Perth Voice Interactive

INTERNATIONAL photographer Nigel Bennet is documenting William Street as the area’s new artist-in-residence.

A joint project between Vincent city council and Form, the Anglo-American traveller is asking locals what the street means to them.

His three-stage process is designed to remove as much of his own subjectivity as possible.

“The idea of the work is to put as many obstacles between my own subjectivity and the final image…”

For step one, “I’m asking people about places around the William Street area that has relevance for them. It could be something significant to their lives, or it could be the most banal thing about the area. Then I pass that to another group of people and I ask them to react, to tell me about something that’s happened to them, or something historical that’s happened in that place.”

He then passes it on to a third party who helps him set up a photo in that location responding to the event: “The third person will think about what that means for them personally in their own lives, how they relate to that information, and we try to make a scenario that they can basically act out.

“The idea of the work is to put as many obstacles between my own subjectivity and the final image. I hope it’ll say something more than just my own opinion as an outsider.”

With a background in anthropology, he’s learned since his arrival that the area has had lots of waves of immigration for a century, but the way people move on has proved a difficulty.

“This has been the most frustrating part. Mostly people who know how the area was 10 years ago are not living there now.”

If you have a tale about William Street or live in the area, get in touch with Form curator Andrew Nicholls on 9226 2799.

by DAVID BELL

MT LAWLEY MP Michael Sutherland has fired a broadside at Stirling city council, claiming its anti-amalgamation campaign is “scaremongering” and packed with “half truths and misinformation”.

The council has come under fire in recent weeks for issuing letters to residents in Dianella and Inglewood claiming they would suffer if borders were to shift, placing them inside the proposed Bayswater-Bassendean super council.

ABC radio’s Geoff Hutchison questioned the ethics of the council issuing pre-filled submission forms to homes.

Mr Sutherland, who is speaker of the Legislative Assembly and a former deputy lord mayor of Perth, sent an email to Stirling mayor Giovanni Italiano: “The city’s publicity campaign run over the last number of months has been one largely of half truths, misinformation and conjecture,” he wrote.

“I have expressed my dissatisfaction about this to you on two occasions.

“This was another of the city’s exercises in scaremongering.”

Mr Sutherland—whose wife Michelle is a Bayswater councillor—added the council had backtracked on a previous commitment to work with the state government.

“Your letter to me was disingenuous,” the MP signed off.

Cr Italiano says the whole debate has become a “political football and blown out of proportion”.

“I’m not putting the boots into Bayswater, I’m just fighting to hold onto suburbs that currently belong to Stirling,” he says.

“I stand by everything we have put out—none of it has been misinformation.

“I spoke privately to [Bayswater mayor] Sylvan [Albert] on the phone this week and we agreed not to argue back and forth anymore.

“At the end of the day, our submission is in and the local government advisory board will now make a decision.”

Meanwhile, Cr Albert says his council has been inundated with calls from Stirling residents “expressing anger and bewilderment” at the council’s letter opposing reform.

“The letter left some residents under the impression their suburb name would change and they would be joining a mythical greater Morley council,” he says.

“To put it kindly, the claims in the letter are ridiculous and appear to have been worded so as to mislead.

“Our approach to the reform process differs from Stirling city council, as we have concentrated on trying to achieve the best outcome for our community, rather than on protecting our turf.

“Bayswater city council has no intention of closing libraries or recreation facilities.”

Cr Albert says residents regarded the pre-filled submission form as patronising: “The completed form suggested they were incapable of providing their own comments.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

ABOUT 350 Vincent locals turned up to the town hall on Sunday to prepare their submissions on council mergers to the WA local government advisory board.

Mayor John Carey says he is “under no doubts our community wants Vincent to remain as is”.

“That message was made very clear in last year’s plebiscite, where we as a council asked the community what they wanted, and 77 per cent said keep Vincent as is.”

But he said with the WA government intent on boundary change and a plan to split Vincent hanging over its head, the council decided to suggest an all-in merger with Perth instead.

Mr Carey urged those at the weekend gathering to ask the LGAB for a fair and equal merger, not a “boundary adjustment” of Perth which WA local government minister Tony Simpson favours, as it would enable him to sack Vincent and have Perth simply take over.

A “fair and equal merger” would require the dissolution of both councils, the temporary appointment of commissioners over the entire new merged body and then fresh elections.

Mr Carey is worred that if the current Perth council runs the place for four months before new elections are held that Vincent culture such as open question time, more relaxed parking philosophies, approaches to multiple dwellings and continued funding of the Nyoongar patrol will all be snuffed out.

Under a boundary realignment there’s also no opportunity for the community to veto a change under the Dadour legislation.

Submissions were due Thursday March 13.

by DAVID BELL

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ACROSS the border Perth city council continues its campaign to push for only a small increase of its borders, with lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi opposing taking in all of Vincent.

This week the PCC’s online video campaign rolled out with Business Improvement Group Northbridge chair Mike Keiller warning against a return to the old days where Perth council stretched to the northern reaches of Vincent.

“I’m fully supportive of the City of Perth plan,” he says. “I think it recognises those areas that have more of a connection to the city.”

The PCC says taking all of the northern suburbs back in could lead to “conflict” and a distraction from core city business.

So far personalities the PCC has featured in its campaign include former chair of the Queensland local government reform commission Bob Longland, the Burswood Peninsula property owners, former chair of Victorian local government board Leonie Hemingway, Queensland local government association boss Greg Hoffman and UWA vice chancellor Paul Johnson.

PLANS to convert the Inglewood IGA site into a $16 million mixed use complex have been rejected by the Stirling development assessment panel.

The applicant had hoped to build a three-to-five storey building, with 94 apartments, and an office, shop and restaurant on the ground floor of the property, at the corner of Beaufort and Tenth Streets.

The DAP refused the application 5-0 saying it didn’t want the adjacent Lawry Lane to go one way, and that multiple dwellings on the ground floor facing the street are not permitted in a mixed use zone.

Resident Graeme Cocks says the proposal would have ripped the heart out of Inglewood.

“Soon we’re going to end up with five-storey blocks all the way into the city, Beaufort Street will become one big concrete tunnel,” he says.

“If Inglewood is to become an urban village we need a convenient supermarket that locals and the elderly can walk to. All we would have been left with is Coles, which is around 1km away.”

Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker says locals were concerned about losing their local store and around 80 people attended a briefing on the development last year: “Many concerns were raised around the high density of the residences, parking stressors and disappointment that sustainability features of the building and the tree canopy requirements were limited,” she says. “The best developments are those which boast the very highest levels of sustainable building features, attract energetic new retailers who will add to what’s on offer.

“My ideal sustainability principles include requiring new developments to add to the established tree canopy and having established trees planted with their feet in the earth, not in pots.”

The Voice contacted applicant Planning Solutions to ask if it would appeal DAP’s decision to the powerful state administrative tribunal, but it didn’t get back to us.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

IN the early 1800s Louis de Freycinet set sail to Australia, sent by the French government to collect specimens of native plants and animals.

On the journey artists depicted the expedition in a series of paintings, drawings and maps that came to be known as the Freycinet Collection, now held in the WA state library.

Two hundred years later library artist-in-residence Georg Corall is looking to the collection for inspiration for his new musical composition.

Director of the Perth Baroque ensemble and an expert in early music, Mr Corall says, “I think this is the first time something like this happened… I think it’s a very different idea”.

He’s inviting local musicians to come along to a workshop with him to share ideas and input on his work.

“I’ve got heaps of ideas written down,” he says. “I have started a little bit of composition already.”

People can come along with, “any instrument”.

“I can’t expect that anyone comes here with historic string instruments from around 1800 or earlier. So they can come with whatever they want and I will present music of the time.

“I will get them to know about other modern experimental music, and about ways of thinking of composition, and we will improvise a little bit.”

Mr Corall was born in Germany and started off playing the bane of every schoolboy’s existence, the recorder, moving onto the baroque oboe. He only started formally studying music a few years ago, specialising in trying to figure out what mediaeval music might have sounded like.

If you’re keen to get along to the free workshop it’s on March 15 at the state library, RSVP with Mr Corall on jordi.au@gmail.com

by DAVID BELL

A CHANCE meeting with a local MP who’d popped in to buy a dress has alerted a local dressmaking boutique to the existence of federal grants that can help them take on overseas competitors.

Tokay Boutique—run by Jessica McLagan and her mum Jennifer Stefanelli—has for 16 years been making its own clothes using WA suppliers and labour. It’s tough competing with cheap imports from Asia, they admit.

Federal Perth Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan recently popped in to buy a wedding outfit and let them know about grants of up to $50,000 to help local textilers compete and expand.

Ms McLagan says she’ll definitely look into applying for a grant as the company has a “two-pronged growth strategy” to expand. “What we want to do is launch an e-commerce store, and to meet the demand that will come from that store the second project we want to launch is a demand manufacturing process.We’d take online orders and cut and manufacture them as soon as orders are placed.”

Ms MacTiernan chimes in: “This grant would help them get that work done to enable them to expand this very good business.”

The cut-to-order should help head off the competition which, while cheap, can be problematic with delivery and postage.

by DAVID BELL