Perth Voice Interactive

A SEVENTY-FIVE year old mistake will soon be corrected with the statue of renowned WWI general and famous architect Talbot Hobbs to be returned to Perth city council.

For decades it had been assumed the statue of Sir Joseph John Talbot Hobbs on Riverside Drive was owned by the city, and so it spent tens of thousands over the years cleaning and maintaining it.

When work started on the Elizabeth Quay development a closer scrutiny of old documents found the half-million-dollar monument had belonged to Mainroads all along, a body not known for maintaining public art.

Back in 2013 lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi said it was “disrespectful” to leave Hobbs’ statue in the middle of the Elizabeth Quay construction site, surrounded by debris while heavy machinery whizzed by and coated it with dust.

Ignoring Ms Scaffidi’s pleas for a fast-tracked move it took the Barnett government four months to shift it to the supreme court gardens.

Given the PCC spends thousands maintaining it, it was keen to see ownership formally transferred. After 10 months of inter-governmental chinwag it looks like that will happen soon.

The statue was commissioned in 1939 and when on Riverside Drive faced one of Hobbs’ major commissions (the Weld Club) and was the receiving point for the ANZAC Day parade salute for decades.

by DAVID BELL

RESIDENTS have failed in their bid to turn Seventh Avenue into a dead-end street.

They’d campaigned for the change, fearful of extra traffic coming from the new bridge.

Bayswater city council rejected the 367-signature petition, voting instead to look at installing traffic-calming measures and parking an illuminated trailer that tells drivers how fast they’re going.

The new $9.3 million bridge replaces the rickety 1913 timber bridge, which had an eight-tonne limit, that carried 3500 vehicles a day.

Seventh Avenue Street Alliance member Dave Cockford says the Third Avenue bridge in Mount Lawley will be demolished as soon as the Seventh Avenue bridge is complete.

“Once that happens Seventh Avenue will become like a freeway,” he glumly predicts.

“Once a route is established in a driver’s mind they tend to stick with it.”

The Voice discovered umpteen signatures from people living outside Maylands on the petition, including one from Jakarta and another from Tribeca in New York City.

“The city will always make a careful examination of all the petitions it receives and will consider each petition on its merits,” mayor Sylvan Albert says, noting there’s no requirement for signatories to live within the city.

“The city welcomes all feedback from the community, regardless of whether this is coming from visitors of the area concerned or its residents.”

Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker held a street-corner meeting with residents before Christmas and supports traffic-calming.

The replacement bridge will span more than 80 metres and include footpaths, accommodation for four rail lines, bridge guard rails and increased capacity.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

WELL, that was quick: it’s not even finished yet but some numpty’s already driven into the new Seventh Avenue bridge.

The folks from the Maylands Residents and Ratepayers’ Association spotted (and heard) the bridge boop on Friday morning, when a cherry picker challenged the 4.7m clearance sign with a partially raised arm.

The ablative sign took the brunt of the impact with the concrete underside getting a scouring too.

Boneheads running into the bridge is a tradition carried over from the old bridge that stood for more than a century.

by DAVID BELL

“TICK to agree to terms and conditions”. Most of us could be signing away our first-born child to Apple or Facebook because we rarely, if ever, read the tedious reams of text.

According to a 2011 UK survey a mere seven per cent of people can be bothered, with 58 per cent saying they’d rather read an instruction manual—or their power bill, and 12 per cent thought the phone book was a best-seller in comparison.

It’s an idea that intrigued dancer and choreographer Isabella Stone, who, after a coffee-cup discussion with fellow dancer Ella-Rose Trew, got to thinking about how that thinking relates to relationships—whether friends, family or lovers.

“We wondered how often we do the same thing socially, how we just jump into things without asking questions or ‘reading the fine print’.

“You meet people for the first time and you don’t research their background,” Stone says.

“In a few months, maybe a few years things unravel and you realise there are things in the relationship you haven’t agreed to at the time.”

Mouseprint (at the State Theatre) is the North Perth local’s first major work, and the 26-year-old set herself the somewhat daunting task of dealing with complex human emotions through dance.

“[Exploring] the concept of words left unsaid, the tiny changes to agreements we enter into and the constantly shifting dynamics of everyday human relationships.”

Stone tells the Voice the “story” resonates for her in every movement, of the dancers (Trew, Storm Helmore and Jenni Large): “It’s up to me to present the work and see if other people see it too.”

Performed in the State Theatre courtyard the setting is the pared back atmosphere Stone needed to allow the dance to carry the message.

“It has a cooler texture and is minimal and can feel bare and open.”

Repetition lulls the audience into thinking they know what’s coming: “Something you think you know really well will suddenly break and will be quite intense.”

Lighting is by Chris Donnelly and sound by  Brett Smith (winner of best dance at Fringe World 2013).

Mouseprint is on at the State Theatre, April 15–18. Tix $28 at eventopia.com/mouseprint

by JENNY D’ANGER

VINCENT city council is preparing to sell the old Angove Street police station, expecting more than $1.7million to help cover last year’s budget bungle.

The council bought the building from the cops back in 2009 after a proposal from Multicultural Inc to put in a wellness centre.

It was purchased at auction for $1.725m, but soon afterwards the Multicultural Inc folk said it was no good as its bus wouldn’t fit. It was leased out to mental health organisation Grow WA for four years.

Murmurs about selling part of it have been floating around for months, but the budget snafu means the whole site will be put up for sale.

Mayor John Carey says “in future if the City of Vincent needs to buy property for a purpose, that should be closely scrutinised: “It is a serious decision for any council to purchase a building… and in this case the City of Vincent bought a building that wasn’t fit for the purpose.”

by DAVID BELL

ARE you into men with fat bellies and bald heads?

If the answer is yes, make sure you check out the buddha weekend at Langley Park on April 18 and 19.

The event celebrates the birth of the founder of buddhism, Sakyamuni Buddha, and includes tai chi and meditation sessions, fireworks and a baby blessing ceremony.

“This is an excellent opportunity to experience and learn about the teachings of Buddha,” says event organiser Grace Collins.

“Even for those who are not into religion, we encourage them to come and enjoy the multicultural entertainment and vegetarian food and simply have a fun day out with the family.”

The event is part of the buddha’s birthday and multicultural festival 2015.

It is organised by Buddha’s Light International Association and the Fo Guang Shan Temple in Maylands.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

TINA ASKAM will take residents on a scratch and sniff tour of Maylands as part of her walking exhibition—here’s hoping it won’t include an off-the-leash dog park.

The exhibition is the culmination of two years’ research by Askam, a PhD candidate, which involved 50 walks with locals, aged eight to 80, through the suburban heart of Maylands.

The Edith Cowan Uni student is researching whether there are tangible benefits to officials and property developers walking with residents before making decisions that affect the community.

The exhibition will be held in the old Maylands Police Station on Guildford Road and include guided tours of Maylands with Ms Aksam.

“On the walks you can discover important places that would have been lost to the bulldozers were it not for the action of Maylands residents; how ancient trees or a bumpy old bridge can make people feel connected to their neighbourhood; and you’ll even get an opportunity to complain about traffic and bad parking,” she says.

The exhibition, to be held in the first weekend of May, coincides with Jane’s Walks, an international movement of free citizen-led walking tours, which will be take place in thousands of suburbs and cities across six continents, from Toronto to Mumbai.

Ms Askam says she led a Jane’s Walk tour in Maylands in 2013.

“Not only did 32 people turn up, but they brought along two bikes, a pram, three dogs and a cockatoo,” she laughs.

“It was great fun and I had people asking me to do the walk again.

“One of the walks, titled ‘Scratch and sniff Maylands: a feast for the senses’, highlights the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Maylands,

“If you scratch a little bit below the surface you discover the many interesting things that make Maylands unique, which are easy to miss when you’re speeding by in a car”.

The walks are named after Jane Jacobs, an urbanist who held a strong belief that people were the experts of the places they worked, lived and played.

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because and only when, they are created by everybody” wrote Ms Jacobs in The Life and Death of American Cities.

Some 1013 Jane’s Walks took place in 2014 with more than 20,00 participants.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK