IT’S the plan that’s been hovering around for a decade, but at long last there are serious moves to get a new CBD helipad on Riverside Drive.
Perth city council’s been wanting to get a new helipad to cater for high flyers ever since the old one was pulled off the foreshore 10 years ago.
There was a temporary one in East Perth but it had to go to make way for the state government’s Waterbank development.
The council wrestled with a previous plan for months but it fell in a heap last February when the state government refused to kick in funds.
At the time lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi said “I haven’t given up on this” and now a two-year trial for two helipads is back on the table, to be operated by private company Skyline Aviation.
It’ll have to meet a bunch of strict environmental requirements and safety issues (like stopping water spray making the nearby dual-use path slippery), and the noise impact will have to be lower than other states’ standards.
CHRISTMAS, Labour Day, and now the olive harvest is becoming an annual tradition.
The kids and P&C from North Perth primary will be out again ANZAC weekend collecting olives to make oil so they can fundraise for their school.
• Last year’s North Perth primary school olive drive provided a fine haul.
Previous efforts have helped buy much-needed playground equipment, pulling in nearly a tonne of fruit over the past couple of years.
If you’re in the North Perth area and want to volunteer your tree to be picked email s_hills@iinet.net.au, or you can volunteer as a picker on the 25th or 26th or just send in your own harvest on the day.
A SUNSET service will be held at the ANZAC Cottage in Mt Hawthorn.
Originally built as a memorial to those who died at the landing at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915 it now serves as a salient reminder of all Australian soldiers who’ve died in combat.
In February 1916, 4000 turned out to witness 200 workers construct the Mt Hawthorn cottage in one day.
At the time no soldier had been selected to live there: private John Porter was the lucky one.
• John Porter. Photo supplied
“He was wounded on the 25th of April, 1915 and he was in the 11th battalion, one of the first groups of soldiers to hit the beaches in the first wave,” says local historian Valerie Everett, a member of the Friends of ANZAC Cottage.
Twelve months later Porter was back in Perth, living in the small house.
Marjorie Williams, Porter’s daughter, was born in the cottage 94 years ago and is still going strong.
The property was handed to Vietnam veterans in the early 1990s and, through voluntary work and fundraising, they have painstakingly restored it.
The cottage will host a wreath-making workshop and educational talks on ANZAC Day.
Wasted money
WHY did the City of Bayswater spend $1.2 million of ratepayers’ money on the aborted local government reform (Voice, April 11, 2015)? I understand the council could have picked up a better tree-loving culture from the Town of Bassendean, but the reverse could also have been result. But what really gets me annoyed is the blatant spending of ratepayers’ money on party political advertising without any mandate from the ratepayers.
Was the spending an attempt by the mayor to keep his Liberal Party emperor happy? Greg Smith Rose Ave, Bayswater
Real change needed, not more symbols
MAYOR Sylvan Albert is right; the Aboriginal flag should not fly all year round inside and outside Bayswater council chambers. (“Flag-raisers”, Voice, March 28, 2015). We are one nation with one flag not two flags and unfortunately, the Aboriginal flag is as much divisive as it should be harmonising. Too many times over the years I have seen wavers of the Aboriginal flag burn the Australian flag.
I yearn for the day when we as Australians will move on from the call for repetitive symbolic gestures to real, practical reconciliation and equality.
A more appropriate call on the City of Bayswater would be to ask what is the city doing to “close the gap”. For instance, how many indigenous apprenticeships and traineeships does it offer? How many indigenous employees are on its books? What is the city doing to encourage indigenous youth to join locally funded sporting clubs?
The seventh “Closing the Gap” report released by the prime minister in February showed there were too many targets simply not being met or on track to be met.
I don’t doubt the goodwill of Ms Wheare and Mr Tomlins of the Maylands Ratepayers’ Association and local MPs but flying the Aboriginal flag inside or outside council chambers will not “close the gap”. Paul J Collins Meenaar Cres, Coolbinia
Miners have a giggle
“I’M not a dopey premier,” says Colin Barnett. Who is he trying to convince? In being reminded of who owns our resources and ports, the top-brass miners are most likely to have a giggle and call Barnett’s bluff. Otto Mustard Queens Cres, Mt Lawley
Commending Harley
I AM writing regarding the article in today’s West Australian newspaper regarding Cr Reece Harley (“Councillor in hot water for letter drop”). I have been a resident of the city of Perth for 15 years. In that time the only councillor who has made the effort to meet me and ask about my views on the city has been Reece Harley, who was actually door-knocking to meet residents.
I do not think I have met any other members of the council in that time. The idea that it is seen as reasonable councillors can use the city’s money to buy a new tie, but not to correspond with residents —their constituency—seems completely ridiculous.
Cr Harley should be commended for his efforts in communicating with residents, and I would hope that in future there should be no question as to whether this is a reasonable use of the council’s money. Dr Mike Kent Thomas St, West Perth
DELIBERATELY barren, witch and bitch were just some of the many arrows fired at Julia Gillard.
The vicious treatment of Australia’s first female prime minister in the national parliament and across the media exposed deep-seated gender discrimination in politics and the wider community, says composer Cat Hope.
Now she and seven female composers have set their feelings to music with After Julia: it’s a sonic perspective on the former Labor PM, performed by the Decibel New Music Ensemble.
“I noticed a change in the way [this] prime minister was treated,” Hope says.
Which got her thinking about her own workplace: “It made me question the ideas I had about Australia being very egalitarian and open.
“There are many women composers active in Australia, [but] very few…appear in concert programs.”
The North Perth local’s composition Tough it Out is named after what Ms Gillard said she did when negotiating obstacles to simply doing her job, “because there was so much noise and interference”.
The piece isn’t Labor versus Liberal, Hope says: “I was very keen for it to be about Julia and not her politics.”
She uses electronic music to convey a sense of frustration and discordance: “This concept of trying to continue doing something you have been trained to do, through all kinds of railroading, is used as a structural device.”
• Laura Lowther and Cat Hope get ready to belt out some sounds for After Julia. Photo by Matthew Dwyer
The world premiere in Sydney last year featured newly commissioned works by Australian female composers—Hope, Gail Priest, Thembi Soddell, Cathy Milliken, Micheala Davies, Andree Greenwell and Kate More. The Perth show adds an eighth, Yokine local Laura Lowther.
“My piece is loaded media quotes…it’s about the internet and clickbait and how it’s getting more extreme.”
(Clickbait is the term used for sensationalist online headlines designed to entice viewers to click to read more).
“[Clickbait], and intentionally misleading words, can lead to inaccurate assumptions about everything from local news to global events,” Lowther says.
Using electronic sounds heard around the office, the piece builds: “to a cacophony…that …agitates and comforts the audience, like elevator music made from the barrage of notification and computer sounds,” Lowther says.
Greenwell adds music to Hilary Bell’s Raining, which talks of “arrows with their poison tips” to convey Ms Gillard’s treatment and gender discrimination.
They draw no blood No bruises to show Death comes oh so slow… The toxic little shocks The thousand poisoned pricks The thousand vicious kicks Designed to remind you of your place… They fly and fall and find their mark.
After Julia, sponsored by Tura New Music, is on Monday April 20, 7.30pm at PICA, James Street Northbridge. Tix $25 at pica.org.au/buy
AN innovative Bayswater couple have transformed their verge into a vegie plot and want others to follow in their green footsteps.
Cameron Moir ran out of space in his Embleton duplex and decided to plant sweet potatoes, egg plant, tomatoes and kale in his 50sqm verge instead.
The vegie patch has gone down a storm with most of his neighbours and Mr Moir has started to experiment with corn, pumpkin and cucumber.
“Blocks are getting smaller and smaller, especially with subdivisions and infill, so I think we have to be creative and utilise as much garden space as we can,” he says.
“The practise is very common in the eastern states and in Bali, where locals grow sweet potatoes on the verge.
“If you select the correct vegetables the water usage is equivalent to having grass on the verge.”
Mr Moir says an immediate neighbour had complained to Bayswater city council, which asked him to clear a small section for easier access. It was the only negative comment he’d received.
• Cameron Moir (black/red shirt), Anna Sonogan and Mila with friends and neighbours Sayano Tanaka, Cr Chris Cornish, Kate Poll, Miho Tanade and Mace, Dali and Haro. Photo by Matthew Dwyer
The council does not have a formal policy on verge plots and Cr Chris Cornish wants guidelines developed to let people grow food on them.
“A great benefit of any vegie garden is that the produce is fresher and often less contaminated from chemicals—plus it’s free,” he says.
“I believe vegie gardens on verges will build interaction with neighbours and my vision is for produce to be swapped or gifted to neighbours.
“If the community embraces this opportunity it will really transform the Garden City slogan to a literal meaning.”
Cr Cornish is also pushing for sections of parks to be used as “edible gardens” by locals, and for a community garden to be established.
Mr Moir, 40, plans to experiment with other vegetables.
“My wife is due to give birth in a couple of months, but I’ll still make time for my vegie garden,” he laughs.
“Nobody’s ever stolen anything from the verge plot, so that is refreshing.
“In terms of the streetscape, I guess it might be a case of balancing greener-leafed vegetables with other ones that are not so easy on the eye.”
Last month, a law was passed in France stipulating that all new roofs must be covered with solar panels or plants.
THE Barnett government has told Bayswater it won’t refund any of the $1.2 million the council spent preparing for aborted mergers.
“The state government has already provided the sector with funding in the order of $1.7 million and any further funding will only be considered where councils agree to take the initiative themselves to successfully implement future reform,” WA local government minister Tony Simpson said.
Bayswater was one of the few municipalities that publicly backed amalgamations and was aghast when premier Colin Barnett pulled the plug after failing to win public support.
Last month Cr Mike Anderton warned that ratepayers could be slugged with a a 3.5 per cent rates rise if the council couldn’t recoup the $1.2 million it spent preparing for the changeover.
The council voted to spend up to $2000 on lawyers to get advice on whether it can sue the government for costs.
At that point, mayor Sylvan Albert had remained hopeful of a diplomatic solution.
“Legal action is a last resort,” the former Liberal state candidate for Maylands told councillors. “We should wait and see how we progress with the lobbying options first. We have spoken to several MPs.”
WALGA had offered to coordinate a legal action for several councils, but Cr Barry McKenna said Bayswater should go it alone.
“We were the only council that went along with the mergers,” he says.
“We can’t be accused of rolling over to the state government without asking questions.
“Otherwise, they might only compensate those governments who criticised them and made a political point.”
THE latest request by Meat Lovers Paradise to expand its premises in Yokine has been T-boned by Stirling city council.
The butcher has been trying unsuccessfully for four years to win council approval to expand its shop on Wanneroo Road.
Councillors voted unanimously to refuse Meat Lover’s latest application. The shop, between The Mighty Quinn and Cape Street, includes a large meat preparation and storage area.
In 2011 the council cited odour and waste disposal concerns, unsuitable car parking facilities and warehouse use as reasons for refusal.
• Meat Lovers Paradise in Yokine—expansion plan chopped.
The council had received 25 objections from locals during public consultation, relating to matters including smell and increased traffic. The Yokine butcher appealed the decision to the state administrative tribunal which upheld the rejection.
The Meat Lovers saga stretches back to 1999, when the then-planning minister granted approval for additions.
Perth Voice Interactive 