot of ideas were floated around and the club will always work closely with the City of Bayswater for the development of facilities in the area.”
According to the council’s long-term “Morley activity centre structure plan” a master plan for the sports and recreation centre should be developed within the next five to 10 years.
Plans for the Morley city centre include Galleria Shopping Centre, Progress Street as the centre’s “main street” and a better Morley bus station.
UPDATED February 7, 2023: Highgate Continental no longer have a physical store. If you’re a biblio- or audiophile, you can now find them at http://www.highgatecontinental.com.
THESE Gen Y blokes may be digital natives, but they sure do value the romance of reading paper books and listening to vinyl records.
They’re about to open a new arts hub on Beaufort Street with a focus on literature and music in their traditional, hardcopy glory.
The other side to the venue—Highgate Continental, a name inspired by the feel of old Italian delis—will be an art gallery and meeting place for local artists.
Co-owner Alex Malkovic says seeing little artsy shops tucked away from passers-by in European warehouses, garages and cafes during an overseas trip two years ago sparked an idea to bring something similar to Perth.
“It was inspiring to see the thriving counter-culture of start-ups in cities like Paris and Amsterdam,” says the man who studied fine arts in both France and WA.
“You can walk into these old stores and tell some of these places have been around for many generations. Others are trendy pop-ups, fresh and alternative. They all have nice lighting and an old, romantic feel to them. There’s something romantic about being able to hold a book, music or piece of art in your hands.”
• Creative entrepreneurs and mates Alex Malkovic, Andrew Sinclair (both above) and Nikolas Patterson—all in their mid-20s—are in the midst of setting up an arts hub on Beaufort Street called Highgate Continental. Photo by Matthew Dwyer
These stores aren’t typically found in Perth, Malkovic says. “Our store undoubtedly fills a gap in the local arts community,” he says.
The store will specialise in small-press architecture and art books as well as “alternative and fresh” hard-to-find new music—some of which will be decades-old, and by relatively unknown artists, brought back for a second life.
So don’t go in with a preconceived idea of finding The Beatles, Malkovic says. “Walk in and discover something you haven’t heard of before.”
About once a month, there will also be performances and exhibitions from local emerging artists in the gallery space, called Rear Window Contemporary.
The Highgate hub at the corner of Chatsworth Road merges two Subiaco companies—Malkovic’s Apropos Provisional exhibition contemporary art space and his mates’ Good Company Records. Before setting up at Subi a year ago, they had been operating businesses from their bedrooms.
The guys will serve food and coffee on weekends, if Vincent council gives the go-head.
They’ve started a Pozible online fundraising campaign to help get their store fitted out before the official opening in the next few weeks.
Highgate Continental’s “soft opening”, which will offer a small taste of what’s in store for art lovers, is on November 11 and includes photography by Traianos Pakioufakis, who is returning home from Sydney for the event.
The store opens amid recent reports of a drop in sales for Kindle, a platform for reading digital books, as more readers rediscover physical books.
Last month, the UK’s largest book retailer, Waterstones, removed Amazon’s Kindle ebooks from its stores nationwide because of “pitiful sales”.
See their Facebook page for more details and visit pozible.com/project/201541 to make a donation.
Pedal pleasure
I HAD the pleasure of using the segregated bike lanes on Scarborough Beach Road in Mt Hawthorn for the first time on a sunny Sunday afternoon some weeks ago.
As a commuting cyclist I follow the widely accepted advice to ride at least one metre into the road lane for safety reasons when I am unable to use the shared path network. I must say that I felt much safer in the segregated section — a tangible sense of relief!
I think the construction of cycling infrastructure such as this will enable many more people who are hesitant to cycle for safety and convenience reasons to avail themselves of the economic, health and social benefits of a cycling culture. Tim Karajas Summers St, Perth
It wasn’t broke
THANKS Marti Hughes (Voice Mail, October 31, 2015) for responding to our letters regarding cycle lanes. I’m not one for debating such topics but if it opens up a process of public consultation and awareness then great because that’s what’s needed here.
Leonie Edwards (October 17) simply wrote in her letter that everyone she spoke with regarding the public works was not in favour of it. I believe her because the majority of people I spoke with were also against, including bike riders.
I think it’s a great idea that cyclists and motorists are separated by sole purpose bike lanes, more of them are needed, and good on Vincent council for promoting them. But in this case, my humble (and unprofessional ) view is that they need to go in the right area and on the right street, not converting a major arterial street with two lanes into one, producing bottle-neck problems for motorists, buses and more importantly, emergency vehicles.
So in answer to your rhetorical question, my “experience” that I am “drawing upon” has seen first-hand the bottle-neck traffic inconvenience whilst driving on Scarborough Beach Road on a daily basis and in that time that the cycle path has been operational I have also seen only one bike rider use it. I’m just stating the facts as I see them.
The argument that if the infrastructure is there we will use it just doesn’t stack up. Logic however suggests that more infill and more apartments being built on main roads equal more cars, hence the need for better flowing streets, especially major arterial roads.
Now, I don’t know if the “combined knowledge of the modern city planners of the world” got together in this incredible think tank to reduce Scarborough Beach Road to one lane, or if this “combined knowledge” are the same ones responsible for the current proposal for reducing the width of Shakespeare Street down to 3.9m (still having two-way traffic mind you) and calling it a “bike boulevard “ because they apparently work in Holland. 3.9m with two-way traffic traffic and bikes? …. A recipe for disaster.
My bet is, and I’m not a gambling man, that this “combined knowledge” will all get together one day at a “modern city planners of the world” convention and one of them may say “hey guys, I think we got it wrong with the bike boulevard and Scarborough Beach Road” and one of the others of the “combined knowledge” crew will say “oh well, they can always get rid of their cars and ride their bikes instead”.
Moral of the story..don’t fix what ain’t broke. Gene Lorenzon Shakespeare St, Mount Hawthorn
LGBTIQ 2 PC
I AM very happy to see celebrations like Pride being covered by pieces such as “Happy Pride” (Voice, October 31, 2015). However, I was disappointed to see you use the politically correct term, “LGBTIQ” (and I’ve even seen”LGBTOQA”.
I think this term, if it were ever useful, has passed its used-by date. As a gay person myself, I’m not even sure how it got started — self-appointed leaders and language police? — but I think that by focusing so obsessively on sexuality (identity), it creates divisions rather than breaking them down; universalism gives way to fragmentation and tribalism, and a prioritising of group identity.
I’d like to propose a much better acronym: People Like Us (PLU). The “L” used as an adjective means people who are like (the same as) us — that is to say, people who accept that sexuality is plural; so this would also include like-minded heterosexuals.
As a verb, the “L” would mean that people have positive feelings towards us. So, only like-minded people of any orientation, that is to say, PLUralism, and no need to go on adding letters ad nauseam and fighting over which letter comes first. Sam Cook West Perth The Ed says: We usually prefer to use “gay” as a catch-all but get belted around the head a bit.
Lift yer game
CONGRATULATE yourselves on the interview with Stirling mayor Giovanni Italiano (Voice, October 24, 2015), which is very telling.
Lift your game councillors, and do not take for granted your position. Play fair and be respectful. Marion Palmer, Carine The Ed says: Edited for length.
The original Twitterers
EVERY spring I watch with sadness as the local magpie families work laboriously feeding their new babies only to have them killed on the roads.
Can’t we slow down just a tad during spring to give them a chance? The family that visits my garden for the last 15 years or so have managed to successfully rear three young in the last eight years; the rest have been hit by cars.
New housing developments completely clear the birds’ feeding grounds and fell their nesting trees. Yes, we have to have progress, but when you sit in your modern new kitchen having a cuppa, remember your house is on their feeding grounds. Rosanna Bunting Spearwood
Perth Voice Interactive 