Perth Voice Interactive

HE used to be in charge of Australia’s navy, but now Stephen Smith will have to make do with being patron of Maylands yacht club.

The former Labor defence minister is taking over from 80-year-old club veteran Terry Gaunt, who is hanging up the whites after being patron for 29 years.

Despite having a long association with the club, Mr Smith concedes his sea legs need work. “My interest in sailing stops at the landline,” he laughs.

“But over the years, I’ve gone down to the club several times to watch Terry’s son sail and also in my capacity as the federal member.

“We live in Mt Lawley and my wife and I go for a walk along the river every day, where we often go past the yacht club and head back up towards East Perth.

“I’m a great fan of the club and of Terry and his family, so it is a great honour to be patron.”

Gaunt joined the club when he was 10. In the late 1940s and 1950s he won five national titles and 20 state sailing titles and came close to being selected for the Australian Olympic sailing team.

He is heavily involved with the Maylands historical society and was instrumental in converting the old Guildford Road police station into a heritage centre.

“The yacht club has around 120 members and there is lots of young kids coming for lessons, so we are in good shape,” Gaunt says.

“I guess the club was in its heyday in the 1970s when we had around 200 members, but these things go in cycles.

“One of my favourite boats was the old Vaucluse Junior, I won a lot of titles in that one in the ‘40s. Nowadays I have a 16ft Hartley Trailer.

“I think Stephen is a good fit for the club—he never went over the top like some politicians—and has been involved on and off with the club for decades.”

Smith and Gaunt’s son, Greg, went to the same local school and university together. They both studied law and went on to work at what is now Lavan Legal, before Smith left to pursue a career in London and ultimately in politics.

They are now both back at Lavan, where Gaunt is chair and Smith sits on the advisory board.

Smith, sporting longer hair and more casual attire, says he does not miss the cut and thrust of federal politics, nor the long hours in the air between Perth and Canberra.

“I’ve taken very well to being a private citizen,” he smiles.

“I do a number of things, but I don’t do anything I don’t enjoy.

“I am enjoying spending more time in Perth.”

As for his thoughts on whether Tony Abbott is doing a good job: “I’m not a political commentator anymore, mate.

“Go and ask Alannah.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

PERTH is bucking the gender trend when it comes to games development.

A recent survey by WA’s Film and Television Institute reveals 16 per cent of game developers in Perth are female.

Although small it’s more than the 10 per cent national and global average.

An enthusiastic group of games developers is getting ready for the annual Perth Games Festival in October.

Creedforge founder Beth Creed designs the 30mm miniatures used in tabletop wargaming.

She dropped out of her university physics course because of an immune deficiency and has now turned her craft-making hobby into a full-time profession.

“I use a magnifying glass to sculpt all the little details like belt buckles on tiny little figurines,” she says.

“I also make buildings, hills and terrain for the games.

“I spent thousands on equipment, including a furnace, and cast the figures in white metal and pressure cast resin.”

The 26-year-old is encouraged by the FTI report, but says she is still often the only woman to turn up to play at War Machine events.

The festival will be run by Let’s Make Games, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting the thriving gaming community in WA, and will include board, video and card games developers.

Festival director Anthony Sweet wants kids, grown ups and game lovers from all walks of life to be part of the free event.

“The first two festivals we’re more for developers, but now we’ve opened it up to players as well,” he says.

“The WA gaming community is recognised around the country, and even internationally as a really great healthy scene, and I want people to know this.
“I really want people to come and find out that being able to make games is something anyone can do these days.”

Mr Sweet adds budding game makers will have the opportunity to speak directly with people in the industry.

The festival will also include talks about how wannabe developers can get into the gaming industry, as well as information for parents about gaming

The Perth Games Festival will be held at Perth Town Hall on October 11 from 10.30am to 4pm.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

FAKE grass could be coming to Dorrien Gardens after the Perth Soccer Club announced plans to seek a $3 million grant from the WA sports and recreation department.

The club has already asked Vincent council for a $500,000 contribution for its three fields, but board member Jason Marochi concedes that’ll be tough given the council’s budget woes.

The council has instead listed $250,000 for consideration in the next budget.

Mr Marochi says clubs worldwide are moving to artificial turf because it can be used more often and costs little to maintain. The club also wants to upgrade lighting and clubrooms and move the club’s HQ back to Dorrien Gardens, which is owned by Vincent but leased at a peppercorn fee.

“This is the best path forward for our club to survive,” Mr Marochi says, adding the club pays high fees to use Maccabean oval in Yokine for its events.

In return, the club will move some events and training days off Forrest Park.

Acting mayor Ros Harley wants locked in to any deal a guarantee that locals are free to use the field when games aren’t playing. “I would like to see informal use for the community, genuine community participation so they feel like they own it,” she says.

Club president Gary Marochi says Vincent’s nod is vital if the government application is to have any hope. The club hopes to finish by March 2016.

by DAVID BELL

THE Wade Street Reserve will now be called Tự Do Park, Vietnamese for “Liberty” Park.

The park already hosts a sculpture sponsored by the Vietnamese community, thanking Australia for accepting refugees in the 1970s.

Vietnamese Community WA president Anh Nguyen says the community picked a name that is easy to pronounce and represents “the liberty of leaving the country and the brutality of the regime”. A plaque will explain the meaning to the curious.

About 1.5 million refugees fled Vietnam but only 1 million survived.

“A lot of people perished on the sea by pirates, big waves, the weather,” Dr Nguyen says.

He says his family was “lucky that we never saw any pirates” but his wife’s family lost members.

“It was horrible. If someone gave me a wooden boat, leaking on the sea, we would never do it again.”

The name change is supported by 79 per cent of locals. Vincent council supported it Tuesday night and now it’s off to the WA government’s geographic naming committee.

by DAVID BELL

AN iconic Tudor-style property in West Perth is in line to be demolished, making way for an eight-storey luxury apartment complex.

The house was built for prominent accountant, political fundraiser and tennis player James Sinclair McGibbon, who lived there until his death in 1943.

A long-time president of the Kings Park Tennis Club (which named its gates and a stand in his honour), Mr McGibbon was involved in the National Union which raised funds for “combating communist activity and industrial lawlessness,” according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

The proposed site for the six posh units (with three car bays each) means they’ll overlook the house of US consul-general Cynthia Griffin, who neighbours an eight-storey block on the other side.

Perth city council’s expert design advisory committee had a look over the plans and it didn’t sound too keen, with members unanimously expressing “concerns about the general design and aesthetic quality of the development, particularly given its prominent and prestigious location”.

The committee advised the facade is “aggressive” and would prefer “a well resolved, finely detailed, elegant building that utilises appropriate and high quality materials”.

Owner JM Eastwood was asked to liaise with the city’s architect to come up with something more schmick.

by DAVID BELL

LYNDON RODGERS’ badly damaged building on Beaufort Street is to be demolished.

Damage from siteworks vibrations next door is so bad the 1895 federation bungalow is considered “structurally unsound” and it “has no value to the streetscape”.

Mr Rodgers, a former Perth councillor, has been pursuing neighbour Steve de Mol for five years.

Unable to run his real estate business from the damaged building, he was forced to sell.

Vincent council approved the demolition but it won’t be allowed to proceed until plans for a new building are presented: the council is desperate to avoid having the block sit vacant for years.

New developer David Caddy from TPG asked if his client Peter Bacich could knock the place over right away, before a new plan’s been approved, saying vagrants keep sneaking in and the building’s been set on fire a few times, a threat to the cafe next door.

Mr Caddy says security keeps getting breached”.

Only Cr Josh Topelberg agreed to the request. He says if the vacant lot is managed properly “I’m sure we’d get a better outcome than a Colorbond fence and a dilapidated house that people keep setting fire to”.

The rest of the council stuck to its guns. Mayor John Carey, who’d initiated a plan to charge vacant blocks double rates, said he didn’t want a scenario where “you knock it down, development plans change, and we have a vacant block.

“We don’t want Beaufort Street to look like a graveyard because that’s an absolute killer for the city centre.”

Mr Caddy says plans for a four-storey mixed use building will go to council soon.

by DAVID BELL