Perth Voice Interactive

THE opening of a highly-anticipated $6 million microbrewery in Northbridge has been pushed back to the end of March.

Owners Michael Rasheed and Michael Keiller were scheduled to open at the end of 2013, but building licence delays stopped the beer flowing.

“There was a bit of argy-bargy getting the building licence, and we had to wait while all the necessary approvals were granted from the fire brigade, etc,” Mr Keiller says. “So that and a few other red tape things slowed us down, but once we got the licence the building phase started and it’s bang on schedule.”

Mr Keiller says the building fit-out should happen late February.

The Northbridge Brewing Company, on the corner of James and Lake Streets—opposite the piazza—will have two storeys of bar and dining, a sky deck overlooking the city and a brewery producing 150,000 litres of beer each year.

Touted as the crowning glory of the Northbridge Piazza, the NBC is already more than two years behind schedule following a protected battle over a liquor licence.

It was eventually granted a tavern licence, allowing it to operate until midnight (police commissioner Karl O’Callaghan had objected to a 2am close).

Mr Keiller says he and Mr Rasheed will pursue the later opening via an extended trading application once they’re up and running and can demonstrate the sort of venue they intend to be.

Perth lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi accused bureaucrats of being wowsers, stifling a project of great benefit to the city.

Messrs Keiller and Rasheed also own the US-themed Mustang Bar next door.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

WITH amalgamations looming Vincent council has released its vision for key projects over the next two years.

Priorities include:

• rolling out the bike network to fix gaps in the cycle paths and fight congestion;

• greening streets and verges to cool the suburb and prevent heat islands;

• a “placemaking” program with town centre managers to drive spruce ups at town centres like Mt Hawthorn, North Perth, Mt Lawley and Leederville, with new public art on the way, more trees and pedestrian-friendly measures;

• developing a heritage protection area model and rezoning parts of West Perth to protect the area’s heritage character.

Mayor John Carey says with a likely amalgamation with Perth approaching, Vincent want to get some projects locked down now.

“There has been concern from residents that we may be forgotten under the new City of Perth structure,” he says.

Mr Carey says as long as there’s a fair split of representatives (and not some gerrymandered system that benefits current-Perth) he’s confident that what’s currently in Vincent won’t be ignored.

“[But] in the transition there may be some delays, so I’m wanting to get as much as we can done right now for the community.”

The bike plan represents one of the major projects with an estimated $600,000 pegged for the first section: Connecting the east-west paths along Bulwer and Vincent Street, a route sorely underserved by public transport.

“One of the biggest complaints that Vincent gets now is traffic congestion, and the reality is that we can’t build new public transport, that’s the jurisdiction of state government.

“But one way we can tackle the issue is actually encourage people to get on their bikes as an alternative form of transport to a car.

“The only way people are going to do that is if they feel safe on a bike and if it’s convenient.

“I would love to see that we get well underway a major corridor that connects our town centres and major recreational facilities together.”

That leg of the plan will go out to public consultation shortly.

“My main message is that this whole agenda is about creating really livable neighbourhoods,” Mr Carey says.

“This is an agenda about a bike plan that puts cyclists on their bikes, it’s a greening plan that cools our streets, it’s about looking at how we focus on pedestrian access and safer crossings, it’s the nature playgrounds that encourage kids to get away from the TV.”

 by DAVID BELL

FANS of lasers and water features will be enraptured by this year’s Skyworks.

The extravaganza will include a “laser and water spectacular”, which for the first time will be viewable from both Langley Park and South Perth.

Fountains will spray jets of water into the air providing a glittering backdrop for laser beams and effects. The 30-minute Australia Day show will feature 35,000 fireworks and require a week to set up.

The fate of the show will be in the hands of eight men with laptops, triggering the explosions from sites along the foreshore. A crew from Foti Fireworks have been preparing for three months for the display.

Perth mayor Lisa Scaffidi says she is looking forward to another spectacular display.

Skyworks kicks off at 8pm on Australia Day and is best viewed from the South Perth foreshore.

THE New York Times’ thumbs up to Perth and mention of Mt Lawley is being read as further evidence of the need to merge Vincent with Perth.

The NYT entry for “52 places to go in 2014” describes “up-and-coming neighbourhoods like Mt Lawley and Northbridge, chockablock with cafes and vintage shops”.

Liberal Perth MP Eleni Evangel, a supporter of Vincent’s ‘one-in, all-in’ campaign, says the mention of the suburbs in the same breath shows Vincent is viewed as inner-city on the world stage.

“It validates exactly what we’re arguing in terms of the amalgamation with Vincent and Perth. It demonstrates the synergy between the two.

“Drawing that comparison between Northbridge and Mt Lawley, you only have to look around to see there’s so many similarities.”

Vincent mayor John Carey says “it highlights the strength of our argument that Perth is not just a CBD”.

“People come to Perth and… want to get to know these suburban villages.

“Like the Brunswick Streets and the Surry Hills; Mt Lawley, Leederville, North Perth, Mt Hawthorn, our town centres add to the appeal of Perth.”

Ms Evangel, who formerly sat on Perth city council, says the endorsement of Northbridge is a good pat on the back for the council, which has tried hard to shed the entertainment suburb’s former reputation as a trouble hot spot.

by DAVID BELL

THE Leederville Farmers Market kicks off this Sunday opposite the hotel, with everything for sale having to be produced in WA.

Organised by Sarcha Thurston and Paul Ashbolt, the markets won a resounding thumbs up at Vincent council’s last meeting of 2013, with local after local fronting the meeting to praise the plan.

Mr Ashbolt says it was encouraging to get so much support as his first dabble in a farmers’ market was poorly received.

About three years ago he tried to set up at City Beach, but didn’t get a friendly reception from locals living near the school, who lodged objections with council.

“It created a great amount of disappointment,” he says, but with the markets further from homes this time and locals already extremely keen to get along he’s hoping this Sunday will be more successful.

Mr Ashbolt says one of his reasons for starting the markets is to support farmers who are hard-done by with the Coles/Woolies duopoly.

“I’m from an agricultural background, I’m very passionate about our rural sector and the raw deal they’re getting under the current food supply system, particularly smaller producers.

“This is all about providing a platform where smaller WA producers have the opportunity to sell their produce directly to the community.

“It enables them to bypass the system as it is at the moment, which is fairly mercenary and predatory.

“Our biodiversity and food security is being decimated at the moment,” he says, a side-effect of “two leviathans slugging it out with each other” and trying to find ever-cheaper products from overseas.

“You need to go no further than the milk wars to understand that in the process they put a lot of people out of business.

“And often it’s the best people, because the best people spend the most amount of time and money to produce a good product.

“What it does is reduces us to the lowest common denominator.

“You can cite the vegies coming in from China: The reason they sell them is they can buy them for a third of the price there, [and] we’ve got opaque labeling laws so people aren’t sure where they’re coming from.”

He’s hoping local businesses support them being there. While some may be concerned about the markets poaching business, Mr Ashbolt points to a parliamentary inquiry done over east that showed 60 per cent of marketgoers spend money at nearby shops too.

The markets run every Sunday from 7.30am to noon, 663 Newcastle Street Leederville.

by DAVID BELL

SWEAT dripping, heart pounding and legs aching, the man runs on and on through the dark, down the lonely country road.

“He doesn’t know why he’s running,” writer and actor Tom Davies says.

As he runs the man speculates on why he’s where he is and why he’s running.

“Has he committed a crime, lost a love—or it could be totally absurd and there’s no reason he is running at all.”

Every minute of stage time has Davies jogging in the ironically named What a Joy to be Alive—and the sweat is real.

Originally a solo performance, he hitched up with classically-trained guitarist Chris Bolton in a fusion of theatre and music that adds depth and another dimension to the show.

“The character I play gives a little dance—now there’s music in there it’s kind of exploded.

“[And] it’s a lot more fun working with music than doing solo,” he tells the Voice, adding a recent performance without Bolton and his music on stage won’t be repeated: “I felt naked.”

Bolton is a classically-trained guitarist who plays with Melbourne band Seagull.

“Chris adapted his own songs [for the show] and composed new music,” Davies says.

Davies, 37, met Bolton, 25, when introduced by director John Bolton—Chris’ dad, and they clicked.

“Coincidentally we have similar taste in music,” Davies says.

“[He’s] not only a good musician, but theatrically talented in terms of how to structure a piece, how to make the music work.”

What a Joy to be Alive is a one of a number of shows at the Blue Room for the Perth Fringe Festival.

Fringe festivals are a chance for upcoming performers, playwrights and musicians to showcase their often off-beat offerings.

In a case of life emulating art, Where There’s Smoke (also at the Blue Room) is a play about family and dealing with loss in the wake of a devastating bush fire while 10,000 Beers was belched from Australia’s binge-drinking sub-culture and is a black comedy about extreme drinking and consequences.

Also in the news and on stage is WA’s obsessional fear of sharks with local playwright and WAAPA graduate Will O’Mahony’s Great White using sharks and fear as a metaphor for growing up.

The Perth Fringe Festival kicks off January 24 for four weeks.

For details of what’s on at the Blue Room click onto the theatre’s Summer Nights 2014 program.

Or check out the full Fringe program at http://www.fringeworld.com.au where you’ll find a swag of shows without the big ticket price of mainstream theatre, and quite a few free ones.

by JENNY D’ANGER

ABORIGINAL activist Marianne Mackay is planning to boycott Australia Day with an open-air screening of Utopia at the Perth foreshore.

The John Pilger documentary focuses on the plight of indigenous Australians, focusing on the Northern Territory “intervention” by the Howard government in 2007.

It includes interviews with Aboriginal leaders, human-rights campaigners, academics and former PM John Howard.

Ms Mackay was one of about 200 Aborigines in the crowd outside the Lobby restaurant in Canberra in January 2012, when the Australian flag was burnt in protest.

Their actions led to prime minister Julia Gillard being unceremoniously bundled into a car by nervous security personnel.

Ms Mackay says will not seek council permission to hold a public screening at the foreshore.

“No, this is our sovereign land and we don’t have to ask permission to protest Invasion Day,” she says.

“Pilger is an award-winning film-maker and has been making documentaries about our people for the past 30 years.

“It’s important people get to see this.”

Ms Mackay adds she is also planning a cultural march through the city on Australia Day, which will include music, performance and arts.

The march will start in Supreme Court Gardens, where NAIDOC will hold its annual Survival Perth concert.

But Ms MacKay says there has been a schism between herself and NAIDOC, as its annual awards ceremony is sponsored by mining companies.

“NAIDOC have accused me of trying to divide our people and not bring them together,” she says.

“But if it wasn’t for me and my supporters, we would have been shafted on the native title deal—we got the word out there.

“I have no time for some NAIDOC members, they made disrespectful comments about me at a national forum.”

Ms Mackay, a former chairperson of Deaths in Custody WA, is hoping to get around 100 people for her cultural day march.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

TO bee or not to bee. Steve Fletcher found himself pondering his own mortality after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in November 2012.

The cancer has a very low survival rate—six per cent survive more than five years—as it often goes undetected and is diagnosed at an advanced stage.

Instead of wallowing in self-pity, the 65-year-old from Inglewood decided to revisit a childhood love of bee-keeping to keep focused and stay active.

Now in remission, he says his hobby got him through a year of gruelling chemotherapy and a 10-hour surgery to remove a section of pancreas.

“I found bee-keeping very therapeutic, it got me back in touch with nature and the outdoors, without being too physically taxing,” he says.

“On a social level it was good too and I met loads of great folk at the WA Apiarists Society.

“I like to think I’m giving something back—bees are great for the environment and are responsible for pollination and keep the ecosystem churning over.”

Married with two sons, Mr Fletcher is looking for homeowners in Inglewood and Bedford who are interested in hosting hives in their back garden.

He offers a free bee removal service on Gumtree and is looking for new homes for the pollinators.

“Usually a quarter-acre lot is big enough to have a hive in the back garden,” he says.

“I would come around and maintain them—they won’t cause neighbours any problems if they’re set up correctly.

“The home owners don’t need to do anything and they might even get some free honey.”

His obsession with bees started when he was a young boy in Essex: He borrowed every book on the insects from the county library.

Most councils allow home owners to have up to two hives.

A global collapse of commercial bee hives—caused by pesticide poisoning, a mite plague and other factors—means local hives are more important than ever for the pollination of flowers and food crops. If you are interested contact Steve Fletcher on 0403 047 633.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK