Perth Voice Interactive

BAYSWATER Waves is reopening in full following $11.6 million in refurbishment and upgrades, with a pool party to mark the occasion on February 17.

The centre gets 750,000 visits a year and the popularity took its toll over the years. Last year Bayswater council embarked on extensive staged works including refurbish the main attraction, the wave pool, revamp the slide, retiling the lazy river and toddler pool, accessibility upgrades, and expanding the fitness facilities.

The reopening runs 10am to 4pm, and standard entry fees apply but there’ll be some party bonuses like a DJ, inflatable climbing wall, face painting and such. 

WACA board member Paul Collins has been returned to his usual board duties, but with no concession from the WACA that his two-month “suspension” has been retracted. 

Mr Collins received a letter from the WACA on January 4 which he says “purported to provide a no

tice of suspension of both my membership of the WACA and my position as a director of the board of the WACA” (Voice, January 20, 2024).

He says it followed an investigation into his public critiques of the direction the WACA development was taking, including the decision not to include urinals in the men’s toilets as an equality measure.

A split board had voted in favour on the suspension. The WACA board is made up of appointed members and member-elected members like Mr Collins, and there’ve been a few tiffs in recent years.

The WACA brass has been reluctant to weigh in while a legal challenge is pending: The only reason for sending the notice we’ve been able to get out of the WACA was that it came about “following an investigation into his behaviour”. There was no further detail on what behaviour that was in their response to us last month, beyond a denial that the notice related to Mr Collins’ public critiques. 

Mr Collins describes it as a “purported suspension” as he said he received legal advice that the suspension is illegitimate, and he quickly prepared a legal challenge.

A gofundme started on January 22 to bankroll the legal fight currently sits at $7,831.

Mr Collins has been reserved about speaking publicly while the legal action is brewing, but this week he issued an update via his public social media page saying that he is back attending board meetings.

“On Thursday, 25 January 2024, a letter was sent to all directors informing them of my legal grounds of review and the reasons why the purported suspension issued on 4 January 2024 was invalid,” Mr Collins wrote this week.

Later “that same night I received a reply from WACA’s solicitors, a notice of meeting inviting me to attend the 30 January board meeting and a copy of the board papers.”

He also noted his director photo and profile, which had been taken off the WACA website in January, had now been restored.

Mr Collins told the Voice he’s now attended two board meetings as usual. 

While still refraining from delving into the legal details, Mr Collins told us he issued the public statement “out of frustration” that media outlets were still referring to him as “suspended”, which he says was an invalid claim – as now evidenced by him continuing to attend board meetings. 

No letter from the WACA lifting the “suspension” of his membership has been issued, and Mr Collins is seeking “a timely corrective statement to be issued to members, inclusive of an apology to me”.

“If this matter cannot be resolved then I am entitled to protect my legal rights and interests and seek appropriate remedies from a court”.

Mr Collins said he’ll donate any unused gofundme money to the Lord’s Taverners Association WA, which helps young cricketers facing inequality to play the game.

by DAVID BELL

THE 40kmh speed trial along Inglewood’s stretch of Beaufort Street has been deemed a success by Stirling council’s traffic watchers, with crash rates halving compared to the 60kmh era.

For years many locals and business owners had been calling for a slow-down along that strip of Beaufort between Central Avenue and Crawford Ave (“Beaufort Street petition,” Voice, May 6, 2017).

Stirling council started the two-year trial in mid-2021, installing variable speed signs and fiddling with the applicable times of day a few times before settling on 40kmh between 7.30am and 10pm.

The data from the first full year in 2022 is now back and it looks to have been a success: The “85th percentile speed” – the traffic industry’s standard measure of the speed that 85 per cent of vehicles are travelling below – has dropped from 50.9km/h to 45.7km/h. 

A 5km drop is a pretty big win, even if many drivers are still going above the limit. Attempts to drop Vincent’s residential speed limit to 40kmh only resulted in an average 1kmh drop in speed (“Trial cuts speeds by 1km,” Voice, February 25, 2023).

And while that stretch had averaged 44 crashes a year when it was 60kmh, it clocked in 23 in the first full year of the trial. Crashes causing serious injuries dropped from an average of eight a year to just one. 

A Stirling staff report to councillors concedes it’s tricky to definitively place all these effects at the feet of the trial. Beaufort Street also saw a 15 per cent drop of traffic in the two years since the trial started. That may have been people avoiding the slower route, or it may have been people returning to using public transport and about a 25 per cent increase in public transport patronage. 

Many residents living on Beaufort’s side roads had opposed the trial, fearing a slowdown on the main street would see more cars navigating through their residential streets as a shortcut (“Inglewood in the slow lane,” Voice, February 8, 2020).

Their fears partly were borne out, with some streets getting 15 to 20 per cent more traffic. But even the busiest side street only hit 310 vehicles per day, still far below the recommended maximums for quiet residential roads. 

Stirling councillors are due to vote on whether to make the trial permanent at their February 13 meeting.

by DAVID BELL

A SCIENTIST at the cutting edge of the global fight against the polyphagous shot-hole borer says there’s little hope of halting the invasion with current treatments being trialled.

Francois Roets is a professor in the department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology at Stellanbosch University in South Africa.

The invasive borer was first discovered in South Africa in 2017, where it has been preying on many of the same tree species as those being lost  in Perth, including London planes, oaks, and maples. 

Originally from south-east Asia, it tunnels into trees and cultivates fungus for food, and the fungus eventually blocks the tree’s flow of nutrients. Many trees die, and dead trees become especially potent launchpads for further spread.

A range of treatments have been tried in California and South Africa, testing a variety of trees and finding low-to-middling results.

Professor Roets recently co-authored a paper in the Journal of Plant Pathology that trialled four of the more promising chemical treatments on liquid amber trees, which is one of the species susceptible to becoming a reproductive host and spreading the infection. 

Two types of chemicals were sprayed on trunks, and two types were injected.

“Unfortunately, there is not much one can do it seems,” Prof Roets tells us via email.

The beetles repeatedly attack a target tree, sometimes making many failed attempts before a colony gets established. 

“On this tree species, one can reduce infestations a bit, and buy some time, but cannot get rid of the problem,” he says. 

One of the injected chemicals they trialled, emamectin benzoate, is the same substance being used in a test in Hyde Park conducted by the WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development. Emamectin benzoate has been used to treat food crops in Australia and is considered safe by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, as long as enough time has been passed between treatment and consumption. A two-year emergency use permit was signed in March 2023 to allow DPIRD to use the substance on “high value trees and shrubs” in WA to allow the trials to take place. 

Trials

Emamectin has seen some success in sycamore trees in California, but it’s unlikely to be a panacea for all tree species. In the liquid amber experiments in South Africa, emamectin reduced the success rate of colonisation attempts, but across multiple attempts the bugs eventually got a foothold.

The more promising surface spray treatments in their study reduced the number of colonisation attempts, but still could not eradicate the borer altogether. Surface spray treatments also lead to more environmental exposure compared to the direct-injections like emamectin. 

Prof Roets cautions that there is another factor limiting the practical use of these treatments: Their trials took place on an estate, not a city, and so they were able to use higher doses.

“It must be mentioned that we used quite high concentrations of chemicals that would likely not be permitted under normal conditions in urban settings,” Prof Roets says.

“Also, some of these chemicals are likely to be banned here in SA in the near future.”

by DAVID BELL

RENAMING Banks Reserve to the Noongar name “Warndoolier” has won strong support from the public.

Vincent council’s consultation late last year saw 276 people respond, with 154 submissions in favour of Warndoolier, 62 supporting a dual naming of Wardnoolier/Banks Reserve, and 55 opposed to changing the name.

The park runs along the Mount Lawley foreshore and was named for former Perth councillor Ronald Frederick Banks in 1963.

Warndoolier

“Warndoolier” (also spelled Warndulier in some sources) is the name preferred by Vincent’s Boordiya Reference Group elders who advise the council.

Warndoolier doesn’t have an exact translation and the constituent words can have a variety of meanings. Whadjuk Noongar elder Len Collard advised the council that ‘warn’/’wana’ is a digging stick, ‘dool’ is a spirit or misty fog, and ‘doolya’ is big leaves. The name could refer to a place related to the spirit of women, or a place where spirit mist dwells. 

While Vincent has adopted a few dual-namings around town, asking the public about a sole Noongar name was suggested by former mayor Emma Cole.

Ronald Frederick Banks’ descendants were asked to comment on the name change, and some called for his name to be retained alongside the Noongar dual-name.

Vincent councillors considered the feedback on the name change at this week’s council briefing. 

Cr Ron Alexander raised a concern the number submissions in favour of the change were a small drop in the bucket compared to the 38,000-odd Vincent residents. 

“258 surveys were done, and in Vincent we’ve got over 38,000 residents,” Cr Alexander said.

“I just have some problem with very few people commenting, and us making the change… I’m certainly supportive of maintaining Aboriginal heritage, but when we look at this one, Warndoolier seems a very doubtful name in the end.”

The location referred to by Warndoolier differs from source to source, maybe partly due to colonists’ misunderstandings when recording the names. 

A newspaper article from 1833 describes Warndoolier broadly as “the northern, or main branch of the river”. 

Twisting path

Other accounts describe Warndoolier as being the whole of the river’s bend encompassing the Burswood Peninsula, of which Banks Reserve is a small segment. The bend is significant as it’s said to be a mark of the twisting path of the sacred Wagyl water snake.

Vincent CEO David MacLennan said the proposal, which was advertised in the Voice, council’s website, social media, and signs in the reserve, actually got a comparatively high number of responses for a council issue.

“That might be in the top five or 10 responses we’ve had in the past 12 months,” Mr MacLennan said.

Mayor Alison Xamon said plans were underway to boost their community engagement response rates in general, with discussions to occur shortly.

At their February 13 meeting Vincent councillors will decide whether to heed the 154 submissions and go ahead and endorse the name, which would go to Landgate for a final decision.

“It is time we acknowledge the history of our spaces, and pay respects to this history pre-colonisation. My family has lived at the border of Banks reserve since 1946. We have experienced the changes in the parkland area over the years, I grew up swinging under those big trees, as did my own children. Change the name so as a community we can acknowledge the past and start learning more about the history of the area.”

“A dual name will be tokenism and no one will use the Aboriginal name. A complete name change recognises the long history of the location and its importance to the Noongar peoples as well as its continuing importance.”

Some submissions supporting a Warndoolier/Banks Reserve dual-naming:

“The Historical journey aims to provide a comprehensive representation of its entirety, avoiding the omission of critical parts in the greater story by isolating it to only one segment. Therefore, adopting a joint name is the most practical and common sense way forward.”

“This is a needless change and tone deaf in light of the referendum result. People are not interested in this pandering and your time, money and attention are better spent elsewhere.”

by DAVID BELL