Perth Voice Interactive

URBAN planner David Doy has been brought in by Vincent council to spruce up town centres.

A veteran of the Beaufort Street Network he has been taken on in the newly created role of “place manager” to work with groups like the Network, Leederville Connect, Mt Hawthorn Hub and the yet-to-be-named North Perth group.

In the broad-ranging role he’ll handle public art, place branding, help town groups create websites and social media, work with landlords to fill empty properties and work on events.

Mr Doy also aims to strengthen the town centre groups so they’ll still be able to represent their areas if mergers go ahead. He says the areas’ identities may be threatened in a bigger council if they don’t have strong locals standing up for them and making their aims clear.

A big challenge is getting solid structures into place for the groups: a lesson learned from the Beaufort Street Network is some volunteers worked too hard and ran out of steam trying to do everything.

Mr Doy wants to “set it up so you have enough people and it’s organised so everyone knows their role in the town centre group… so they don’t burn out”.

He’s also aiming to help the groups help themselves: recently on Beaufort Street “someone said ‘why hasn’t council cleaned the footpath?’”

He says “it’s clear the city doesn’t have the resources” to keep every footpath gleaming so business owners got together for a busy bee and took the job into their own Ansell-gloved hands.

Mr Doy says there’s good evidence of the effect place managers have around Australia, from work done on the once-trouble haunted Northbridge piazza and cultural centre, to the international fame of Melbourne’s Brunswick Street.

A second place manager will be brought in shortly.

by DAVID BELL

A MILITARY radio found on a verge by a Mt Lawley schoolboy in 1981 is being donated to the WA army museum, after years of gathering dust in a garage.

An eight-year-old Cameron Wilkie was cycling home from Mt Lawley primary school when he spotted the military radio, mess pan and green soldier’s jacket lying on the verge in Woodroyd Street.

Cameron quickly nabbed the accoutrements and bombed home on his bike.

His mum Jan remembers her young son bursting through the front door.

“He ran in saying he had found a uniform with bullet holes in it,” she laughs.

“But it was actually just eaten by moths.

“If was quite funny, he used to wear the jacket when he was playing outside with his friends.”

Jan thinks the military items were put on the verge by Adele Davidson, during a clean-out after her war-veteran husband died.

The jacket ended up becoming a blanket for the Wilkies’ dog, but they kept the radio and Cameron took it with him to his house in Wembley when he grew up and moved out.

Retired colonel Rod Willox, a veteran Stirling city councillor, says the hi-frequency radio is a WSA510, designed and built in Australia and put into service in 1956.

The radio was deliberately designed to look like basic pouches—transmitter in one and receiver in the other—so the operator would not stand out as the signaller and be a target for snipers.

Its horizontal wire antenna could be slung between tree tops and had a range of up to 3000km.

Cr Willox says he used the model when seconded to then-New Guinea with the Australian infantry core in the 1960s.

“The radio bounced its signal off the ionosphere, which meant you didn’t need a clear line of sight to communicate,” he recalls.

“I remember using them in the jungles in New Guinea to communicate with the SAS on an oval in Swanbourne.

“That doesn’t seem very impressive nowadays with mobile phones, but back then it was pretty amazing.”

Cr Willox added the innovative Australian-designed radio was a great success and was purchased by British and New Zealand forces.

Cameron, now 41 with two sons and two daughters, says he wants other people to enjoy the radio.

“I saw the look on my boys’ faces when I showed them the radio and wanted more people to experience that feeling,” he says.

“It will be well looked after in the museum and enjoyed by lots of different people.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

PERTH is Australia’s most expensive city for commuting by car says a planning thinktank.

Committee for Perth’s latest research reveals that if you live 5km from the CBD and drive to work it costs you $9180 per year, while a 25km commute from Joondalup shoots it to $22,306.

“The comparable average figures for the other Australian capital cities are $7432 and $14,369, so we’re paying between $1748 and almost $8000 each year more than it’s costing other capital city commuters,” says committee CEO Marion Fulker.

“Part of this cost is because of Perth’s relatively high parking fees caused by a shortage of bays in the CBD.

“But if you’re living 25km from the CBD, you’re spending up to $1900 a month on petrol, parking, car registration, insurance and maintenance, which isn’t much less than the average monthly mortgage repayment of $2000.”

The thinktanks’ report—cost of living, what is your commute costing you?—also reveals:

• choosing a small car over an SUV can save you $1500 a year;

• ditching your second car can save you up to $20,000 per year;

• commuting by public transport can save you $10,000 a year.

“There are 540,000 full-time workers in Perth and 84 per cent of them use their car to get to work,” Ms Fulker says.

“If we can get 20 per cent more of them to use public transport it could save Perth households more than $600 million in travel costs, which would be a huge shot in the arm for the local economy.

“Getting more people onto public transport would also reduce congestion, which by 2020 will be costing Perth $2.1 billion every year.

“To put that figure into perspective, the Perth to Mandurah rail cost $1.66b to build and the MAX light rail is estimated to be $1.88b.

“Both of those figures are less than the congestion cost, so the question is not ‘can we afford to invest in public transport’ but ‘can we afford not to’.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

THE empty corner shop that used to house part of Planet Video is to be occupied by Mexican chain Guzman y Gomez.

Guzman y Gomez has 40 stores across Australia and the Beaufort Street branch is now applying for a liquor licence arguing it’s a “low risk restaurant operation”.

It marks the same old story on Beaufort Street, with another retailer being replaced by an eatery. The street is abuzz during the evening when bars are filled, but struggles during the day. That said, the place was empty for two years so wannabe retailers had plenty of time to put in a bid.

Bodkins Bootery was replaced by an icecream chain and Allure Furniture is in the midst of transforming into a cafe.

It’s a crowded Mexican market that Guzman y Gomez is hoping to break into, with Beaufort Street already boasting el Publico, Pancho’s Mexican Villa, Salsa’s Mexican Grill and Zambrero.

by DAVID BELL

A ROGUE Irish wolfhound is stalking the streets of North Perth.

The giant pooch keeps escaping from its Claverton Street yard and has been known to attack other dogs. Once it jumped from a moving car to go another dog walking on the footpath.

One neighbour says he came home once to find the wolfhound in his yard playing with his dog: it had jumped its own fences.

The colossus hasn’t displayed aggression towards people but its escapades have been going on for a year with plenty of complaints to Vincent council.

Acting CEO Mike Rootsey says the owner was fined $100 after the dog wandered into a business premises “without consent”. Rangers impounded it.

He says rangers checked on it again this week to make sure the pooch was in its yard and they’ll keep an eye on the area in case it goes roaming again.

Irish wolfhounds weigh up to 70kg and stretch taller than 2m when standing on their hind legs. They’re usually friendly around children and modern breeds are much gentler than their war-dog origins, but their historical motto is “gentle when stroked, fierce when provoked”.

by DAVID BELL

THE 1899 Boer War was the first conflict where a WA soldier was awarded a Victoria Cross.

It was also the first war fought by the Australian commonwealth: 20,000 Australians served in the southern African conflict and 1000 died (many from disease).

Despite these arresting facts, the Boer War has become Australia’s “forgotten war”, its anniversary languishing under the shadows of Anzac Day and Remembrance Day.

The WA Boer War memorial association wants to address this imbalance, and is lobbying for a national memorial.

“Canberra is the only Australian capital without a Boer memorial, and yet it does have a memorial to the Spanish civil war,” says historian and association member John Sweetman.

“No-one in the state or federal government wants to pay for it.

“The Boer War was the first operation of the Australian Army—it deserves national recognition.”

Following the outbreak of hostilities between British forces and Afrikaaners in 1899, the WA government raised six mounted infantry contingents to fight alongside British troops.

Five mounted contingents sailed from Fremantle and the 1st infantry from Albany.

The battle of West Australian Hill, fought on February 9 in 1900, was the first conflict involving Western Australians in South Africa.

Of the 1000 Australian solders who died in the Boer War, 40 were from WA.

Mr Sweetman argues the war has been overlooked because of the relatively low number of casualties compared to WWI and WWII, not because of ethical qualms the Australian public may have had over the young country’s involvement. The British empire—fighting the Boers to secure land rich in gold—created some of the world’s first concentration camps there in 1900. Of the 42,000 who died in the camps, more than 22,000 were Boer children under 16.

Since 2010 the BWA has held an annual service  at the South African war memorial in Kings Park, commemorating the signing of the Anglo-Boer peace treaty which paved the way for eventual Afrikaans independence.

Last year’s commemoration and reconciliation service was attended by around 150, including South Africans, Australians and Brits.

Representatives from each community laid a wreath, including one placed by by a Boer woman and child in period costume.

“This service is all about reconciliation and peace,” Sweetman says. “Communities representing all sides attend. I hope that we get a national memorial to acknowledge this forgotten war.”

This year’s Boer War memorial will be held June 1 in Kings Park.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

FORMER Vincent CEO John Giorgi says elected councillors need more training so they stop making decisions that are open to appeal to the unelected but powerful state administrative tribunal.

Mr Giorgi told the West Australian newspaper that councillors don’t understand their roles, particularly on planning matters: “You can be [an ordinary person] on the street today and get elected tomorrow and you’re expected to make multi-million dollar development decisions without any training whatsoever and that’s wrong,” he said.

However, one appeal before the SAT is a decision Mr Giorgi personally intervened in. Mark Burns—a Subiaco councillor—applied to open a gym in North Perth next to the busy Bikram Yoga and planning staff recommended approval, saying it complied.

But then-CEO Mr Giorgi scrubbed out the recommendation line by line, and advised the council to reject the application.

“I have 30 years of planning experience, both here and in the US, and when the agenda came out and I saw the CEO had lined through the recommendation from the planning department I was personally shocked,” Cr Burns said at the time. “I had never seen anything like that in all my days. This has turned into a political matter. Our application, as proven by a town planner in this now-crossed out recommendation of approval, is fully compliant.”

Vincent Mayor John Carey says he’ll encourage more training but notes “the council reflects the aspirations of the community”. He also points out current training was developed by Mr Giorgi. Councillors must abide by the planning scheme in their decisions but even these can be appealed to the SAT: decisions don’t have to be faulty to be successfully appealed.

by DAVID BELL

BAYSWATER city council is committed to its Mertome retirement village and has “no intention” of selling it, says mayor Sylvan Albert.

Cr Terry Kenyon put the cat amongst the pigeons at last month’s council meeting when he asked that the “residents of Mertome be given an urgent meeting with council to be informed if they are going to be sold off or be given a commitment from this council to their future tenature of the village”.

The Winifred Road home was established in 1972 and accommodates 213 people in 200 units.

It was the first of its kind to be constructed by a council and pioneered councils’ involvement in aged care. Many are now getting out of it.

In June 2006 the council entered into an agreement with Juniper—formerly Uniting Church Homes—to operate its retirement villages, including Mertome, and its residential aged care facilities.

Perplexed

Cr Albert says he was perplexed by Cr Kenyon’s motion, as he had just met with Mertome residents on March 24 to assure them the council would not sell the village.

He says he also updated them on plans for the site and agreed to to hold more regular meetings.

“I don’t know where this is all coming from, I told the residents at Mertome that we have no plans to sell the site,” he says.

The council is considering a $170 million, 20-year redevelopment of the aged care complex.

It is proposing 316 apartments in two- to seven-storey buildings. Some $22 million is required to fund the first stage.

The council has $9m from the aged persons home and is looking to fund the $13m shortfall.

Mertome’s tired facilities and pressing demand have prompted the redevelopment.

The next meeting between Mertome and the council is scheduled for June 3.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

“HERITAGE listing” used to be a dirty term.

Heritage Perth executive director Richard Offen recalls when he first arrived from Britain in the early 2000s people “viewed a heritage listing as an infringement on their civil liberties”.

“They thought it meant you couldn’t do anything with it and it reduced your values, which wasn’t true then and isn’t now. Most of what was in the media in those days was negative.”

Mr Offen was last week awarded a WA heritage award for his contribution to changing that view.

He says there’s been a lot of progress in just a few years, and a good measure is the number of heritage-themed TV shows that have become more popular lately.

Mr Offen’s been able to reach a wider audience on talkback radio with his casual, enthusiastic style, and he’s recently scored a spot on indy station RTRFM where he can reach hipster young ‘uns.

“I don’t mean this in a derogatory sense, [but] you can’t have the academic approach all the time,” he says. “Livening it up is not dumbing it down.”

Heritage Perth started in 2006 and Mr Offen is its only full-time employee. It’s main funder is the Perth city council but it remains independent.

“That independence means we’re not encumbered by all that bureaucracy,” Mr Offen says.

“We can speak out… as a result of that, and I’m very proud of this, we have become the go-to organisation for the media when they want independent comment.”

Other local heritage winners include the adaptive reuse of 140 William Street, which livened up under-utilised buildings in various stages of disrepair to house food, retail and government offices. Perth city council took out the gong for outstanding heritage practices by a local government for its heritage incentive scheme, supporting Heritage Perth days and other heritage exhibitions.

Meanwhile local guided walking tour group Two Feet & a Heartbeat picked up the outstanding heritage tourism product award for its Perth and Fremantle walking tours.

by DAVID BELL