Perth Voice Interactive

Budding ateliers at Mt Hawthorn primary school have been making their own jewellery to raise money for breast cancer awareness month.

So far they’ve been selling their bracelets, hair braids and clips at pop up stands before and after school. Mia Cahill says at their first pop up they raised $35 for the cause and that encouraged them to keep going.

They’re now working hard to have lots of pieces ready to sell at the breast cancer network stall at the Mt Hawthorn community fair November 9, 1–7pm.

• Mia Cahill, Chloe and Mia Dennis and Erin Pond are looking forward to raising money for breast cancer awareness month at the Mt Hawthorn community fair next month. Photo by Jeremy Dixon

Vincent voters are overwhelmingly opposed to the abolition of their city.

In a plebiscite run alongside last weekend’s council elections, a whopping 77 per cent (4564) answered “no” to the question “do you agree the City of Vincent should be abolished”.

The landslide vote is a slap in the face to premier Colin Barnett’s plan to make Vincent disappear.

If the city is to be abolished, 90 per cent prefer amalgamation with Perth, with just 10 per cent voting for a division of the city between Perth and Stirling, the option first mooted by WA local government minister Tony Simpson.

There are 21,102 eligible electors in Vincent but just 30 per cent bothered to vote.

New mayor John Carey says ballots were issued late, which may have affected the response.

“I will be asking the council that we write to the WA electoral commission because I was strongly disappointed with how late the ballots got out,” he told the Voice.

“From my reading of it we were one of the last councils [to get ballots out].”

He says the ballots were also complex and some of Vincent’s older residents who speak English as a second language had trouble with the forms. Others have said the fact there was both a state and federal election in 2013 had contributed to voter fatigue.

by DAVID BELL

Giovanni Italiano is the new mayor of Stirling after being elected unopposed by his fellow councillors on Tuesday night.

The former deputy mayor says he’ll continue the “Stay in Stirling” campaign led by predecessor David Boothman, who was re-elected unopposed to Balga ward but decided not to recontest the top job.

Cr Italiano says his first order of business will be to seek an urgent meeting with WA local government minister Tony Simpson “to ensure he understands the council’s resolve in this regard”.

“We cannot sit by and see parts of our council carved up to the detriment of all our ratepayers.”

In other ward news, Cr Terry Tyzack—another former mayor—was re-elected unopposed to Inglewood while veteran Lawley ward Cr Rod Willox brushed off a challenge from fellow Liberal party member Ray Wills and Zlatko Petrovski, re-elected with 51.34 per cent of the vote (2302 votes to 1267 and 915, respectively).

Cr David Michael—tipped as a future state Labor MP—stormed back into Osborne ward with 81 per cent (3634 votes), slaughtering JP Shah (858 votes) while Cr Elizabeth Re shrugged off her job woes, taking back Doubleview ward with 63.48 per cent (3376 votes) to Wayne Monks’ 1942.

In hotly contested Hamersley ward, Andrew Guilfoyle beat off six rivals—including two former councillors—to win with 34 per cent (1310 votes) while in Coastal ward Karen Caddy belted four challengers to storm in with 41.73 per cent (1967 votes).

by DAVID BELL

It was a nail-biter for the Vincent mayoralty last weekend, with John Carey scraping in with just 87.12 per cent of the vote (2765 votes). Cough, cough.

Defeated Angelo Merlacco (381 votes) was magnaminous and gutsy, saying Mr Carey had done a good job as a councillor and would make a great mayor.

A protege of former mayor now federal Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan, the new mayor credited his stunning result to old-fashioned doorknocking and on-the-ground campaigning: “I really wanted to put myself before the voters so they could examine what I stood for,.

“We’re at a pivotal time for Vincent with the threat of amalgamation,” Mr Carey says.

“I want a strong council that’s responsive to the needs of the community.

“I’m really looking forward to the next two years despite what looms, and it’s onwards and upwards.”

In north ward newcomer Emma Cole pulled in 1290 votes, outpolling every other candidate: She’d run on a platform of improving community consultation and had the backing of Ms MacTiernan and the Mt Hawthorn primary school community. She was elected with a whopping 254-vote margin.

Cr Matt Buckels, seeking re-election, looked nervous early on but he went on to comfortably win the second ward seat on offer (1036 votes).

In south ward Cr Josh Topelberg (1391 votes) was re-elected to the top spot while Mr Carey’s running mate Laine McDonald (1226 votes) took the second south ward seat.

Cr Topelberg says Mr Carey’s vote and the return of himself and Cr Buckels shows people are generally satisfied with the council’s direction.

Australian Communist Party president Vinnie Molina garnered 246 votes in south ward, 46 votes more than Glenn Christie who took out the overall wooden spoon.

by DAVID BELL

Sylvan Albert is Bayswater’s new mayor, sweeping aside Terry Kenyon seven votes to four.

Cr Albert—the Liberals’ candidate for Maylands at the state election—was elevated to the position by the new council following last weekend’s ward elections that saw two incumbent councillors defeated.

To rub salt into Cr Kenyon’s wounds, his long-time nemesis Cr Mike Sabatino was elected deputy mayor.

Earlier, Cr Kenyon had clung onto his west ward seat with just 0.5 per cent the difference between taking one of two seats on offer. He scored 27.64 per cent (1505 votes) to cling to the ward’s top spot with newcomer Stephanie Coates coming in nine votes and a fraction of a per cent behind to claim the second seat. Cr Marlene Robinson could only watch in dismay with her 1478 votes—just 27 votes behind Cr Kenyon—not enough for re-election.

In north ward, Michelle Sutherland—married to Mt Lawley Liberal MP Michael—topped the poll with 1268 votes. With 1007 votes Cr Alan Radford bumped out Mark Whitehouse by four votes to claim the ward’s second seat, ending Graham Pittaway’s career (949 votes).

In south ward local cafe owner John Rifici scored 52.02 per cent (1044 votes) to claim the one spot on offer.

Bayswater residents’ association Tony Green says “it’s really a new era” for the council, with what he believes is a breakdown of deep-seated factional divides.

“We’ve had some of the long-term servers like Marlene Robinson and Graham Pittaway gone and replaced with young professional people,” he told the Voice. “We’re hoping for a more dynamic council. I’m quite pleased with the mix. You’ve got the old bulls and the young bulls. There’ll be times when they go head to head, that’s fine, you get robust discussion, you need that experience and common sense.”

by DAVID BELL

During the heady days of WA cricket in the 1970s the melodic click of the wrought-iron turnstiles would echo throughout the WACA as fans streamed into the ground.

With the advent of automative ticketing in the ‘80s, the century-old turnstiles were silenced as the gates were ripped up and shoved into storage.

Now cricket nuts can have that magical feeling of cranking through the Victorian-style gates again, with eight of the turnstiles built between 1890 and 1920 returning to the members’ entrance.

Heritage ironwork specialist Brad Jackson was given the task of reviving the rusted-out baffle gates which will be up and running for the WA vs England game on October 31.

“I was a bit shocked by the condition they were in,” he told the Voice.

“Anything steel had just corroded. It was a bit intimidating at first, especially when you looked at the lock boxes because they were just full of dirt. They were covered in about three inches of filth because they hadn’t been touched in 30 years.”

“Four were cast by the Ledger Family Foundry, which was run by Heath Ledger’s grandfather,” the Fremantle blacksmith, one of just two left in WA, says. “And another two were cast in England and are from the same series that appear in the Dublin Botanical Gardens.”

He describes the craftsmanship as outstanding: “Aesthetically it’s a beautiful thing,” he says, running his hand over a recently-painted gate. “It’s a utilitarian piece that served a function, but it is beautifully designed and really well-made. Anything cast iron you would have to have a pattern-maker carve out first in wood perfectly.

“With the Ledger one, someone was there with a chisel carving all that out to make a pattern that went to the foundry.

“There would have been a month’s work just in that pattern for that one casting.

“There is an awful a lot of work in that one design.”

WACA Museum curator Stephen Hall says the turnstiles are an important part of the history of the ground.

“The idea was to let people today reengage with them,” he says. “The people that walk through the gates now, maybe their father and their fathers walked through them.”

by BRENDAN FOSTER

Newcomer Reece Harley has topped the field at the Perth city council elections, beating even seasoned veterans to nab the most votes and the first of four council seats up for grabs.

Mr Harley, 26, scored 17.68 per cent (1782 votes), followed by Cr Judy McEvoy, re-elected with 16.19 per cent (1632 votes), Cr James Limnios (14.42 per cent and 1453 votes) and another newcomer, Keith Yong (12.68 per cent, 1278 votes).

In the eight-horse race incumbent councillor Lyndon Rodgers—often a lone voice on the PCC—came seventh, well out of contention with 9.64 per cent (972 votes).

Cr Harley, a heritage buff who started the Crawley Rotary branch, is the second-youngest councillor to win office at the PCC (the first was Chas Hopkins who also started at 26 but was a few months younger. He went on to become lord mayor). 

Cr Harley credited his strong result to grassroots campaigning: Letterboxing flyers and personally doorknocking just about every house he could get to, including public housing tenants.

He says he’d grown up in a Homeswest property and was able to share his story with constituents, some of whom said they’d never had a political candidate knock on their door before (although one remembered Julie Bishop dropping by at a previous federal election). 

Cr Harley believes the changing demographics of the capital also helped his vote.

“We’re seeing more and more residents moving into the city and increasingly they’re my age demographic.”

He says campaigning is an expensive process: “I”m not a rich man, I’m probably your average joe when it comes to statistics. I’m a young guy and I’m not earning a lot of money… the costs are quite high, but obviously it’s worth it because now I’ve got this great opportunity to be able to contribute to the city and get involved in decision-making.”

Cr Harley’s mum Ros is a councillor across the border at Vincent, where she was elected deputy mayor on Tuesday, beating out Cr John Pintabona.

by DAVID BELL

Catalina Airlines has flown from one tangle of red tape into another.

Fresh from completing noise tests for the Swan River Trust for its plans to launch and land seaplanes on the river—it reckons it passed with flying colours—it is now arguing with another WA government agency over separate plans to use a helipad in East Perth.

Catalina boss Mack McCormack has been trying for two years to reach agreement over the use of a disused helipad at Trinity College.

Up till this week he’s been embroiled in negotiations with the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority, a powerful but unelected body that is essentially a planning czar for everything within its boundaries.

He says an 18-month draft licence Catalina he’s been working through with the MRA is unreasonable and designed to deter him accessing the helipad.

One of the conditions is he may not use public roads nor footpaths to get people to and from the helipad.

“They’re trying to make it very hard for us,” he says. “Trinity support us so long as we don’t fly during year 12 exams. We also have assured them we will not operate before peak times before and after school to avoid congestion on Trinity Avenue.”

This week, the MRA pulled the plug entirely, with CEO Kieran Kinsella saying the MRA has, “notified Catalina Airlines that it is unable to continue lease negotiations”.

In a letter to Catalina Mr Kinsella states development work on the Riverside project adjacent to the helipad is due to start in June so it will be unavailable.

Mr McCormack says there is “no operational helipad in Perth” and he believes he has the support of deputy premier Kim Hames for the project.

by CARMELO AMALFI

A flat glassy Swan, few boats, birds and not a dolphin in sight.

Within a rod’s throw from shore, trust officers and marine and aviation authorities meet on the water to witness the temporary disturbance of Perth’s iconic river.

On cue, the single-engine Cessna prepares to land flying up the river from Crawley where seaplanes berthed during World War Two.

The roar of the engines as the plane touches down on the surface of the water is picked up by nearby monitors in South Perth.

Catalina Airlines, which conducted the noise tests, says the levels recorded were about 12 decibels below those recommended by the department of environment and conservation.

It wants to operate two seaplanes—the Cessna for 10 passengers and a twin-engine Grumman Albatross G111 for up to 24 passengers.

They will fly to Rottnest, the Abrolhos islands off Geraldton, Mandurah, Margaret River and other sightseeing, diving and snorkelling destinations in WA.

The noise tests are a hurdle to cross before the company is issued with a licence to operate on the Swan.

The Swan River Trust board meets next month to consider the proposal to launch WA’s latest tourism venture.

by CARMELO AMALFI