Perth Voice Interactive

A HISTORY-RIDDLED grand house in West Perth once owned by a Perth beer baron is likely bound for the bulldozer, to be replaced with an eight-level, 21-apartment block.

The house at 37 Mount Street was once owned by bearded brewery bigwig Thomas Wall Hardwick, born 1834 in Somersetshire who arrived in the colony in 1885. He was elected to Perth council in 1900, but was most famous for saving the Swan Brewery Company.

New brew

Two years after Swan Brewery and Lion Brewery merged in 1887, the company was circling the drain so headhunters tracked down Hardwick, who had a knack at turning around crappy businesses, and lured him over with a massive wage (equal to about $5000 a week today).

Hardwick waded in and found sloppy management to blame: with him at the helm the brewery produced a new brew in 1891 and business started to boom.

He died aged 84, and his funeral cortege moved from 37 Mount Street to Karrakatta Cemetery where he was interred in the Church of England section.

Fifteen years ago the building was identified as having “some significance” and city staff wanted to put it on the heritage list, but councillors knocked that back.

Now new owner Barry Baltinas says the place is structurally unsound and he wants to put up the eight-storey apartment block.

He’s won support from the Perth city council’s design advisory committee (a group of experts who say whether buildings look good), but still needs approval from the full council before he can go ahead.

by DAVID BELL

BAYSWATER city council is set to lift its ban on political advertising on bus stops and street benches.

In 2012 the council voted to ban all political ads on community infrastructure outside the period when election writs are issued.

With council elections looming on October 17, council officers have advised the ban won’t hold up in court and contravenes WA local government association guidelines.

“Such constraints may be deemed to infringe the implied freedom of political communication and be considered invalid,” officers wrote.

Mayor’s support

Officers also advised the council to permit political signage on private land within 28 days of an election, subject to council approval.

Mayor Sylvan Albert — who is up for re-election and was affected by the ban while contesting Maylands for the state Liberals in 2013— supports the lifting of the embargo.

“The ban shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” he says. “We are now consistent with every other council in WA.”

Cr Mike Anderton, who is re-contesting his north ward seat, echoes the sentiment.

“I don’t have a problem with it, as long as it’s within in the guidelines,” he says. “I will be advertising my campaign on coffee cups sold by a cafe in Noranda Shopping Centre.

“I have had that approved.”

In 2013, the Liberals won an injunction against the Armadale council which had demanded that Liberal candidates remove unauthorised political signs from private property in the lead-up to the state election.

The decision cast doubt over the legality of moves by several WA councils to ban political ads; even those on public infrastructure via third party advertisers.

The Liberals’ 2013 election campaign irked several councils unhappy with hot air balloons, bench ads and other big signs littering their municipalities.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

TWO giant giraffes are bound for Eighth Avenue in Maylands.

Bayswater city council has commissioned artist Anya Brock—renowned her for bold and colourful animal art—to paint the mural at 34 Eighth Avenue.

“The giraffes were selected by the developer because of the shape of the building: tall and narrow,” says mayor Sylvan Albert.

“Once the project is finished, the giraffe heads and necks will peer from the side of the building and look down at Eighth Avenue and the train station, which will be a unique feature to the streetscape.”

The artwork is part of Bayswater’s per cent for public art policy.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

PERTH city council’s elected members and senior executives will receive thousands of dollars’ worth of free tickets after voting this week to spend ratepayers’ funds sponsoring WA Ballet for $55,000, the 40under40 awards for $20,000 and the WA music industry association festival for $40,000.

Lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi didn’t seem best pleased when Cr Reece Harley raised queries about some of the freebies, saying it would be sad if he or “mayors you know in neighbouring areas are going to be spooked by all the current need to talk about putting fear into those who might attend shows or accept invitations”.

Cr Harley said “I’m strongly supportive of the funding for WA ballet, they do a brilliant job,” but added he was “concerned” by a couple of things. He pointed out 54 tickets were to be reserved for elected members and 60 for the director and CEO to hand out. As part of the sponsorship deal council staff also get a 15 per cent discount on tickets.

“I just have a sense that it’s a bit over the top, it’s more than we’d usually have in an item like this and I think it’s unnecessary,” Cr Harley said.

He asked CEO Gary Stevenson if it was normal for council staff to receive discounts for sponsorship.

Mr Stevenson said it wasn’t strange and was really just a way for the ballet to market to get council staff to fill seats.

Ms Scaffidi used to sit on the WA Ballet board and told the meeting “I can tell you selling ballet tickets isn’t one of the easiest things in life. Fifteen per cent is a negligible discount — you’d get 25 per cent in any retail store”.

She said councillors should be getting out there and connecting with people to see what the city needs.

We asked Ms Scaffidi if she was referring to Vincent mayor John Carey in her comment about “mayors you know in neighbouring areas”, as he’d recently been pushing for more transparency in local government, especially around gifts and there’s been friction between them in the past. But she claimed it was only aimed at Cr Harley.

She told us, “as a councillor who regularly enjoys free attendance at many events while on council including access to any performance of choice at the concert hall and a wide variety of other events in the line of duty, it was strongly felt by all colleagues his comments seemed incongruous and that was my point in responding/speaking to him”.

“But I’m more curious to know why he has an issue with staff being able to purchase tickets? The discount is not extraordinary and is probably a discount any social group or interested group booking could possibly access.”

Cr Harley had earlier said he supported the ballet.

by DAVID BELL

PHOTOGRAPHER Russ Chambers spotted some flamboyant tiny spiders hiding in Noranda’s Lightning Swamp.

The peacock spiders are only 4mm long and he first spotted them a few years back but they’re hard to photograph without a big honking lens.

The little male critters have colourful behinds that they spread out like a fan and wiggle around in an extravagant mating dance hoping to mesmerise the ladies.

“We go out in the bush a fair bit, so most weekends we’re out somewhere, and you just notice them,” he says.

“They never sit the way you want them to! There’s a lot of time spent on your belly waiting for them to move into the right position.

“You get covered in ticks, so it’s a bit of a labour of love really.”

The local species of the critters is called maratus clupeatus and was only named a couple years back. They’re mostly around the Gnangara water mound area but could be more widespread.

If you go looking for them in Lightning Swamp, Mr Chambers advises “they like a sunny, sandy position and like to move amongst sticks and leaves, somewhere they can look down and jump on prey”.

by DAVID BELL

AROUND 700 people attended a CBD rally at the weekend calling for full marriage rights for LGBTI people in Australia.

Ms Farida Iqbal, who co-chaired the rally, says it was one of the biggest turnouts they have had on the issue.

“This is a clear message to the federal government that people want marriage equality for everyone in Australia, not just same-sex, but inter-sex and transgender as well,” she says.

This week Tony Abbott said ministers and parliamentary secretaries who voted for Liberal backbencher Warren Entsch’s cross-party private member’s bill to legalise same-sex marriage would be demoted.

“If the Liberal party politicians really do have a conscience, they should cross the floor,” says Ms Iqbal.

“And Equal Love WA is against the conscience vote: we think the Labor party shouldn’t allow its members to vote for a bigoted position and should bind its members together.”

Mr Abbott has flagged that if he wins the next election he’ll put the issue to a plebiscite (unlike a referendum, governments are not compelled to adopt the outcome). Labor says the plebiscite could cost more than $100 million: if it wins the election it has committed to introducing a marriage equality bill within 100 days.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK