• These posters have sprung up around North Perth. Photo by Halinka Lamparksi
POSTERS reading “blacks banned” are springing up around North Perth.
Halinka Lamparksi spotted one at Robertson Park and alerted Vincent city council. Rangers swooped and removed about eight.
While the shock headline indicates racist intent, the smaller text suggests the signs may have been slapped up by Aboriginal activists unhappy with police moving them out of the area’s parks.
“Aboriginal people are banned from coming here,” the fine print states.
“No Indigenous people are allowed to be on their traditional grounds of Perth in this area.
“If they do, they get a move on notice from the police and a fine of $200.
The posters follow revelations that last year 40 per cent of WA’s move-on notices were issued to Aborigines, who represent about four per cent of the population.
Linda Black, the president of the WA Criminal Lawyers’ Association complained on ABC Radio in December the laws were being misused. They’d supposedly been introduced by the former Labor government to control disruptions outside pubs and clubs, not turf Aborigines out of the CBD.
• From the game BioShock: WASO will be performing its score.
THE games console is set to mingle with the cello at Perth concert hall.
As part of the 2014 Perth festival, the WA symphony orchestra will play music from famous video games as they are projected onto a huge screen in the background.
The recital will include music from BioShock one, two and infinite; Grim Fandango; Uncharted two and three; and Journey.
The video game cross-over is part of a push from WASO to attract a younger audience to live classical music.
The orchestra has previously performed live scores to movies, including Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean, but this is the first time it has accompanied video games.
WASO bassoonist Adam Mikulicz, 30, says as long as the music has integrity, members of the orchestra aren’t overly concerned about its origins.
“The cross-over concerts are extremely popular and both Lord of the Rings shows sold out,” he told the Voice.
“That soundtrack was extremely intricate and used every ounce of the orchestra, including a children’s chorus.
“Attracting people to classical music who wouldn’t normally go is a good thing, as far as I’m concerned, it’s good to play a different type of audience.”
The concert will also have an interactive section, where sounds and noises submitted by the public leading up to the event are incorporated into a live WASO performance.
The event is the brainchild of Tod Machover—composer and professor at MIT’s Media Lab—whose students went on to create the hit console game Guitar Hero.
The concert will be conducted by Carolyn Kuan.
Between the desert and the deep blue sea is at the Perth concert hall on March 1.
THE developer of a Mt Hawthorn apartment block that was rejected by Vincent council has confirmed he’s appealing to the powerful but unelected state administrative tribunal, which has the authority to overturn decisions made by elected councils.
Six locals fronted the final council meeting of 2013, saying the project was too big and would bring extra traffic to Shakespeare Street.
Dominations Homes managing director Domenic Minniti says the 18-unit plan is largely compliant with local planning rules about overlooking and having the driveway cross the minor street rather than feed cars into a busier road makes sense.
Neighbour Vanessa Lombardo criticised the developer’s communication and said she’d had trouble getting hold of him via phone and email after part of her backyard was damaged by the demolition.
Mr Minniti says the criticism was unfair, as he’d taken care to keep locals informed and has an email trail showing he’d alerted neighbours to the date of demolition and erected a replacement fence for the parapet wall that was removed.
“If I had done the wrong thing I’d cop it on the chin,” Mr Minniti told the Voice.
The matter will now go to mediation, and progress to a full SAT hearing if agreement can’t be reached.
THE dream lives on, with Vincent council allowing Dream Studios to continue on Oxford Street.
Vincent staffers wanted to close the non-compliant business down last year after a noise complaint, saying the business doesn’t “protect and enhance the health, safety and general welfare of the city’s inhabitants”.
They’d wanted to deny retrospective approval, but councillors deferred it to let owner Jo Poole get his paperwork in order. Councillors have now given the business the thumbs up, with Cr Ros Harley moving to ease up cash-in-lieu restrictions which would’ve otherwise seen the business have to pay $22,375 for not having enough car bays.
“To impose a cash-in-lieu contribution of $22,000 for what is essentially a small business, I think is fairly harsh and would affect the viability of the business,” she said.
• Ron Whitelaw, Lois Boswell, Daniel Cohen, Jasper (dog) Cohen, James Cohen, Maria Gorinski, Jenny Itserd, Claire Tredget at Walters Brook. Photo by Jeremy Dixon
WALTERS BROOK in Mt Lawley is getting a $173,360 facelift following years of campaigning from a local environmental group.
The Swan River tributary—effectively a Water Corporation drain—has been heavily eroded by fast-running water and contains little of its original vegetation.
Vincent city council will restore the brook by re-contouring banks, installing gabion baskets (wire frames filled with rocks) and planting 3500 native plants and trees.
Caroline Cohen, co-chair of the Banks Precinct Action Group, says planting native flora will attract migratory birds to Banks Reserve.
“In 2007 a truck crashed at the nearby Mt Lawley subway and engine oil spilled into the brook and straight into the Swan River,” she says.
“A few birds died, so hopefully the restoration will shore it up and help to avoid a similar incident.
“It took a while to get things moving on the brook because we had to consult with so many stakeholders, including the former Swan River Trust, Noongar people and the Water Corp.”
Since forming in the mid-‘90s, the BPGA’s lobbying has secured a children’s playground and restoration of the foreshore at Banks Reserve.
Vincent acting CEO Mike Rootsey says stabilising the banks will make the brook safer for children at the nearby playground.
Restoration work is scheduled to start this week and will take five months.
A DOG owner was spotted leaving her animal inside a hot car while she made two shopping trips.
Katrina Montaut contacted the Voice saying she’d come across the pooch outside the North Perth plaza on December 29.
The former Vincent council candidate says the dog was trapped for about 10 minutes with the owner nowhere in sight.
She called rangers but it was a Sunday so they couldn’t get anyone out before the dog owner returned and left.
When the woman finally came back to her car, Ms Montaut confronted her but the woman was unrepentant and sarcastically said “oh, I feel terrible about it”.
The woman claimed a bottle of water had been left in the car for the dog.
“But dogs don’t have opposable thumbs!” Ms Montaut says. “She had no remorse.”
The woman then went on a second shopping trip into the bakery before finally leaving with the dog.
The RSPCA says dogs trapped in hot cars can die in as little as six minutes.
RSPCA tests showed the interior of a light-coloured sedan rose to 57 degrees after being left in the sun for just 12 minutes.
RSPCA inspectors have the power to force their way into cars to save animals, so anyone who spots a pooch trapped in a car over summer should call them on 1300 278 3589 or call the police.
FORMER Bayswater mayor Terry Kenyon has accused the man who beat him for the top job of playing favourites.
The criticism follows mayor Sylvan Albert attending a tennis club function with two other councillors, but not Cr Kenyon.
Cr Kenyon says every elected member should have the opportunity to attend civic events, “not the mayor selecting favoured councillors to attend and denying all other elected ward councillors the opportunity to attend such events”.
The criticism has the new mayor scratching his head.
“I didn’t deliberately not invite Terry to the tennis club. If he was left out it must have been a clerical error because Stephanie Coates and Martin Toldo from the west ward were both there,” he says.
“Since I was elected in October, I have attended 95 per cent of events I’ve been invited to. The other five per cent, to the best of my knowledge, has been attended my deputy mayor Mike Sabatino in my absence.
“I am certainly not favouring other councillors—I want a united council.”
Cr Kenyon was contacted for comment and did not respond.
• Vincent council has stopped paying for this public art project, unhappy with the way it’s looking. Photo by Jeremy Dixon
THE Beaufort Street lettering artwork is sitting dormant while Vincent city council and the developer negotiate the final details.
The council has paid Bremick Group part of the $133,000 for the project, but the Voice understands the rest of the cash is being withheld till it looks more like the approved plan.
Ken Sealey is the artist Bremick contracted. He says he finished his part of the work way back in November but the letters have been sitting there with a fence around them for almost two months now.
Mayor John Carey says, “the City of Vincent is not satisfied with the delivery of the project”.
“We are now in contract negotiations with the project manager, which is Bremick, regarding the final delivery.
“Personally I want to see this resolved as quickly as possible, but I have to make sure that ratepayers’ interests are looked after and we ensure that the project is completed as detailed.”
The budget for the Hollywood-style lettering has already blown out from $95,000 to $133,000.
We contacted Bremick for comment but it was still closed from new year’s.
• An old clipper at the Wellington Street bus station.
LIFE begins at 40—unless you’re the Wellington Street bus station.
The WA government has announced demolition of the station, opened by Labor’s John Tonkin in 1973, will start next month.
It will be replaced by the new underground Perth Busport, scheduled for completion in 2016.
The old station was designed to be a central hub for buses servicing Perth’s north, slashing the number of small termini across the city.
Without ever reaching iconic status, the prosaic station was state-of-the-art in 1973, and bus enthusiasts still drool over the stylish “Clipper” buses.
The yellow city clipper, Perth’s first free service, rolled out of the station in September, 1973.
It ran every 10 minutes during the week and looped round the city, including stops at William and Barrack streets.
At the weekend it only ran on Saturday mornings, because Perth shops closed at noon and did not open Sundays.
WA bus preservation society member Nicholas Pusenjak says most Clipper buses were top of the line.
“It’s funny because they used the flagship buses as Clippers, but they only did a small loop of Perth, while the older buses were going longer distances—it used to annoy the drivers,” he laughs.
“Aside from an old Daimler Roadliner, all the Clippers were top of the range.
Businesses at the station have also been moved out, with some finding it difficult to find new premises because of high rents, says cafe owner Anne Greives.
Transperth had frozen their rent over several years but now they’d have to survive without subsidy.
While Ms Greives was happy to head into retirement, given she’s 84 years old and had been there neary 20 years, she’d had to lay of three employees.
“When I was packing up my things yesterday, all the bus drivers were coming up to me and hugging me, wishing me luck and saying ‘now what will do without our coffee lady’,” Ms Greives said.
Staffer Trish Hardman said she’d only heard rumours about the demolition and would be out job hunting now Christmas had passed.
The station was well patronised, although use of public transport in the 1970s was relatively low compared to today.
Bus passengers will be relocated to a temporary bus station from January 12.
MAYLANDS Labor MP Lisa Baker says premier Colin Barnett’s shark-baiting policy is “rushed and potentially dangerous”.
Last month the WA government announced a tender for professional fishers to use hooks on baited drum lines to catch and kill great white, tiger or bull sharks.
The lines are to be set 1km from selected Perth and south-west beaches and target sharks more than 3m long.
Thousands gathered at Cottesloe Beach last Saturday to protest the policy.
Ms Baker—co-chair of the parliamentary friends of the RSPCA —says other marine life will be caught in the lines too, and their carcasses will attract sharks to the area.
“The Barnett government’s shark policy is an indiscriminate cull which could result in the deaths of other marine species including dolphins, turtles, and non-threatening shark species,” she says.
“It may increase the risk to swimmers by attracting sharks to popular beaches.
“It is not a policy which is based on science—baited drum lines are opposed by marine experts and many within the fishing industry.”
Ms Baker says a safer alternative is increased tagging of great whites and the installation of real-time satellite tracking beacons to alert authorities when tagged sharks are near beaches.
“Currently sections of regional coastline in the south-west and south coasts have no such beacons installed,” she says.
Ms Baker says a WA Labor government would accept the offer of tagging and research assistance from the US group Ocearch but “this offer sadly has been rejected by the Barnett government”.
The baiting policy was introduced after seven fatal shark attacks in three years.
Perth Voice Interactive 