Perth Voice Interactive

HOMEOWNERS may be required to shell out more than $8000 each for underground power around Moir, Brookman and Lake Streets.

Lake Street local Roy Gilbert opposes the underground power plan, fearing it could cost up to $10,000 per property given the way so many infrastructure projects run over budget.

He says most of the neighbours he’s spoke to would rather spend the money on improving their house or paying off their mortgage.

The major benefit of burying power lines is that street trees don’t have to be so brutally pruned: Streets are shadier and property prices rise by three per cent according to a 2011 study by the Australian National University.

But Dr Gilbert says while it’s a nice idea, it’s a “want” and not a “need”. Western Power covers just 25 per cent of the cost.

Vincent council originally planned to go ahead after an initial round of community consultation showed 73 per cent of those who’d responded were happy to pay.

But Dr Gilbert points out only half the community replied. He says there’s confusion about the scheme, and most of those who’d said yes didn’t want to pay it up front and instead wanted the long-term payment option. He’s done his own straw poll which shows most neighbours are opposed.

The council has now decided—at mayor John Carey’s suggestion—to do another round of consultation.

Mark Greenshields just wants the council to get on with the job.

He notes he was just one of the 29.2 per cent of voters who’d bothered to vote in the mayoral election (he backed Mr Carey).

“Nothing would get done if we left decisions to a vocal minority who justify recycling decisions based on poor community participation,” he wrote to councillors.

The mayor says he supports underground power—it was one of the big issues brought up while he was doorknocking—but he doesn’t want to enforce it on people who don’t want to pay.

Only Cr Julia Wilcox wanted to go ahead without another round of consultation. She said if people hadn’t responded on an issue that’ll cost them money, they were more likely to be okay with it than upset.

by DAVID BELL

SENIOR Vincent council staff aren’t keen on rolling out underground power across the rest of the city and, according to one councillor, seem to be deliberately obstructive.

Last year the elected council asked staff to prepare a strategy to roll it out but new special projects director Gaby Pieraccini—brought in to take big projects out of the CEO’s hands—advised against pursuing it.

She told councillors it’d take too long, cost too much, the city had “limited capacity” to undertake the project, and there was a lack of community commitment.

Councillors weren’t happy with her brief report, and deferred a final decision until it could do more community consultation.

Most elected members seem keen on pursuing the project, with mayor John Carey having campaigned on “a realistic plan for underground power”. However, Cr Matt Buckels says he doesn’t see it as a priority and says “I’d rather put in a pool”.

Former councillor Dudley Maier says staff appear to be the tail wagging the elected dog: “At every turn the administration have produced reports of questionable quality. This report is no different. It contains very little information and makes unsubstantiated claims.”

Mr Maier says a claim it’d take too long didn’t stop Subiaco embarking on its 48-year plan.

And he points out the “lack of community commitment” wasn’t reflected in consultation on the Moir/Brookman/Lake Streets, where most respondents say they are happy to pay.

Since 2008 he’s been trying to get staff to look into how Subiaco funds underground power. The response took four months and all he received was a three-paragraph reply, with scant information.

He asked again several times over the next couple of years.

“I was sick of getting vague information from the administration,” he said.

ABOUT 15,000 people made their way to St Patrick’s Day festivities in Leederville last weekend, organisers report.

Karen Hennessy from Irish Families in Perth says about 6000 lined the streets for the parade, with bigger numbers coming along to the festival.

She says they were pleased as punch they’d retained numbers during the day, and are keen on continuing the parade/festival model next year.

THE Menora synagogue will stage an opera written by Jewish prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

The Emperor of Atlantis—a dark fable about death and love—was devised by Viktor Ullmann and Peter Kien while imprisoned in Terezin, Czechoslovakia in 1943.

The opera was rehearsed but the Nazis never allowed it to be performed, denouncing it as satirical of Adolf Hitler.

Ullmann and Kien never got to see their finished opera, dying in Auschwitz.

Of 144,000 Jews sent to Terezin, some 88,000 were deported to extermination camps.

Atlantis director Thomas de Mallet Burgess says the opera—the first to be held at the synagogue—has personal significance for Perth Jews.

“I believe this production will be very poignant for the Jewish community in Western Australia.”

“A lot of people I spoke to have family members who were at Terezin,” he says.

“If you combine that provenance with the staging of the play in a synagogue, it really starts to add extra resonance and emotion to the whole thing.

“I believe this production will be very poignant for the Jewish community in Western Australia.”

Bob Kucera, chairman of the friends of Israel, says his Czech father escaped from a prison camp for non-Jewish partisans on the outskirts of Terezin in 1940: “I went back to Terezin a few years ago to trace his steps and ended up walking round the Jewish camp,” he says.

“You could see the bullet holes on the courtyard walls where inmates were shot. It was very emotional and disturbing.”

The Emperor of Atlantis will feature around six actors and 11 musicians, with the synagogue seating around 300.

The 60-minute opera, sung in English, will be shown June 12, 15 and 16. It is the third production by Perth opera company Lost and Found, which specialises in exhuming forgotten operas and showing them in unorthodox venues that relate to the work.

Its last opera, The Human Voice by Frances Poulenc, was performed in a hotel room to just 13 people.

The company was formed in October by conductor Christopher van Tuinen and Burgess, who has staged productions for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Canadian Opera Company.

The pair received funding from the WA government and Stirling city council.

“We are trying to attract a younger audience and make opera more accessible by immersing the audience in the production,” Burgess says.

He is now trying to raise funds to stage the opera at the Ghetto Museum in Terezin.

“Some people don’t want to talk about the Holocaust and tip-toe lightly around it,” he says.

“I think we have to examine it and face up to it. Ultimately, we end up asking ourselves the same question—‘why did we let it happen?’”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

AFTER 15 years on James Street, restaurateur Tam Pham is calling it a day.

Mr Pham and wife Tai ran the Saigon Cafe, a cornerstone of Northbridge’s late night crowd.

The independent, family-run restaurant will be replaced by Malaysian chain PappaRich.

Mr Pham says it feels like the right time to move on: a buyer had dropped by and was keen to move into the corner location.

“We’re so tired!” he says. “We work 90 or 100 hours a week,” often staying open to 2.30am for punters falling out of closing pubs.

Originally from south of Saigon, his family spent time in a refugee camp before coming to Australia in 1983.

He worked in the market gardens then moved on to a kitchen where he learned how to cook.

Mr Pham struck out on his own opening the first incarnation of his business in the old Shanghai food court, naming it after the nearest major city in his homeland.

High rents in the markets led him to his shop on the corner of Nick’s Lane, where he ran the kitchen and Ms Pham the front of house.

The family took off on a six-week holiday shortly after closing up, but Mr Pham says he’s not sure what they’ll do long term.

“We don’t know yet, but we’ll relax for a while.”

by DAVID BELL

ALANNAH MacTIERNAN has been red-carded from the House of Representatives for the second time after heckling “protected species” education minister Chris Pyne during question time.

Speaker Bronwyn Bishop sent the fiery Perth MP out of the chamber for an hour, after she twice heckled Mr Pyne while he was spruiking the government’s teacher education ministerial advisory group.

“He’s a protected species, ” Ms MacTiernan told the Voice.

“This is not really a big deal, people get sent out all the time.

“It’s probably just because people can hear me better now—I’ve been moved to the second row in my role as shadow parliamentary secretary for WA.”

During a speech shortly after her elevation, in which Ms MacTiernan passionately defended Labor’s infrastructure record in WA, Mr Pyne’s distinctive voice could be heard off-camera, “she’s a firecracker, isn’t she!”.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

THE contractor who created the Beaufort Street arty sign won’t be paid the full amount, with Vincent council unhappy with the result.

Bremick was initially contracted for $95,000 to erect the big Beaufort Street Hollywood-style lettering at the Barlee Street carpark, but asked for an additional $38,000 because the concrete work was more expensive than expected.

Despite getting the extra cash the work has now been sitting dormant since November with a fence around it because the council’s unhappy with the finish and colour (it was supposed to look brighter and shinier). For months it’s been lawyers at 20 paces with a flurry of confidential letters flying between council and contractor.

Now it’s been revealed Bremick’s been paid just $73,000 of the expected $133,000. Councillors unanimously voted to obtain new quotes “to rectify the piece to ensure it meets safety and aesthetic requirements”.

They’ll also negotiate their way out of the contract with Bremick, “deducting any reasonable costs associated with the rectification”.

Bremick wasn’t keen to weigh in until the legal dust settled.

by DAVID BELL

THE Mount Lawley Society has been short-listed for a gong in the WA heritage awards.

It is a finalist in the “outstanding contribution to heritage by a community-based organisation” category.

The MLS has been busy in the past two years, successfully campaigning to preserve the old façade on the burnt-down Mount Lawley primary school and staging an Astor Theatre rally to keep Mt Lawley in Stirling after council mergers.

“One of our big achievements has been getting demolition-by-neglect legislation through Stirling city council.”

MLS president Bruce Wooldridge says the society—formed in 1977—has its largest membership to date: “We now have around 360 members, which is pretty impressive,” he says. “I think having stalls at the Beaufort Street festival and doing more public exhibitions has helped to raise our profile.

“One of our big achievements has been getting demolition-by-neglect legislation through Stirling city council.”

Mr Wooldridge adds the society is creating a digital archive of photos and information of more than 1000 heritage buildings in Perth: “We have nearly finished sifting through all the stuff and will now decide on the best way to archive it in a digital format.”

Heritage Perth executive director Richard Offen has also been nominated in the category for heritage professionals.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

LIGHTNING PARK recreation centre is set to get a $400,000 extension from the WA government.

The centre is home to The Noranda Hawks football club and Morley Eagles tee-ball club.

The grant will be used to extend the clubrooms in order to hold members’ functions, awards nights and other community events.

Morley Liberal MP Ian Britza says the Hawks—with around 350 members—has outgrown its small clubrooms.

“These upgrades will help cater for the rapidly growing club,” he says.

“This club has a long history of producing a series of AFL players. As everyone in the Morley electorate knows, I am a strong advocate for grassroots sporting clubs.”

The Noranda Hawks was established more than 30 years ago and caters for pre-primary to 17-year-olds.

Its amateur side runs colts to seniors competitions.

Bayswater city council will contribute $50,400.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK