Perth Voice Interactive

Your free, independent newspaper

recent posts

about

  • PCC to install new auto loos

    Auto-Loos costing between $125,000 and a quarter-of-a-million bucks each will be installed around Perth to deal with the capital’s crippling crapper shortage.

    The PCC has voted unanimously to pay WC Convenience Management an estimated $650,000 for providing four to eight toilets. The extravagantly named Exeloo Saturn 21 costs $126,656, the Exeloo Jupiter 21 Heritage $208,631, and the you-beaut platinum potty Exeloo Orbit weighs in at a hefty $255,338.

    Cr James Limnios says the new loos are vital to deal with the tidal wave of wee sloshing over city streets on Friday and Saturday nights. Three temporary urinals trialled last year collected about 1000 litres of urine each month. “We’ve become more of a later-night economy,” Cr Limnios says. “This is imperative.”

    Perth has just 28 public toilets, and only eight are open all night.  “Northbridge has been identified as urgently needing more 24-hour toilets to prevent urination in public areas,” the PCC report says.

    by DAVID BELL

  • Roos to move?

    11. 791NEWS
    • Jan Bant and Rick Denniston at Cottonwood Crescent Bushland. Photo by Jeremy Dixon

    Kangaroos could be bounced from Stirling bushland and replaced with apartments.

    In 2010 the council permitted Channel 7—owned by billionaire Kerry Stokes—to redevelop its old Tuart Hill site, under the proviso the roos in neighbouring Cottonwood Crescent bushland must stay put.

    But developers have pushed the care onus back onto council, and staff complain managing the dwindling mob is onerous. They want the roos relocated before work starts.

    The land on Osborne Road occupies more than seven hectares and parts were rezoned to allow up to 80 units a hectare.

    Friends of Dianella Bushland president Jan Bant says the kangaroos have been around for nearly 60 years and should stay.

    “This has been passed back and forth between the developers and the city—no-one wants to take responsibility for it,” she says.

    “I think once they found out how much it was going to cost to accommodate the kangaroos, they panicked.

    “At the city’s natural environment working group we agreed to wait and watch—why are we rushing into things?”

    An ecology report estimates the roo population at Crescent Bushland has fallen from 18 adults and six joeys in 2008, to 10 and one in 2013.

    The WA environment and conservation department suggests “culling the kangaroos prior to development”, enclosing Cottonwood Reserve, or relocation.

    Stirling mayor David Boothman says accommodating the roos is too hard.

    “The kangaroos are next to a highly populated suburban area, the most humane thing to do is to relocate them.

    “Fully enclosing bushland areas and connecting corridors is not an option as it would preclude public movement and access to public open space in an area that is poised to become intensely developed for residential purposes.”

    Channels 9 and 10 have submitted rezoning applications for their holdings at the old Dianella media precinct. Seven’s redevelopment is slated to start around 2015. Council voted to defer making a decision for 12 months, when more information is made available.

    by STEPHEN POLLOCK

  • from the chamber

    Perth city council, August 6, 2013

    SOLID GOLD jewellers will be made to pull down an unauthorised sign it erected on a heritage building in the Hay Street Mall. At Tuesday’s meeting Perth city councillors unanimously ordered the vertical sign be removed. “It would set an undesirable precedent for similar signage on the heritage facade,” Cr Rob Butler says. Cr Lyndon Rodgers says the PCC is working hard to “activate” second-storey sites and councillors hope a compromise can be reached with more heritage-sympathetic signage. The art deco building was built around 1922 or 1923, replacing an older store destroyed by the great fires of January 1921.

    THE $8 million facelift of Carillon Arcade (Voice August 3, 2013) was given the thumbs up. Word on the street is British fashion giant Topshop is eyeing up the upgraded arcade, along with Spanish clothier Zara (recently criticised for inhumane sweatshop conditions, with three unregistered factories closed in Argentina according to lefty news site Equal Times). Cr James Limnios says the big retailers do due diligence and economic modelling and if they’re moving into Perth it’s a seal of approval for the city’s strong economy.

    PERTH will once more be home to a helipad with a river-based pontoon picked as the most likely option for chopper touchdowns. “You can’t be a global capital city without a helipad,” Cr Limnios says. “We have a few billionaires in this state who need to come in and out of the city to do business.” A helipad was on the foreshore in the mid ‘80s during the America’s cup but it was pulled out about 10 years ago. Another temporary pad was pulled out of East Perth when the Waterbank development kicked off in 2011. The PCC will ask for expressions of interest from commercial operators to get on board, conceding the council has no experience with these things and it’s best managed by the invisible hand of the market.

    EAST PERTH venue Devilles Pad has picked up an inaugural PCC customer service award. The awards were started by lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi as part of her war on rudeness. The fiery hell-themed over-25s bar picked up the award after being voted into the top spot by punters who say its customer service goes the extra mile.

  • 13. 791LETTERSDummkopf!
    While I appreciate the appropriate use of the German terms in the front page story of your August 3 edition (“Merger madness”), I suggest it would be wise to check their spelling and accuracy before going to print.
    In the first paragraph you misspell “Anschluss” (leaving out the first ‘s’) and then misuse the word ‘Fräulein’ which, as do all nouns in German, requires a capital letter. Your story is also missing its umlaut on the ‘a’.
    I’m sure I’m among a considerable number of German speakers who receive your paper and whose enjoyment of reading it may have been impaired by these errors. I readily admit to being a pedant, but as a scholar of modern European languages I find it difficult to let these things go!
    Frau Wilhelm von Mt Lawley
    The Ed says: Mein Gott in Himmel! Given our knowledge of German stems from old ‘Commando!’ comics we’ll take that as a well-deserved slap on the heinie.

    Would it smell as sweet?
    Rceent letters in the Voice by Jeff Hughes and Brian Greig with regard to the so-called “marriage” between two males and two females are a puzzle.
    If these people wish to make their choice a union between each other they can easily take out a legal private contract.
    It’s as easy as that, it has nothing to do with “marriage” between a man and a woman which the majority of Australians with common sense view as normal behaviour which has been around for thousands of years.
    There is no need for their minority group with seemingly “special needs” to call their union a “marriage”. Let them find themselves a unique name for their cause. It can never be a “marriage” as we know it.
    Greg Sehojuet
    Roscorla Ave, Yokine
    The Ed says: Bring back the dowries of goats and cows, we say. Now, THAT’S a marriage! Not so keen on shacking up with a dead brother’s missus, though.

    Toxic attitude
    Your article “Tree Poisoners” (Voice, July 27, 2013) shocked me. I have just returned to Perth, after many years living in other countries, most recently 25 years in Mexico.
    It was a struggle to grow a garden where I lived. The long, mercilessly hot summers, short winters followed by sparse rainfall discouraged the growth of anything but cacti.
    What a difference here—how verdant Perth has become, a city glorying in its bounty of flower gardens and tree-lined streets.
    Then to read that some people were destroying our beautiful heritage, merely to obtain a better view, just infuriated me, and encouraged me to tell you about a small group of expatriates who decided to bring a little beauty into a very depressed area of our town.
    We had chosen a suburb devoid of any vegetation—houses sitting on small plots of dust and sand, a truly miserable area, mirroring the poverty of it inhabitants.
    Our mission was to plant trees all along the street in front of each home. At first there was scepticism: Mexicans are not used to being given anything for free, they fight tooth and nail to get the local government to release sufficient water or electricity for their basic needs. But some gave permission, so we went to work.
    We volunteered our own gardeners and bought trees from local nurseries. The work started, and soon the gardeners were overwhelmed by children who clustered around wanting to help.
    The word got around and soon every single householder in the street was begging for a tree of their own. At last a shady spot to sit and gossip or play with the children. Today, that little bit of our town has been regenerated. No tree poisoners there!
    Sylvia Jessop
    Cresswell Rd, Dianella

    Bring on the Big Baysy
    As a south-eastern Mt Lawley resident, being part of Bayswater/Bassendean makes more sense than being in Stirling.
    I have far more connection with Maylands and Morley (and Inglewood, which is coming with us) than I do with Scarborough or Gwelup.
    There’s an inherent common feel to these suburbs which track the railway and the river to Guildford which could develop a meaningful regional identitiy which Stirling lacks. As long as we don’t inherit Bayswater’s miserably dysfunctional set of councillors.
    Troy Barry
    (posted to perthvoice.com)

    Leave it for the priests
    I am an admirer of the late US senator Patrick Moynihan.
    Confronted with a challenging issue he observed: “This calls for a policy of benign neglect.”
    Oh, that our leader would have the courage, or more correctly the imagination, to say:
    “Look, we are only the government. Marriage is a matter for religion and we don’t do that.
    “If you want to form a domestic partnership, fill out the form and get your partner to sign it.
    “If you want to get married look for a priest, a preacher, a rabbi or a celebrant.
    “Nothing to do with governing, and that’s all we get paid for.”
    Thomas A Lawson
    Lawley Cresc, Mt Lawley

    Charity begins at dinner?
    Weren’t the councillors who voted against a discount for the hire of the hall to the narcotics addiction group the same councillors who voted to hold the mayor’s dinner at a cost of $45,000?
    Where is the charity which they have so freely adopted for themselves?
    Wake up City of Bayswater and use your brains and your hearts instead of looking after yourselves for once. This organisation is not a charitable organisation as such, but a worthwhile body that does good work in combatting the terrible curse of drugs. I just hope these councillors never have a loved one in this situation—or will they just turn their backs on them?
    Sue Trewick
    Wolseley Rd, Morley

    Dismayed
    Absolutley dismayed about the threatened disembowelment of Vincent. Not sure about other areas, but the Town of North Perth was swallowed up by Perth in 1914, and remained so until 1994 when Vincent was formed.
    Vincent turned out to be very good for we natives. It seems unjust to fold it up.
    Now the premier is acting like a carpet-bagger, trying to cherry pick the more vibrant parts of Vincent, and intends to exile the rest of us to Woop Woop.
    Vincent, being an inner-doorstep urban area, has still got an invisible umbilical cord to the city. It certainly has none, nil, zero affinity to the northern capital of suburbia, Stirling.
    If the premier wishes to have part of the Vincent cake he must take it all, or nothing, not carry on like a spoilt brat, licking the icing, and expecting others to consume the spit-covered slobbery remains.
    Stuart Dudley
    Venn St, North Perth

    Whispering marbles
    Homburgs in the air. Congratulations to the influential Perth Voice: “Axe the authority” demanded a Voice Mail headline on June 22, and our enigmatic premier obeys.
    The government’s planed local government changes include putting Kings Park in the care of an expanded City of Perth.
    Most silver-lined clouds have a darker side, however, with wretched Stirling to become even more bloated. This despite the mayor saying it’s already big enough.
    Understatement of the century.
    As for Colin Barnett? Well, he sees off Captain Kevin Queeg—did you hear the marbles whispering?—yet continues to tolerate the current Stirling crew.
    Am I being naïve? Of course I am.
    Ron Willis
    First Ave, Mount Lawley

    Flip-flop MacTiernan?
    There are some questions to be asked about the candidate for Perth Alannah MacTiernan, she resigned from the Labor shadow cabinet to run for the federal seat of Canning 2010.
    Unsuccessful, she sought and won the mayoral election for the City of Vincent in 2011. Now, halfway through the term, she is having a tilt at the federal seat for Perth. There is a question to be asked about commitment and ethics because someone here is having a bet each way it seems.
    If successful in winning Perth it is goodbye to the people of Vincent—if not, well guess what folks, I am back.
    This smacks of political opportunism having a bet each way. In the meantime, who looks after her job at Vincent and how much time is Stephen Smith dedicating to his ministerial duties working as Alannah’s campaign manager? How can you trust a candidate who flip flops like this from one tier of government to another?
    Tina Klein
    Wicks St, Eden Hill
    The Ed says: Ms Klein is a former mayor of Bassendean and was formerly a member of the Liberal Party.

    Abolish them
    Your response (Voice, July 27, 2013) to my letter, “Ravenous for more rates” raises the question, why do we need local government?
    Wouldn’t it be cheaper if and less problems if we had none, instead of the proposed amalgamation. It cost millions to create the City of Vincent, now it will cost us millions to hand back part to Perth and the rest to Stirling.
    It just cost a fortune to change from Town of Vincent to City of Vincent. For whose benefit? Not the ratepayers.
    Now where we live looks like going back to Stirling and they haven’t finished the paperwork of the previous changeover. Who do I pay my rates to, which came in today?
    Robert Hart
    Anderson St, Mount Hawthorn
    The Ed says: We think councils work best we think when they’re small, in touch with their local communities and are able to determine their own amenity. If we’re only going to have mega-councils there’s a good argument for complete abolition. Maybe that’s what this “boiling frog” exercise is all about.

  • Da rail dail

    JB O’REILLY’S, West Leederville

    by DAVID BELL:

    Fake Irish bars litter the world.

    You can stop at just about any airport bar in Asia and come across names like “O’Flanagans”, be greeted by shamrocks decorating timbered walls and be served a pint of Guinness by bartenders as Irish as Jackie Chan.

    But JB O’Reilly’s in West Perth is the real deal.

    On any given Saturday JB’s is packed out by young Irish folk dancing to traditional tunes from the Emerald Isle in this homely, warm, wood-panelled drinking hall festooned with memorabilia.

    And the place has frequently taken out the title for selling more Guinness than any other bar in town (despite Guinness not being the best stout in the world).

    The food, too, is steeped in tradition, good hearty fare to stave off the cold. Away from the lively bar area there’s a pretty tastefully outfitted restaurant serving meals a few steps above standard pub grub.

    The chicken whiskey pate ($15) is served with rich, fruity cumberland sauce. Spread on a soft, warmed soda bread, the biting sauce commingles nicely with the gently creamy whiskey-tinged pate.

    The deep-fried camembert ($14) feels sinful. A crispy carapace gives way to the soft, gooey, salty cheese, served alongside a zesty salad to cut through the dairy. It was deliciously indulgent and I felt a little guilty eating it.

    The beef and Guinness pie ($23) is an old classic. This crusty “pie” is an island of pastry floating on a sea of creamy pureed peas and mash. Cracking into the flaky pastry lid, the meat inside is rich and dark and so tender it falls apart. Top notch.

    The food is hard to fault, the wine list appears pretty comprehensive to my completely inexpert eye, but the beer choice is a real drawcard too. There’s a wide range of bottled beer and the pints on tap average around $9. It’s rare to get change from a tenner when you buy a pint these days. Maybe that’s why JB’s sells so much Guinness.

    SEE THE MENU HERE

    MAKE A BOOKING HERE

    JB O’Reilly’s
    99 Cambridge St, West Leederville
    Phone 9382 4555

  • Always exceptional seafood

    RED CRAY, Mt Lawley:

    If there is one thing the Singh brothers know how to deliver, it is exceptional seafood.

    For 10 years their fabulously popular Red Cray restaurant in Belmont has been a finalist or a winner of multiple awards.

    In April this year the boys expanded their seafood empire, bringing their award-winning talents back home to Mt Lawley and opening Red Cray on Beaufort Seafood Bar Grill. “We grew up in the area and went to Mt Lawley SHS,” Gurpreet says of himself and brother Jagdave.

    “We also live close-by and frequent most of the restaurants around the strip. When this opportunity came up we grabbed it with both hands.”

    Red Cray on Beaufort (at the corner of Second Avenue) is a revelation in style: It is modern, funky, colourful and vibrant and it has to be seen to be believed.

    The ceilings soar overhead, the lighting is exquisite. Dining here is an occasion all of its own.

    The food? Seafood at its finest, with artistic culinary flair.

    The menu is varied and has it all: succulent lobster in all its glories, the finest squid however you like it, plump, fresh prawns and beautifully fresh
    whole fish.

    And you won’t believe the unbelievable value for money. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays you can enjoy fish (grilled or battered), served with the best chips and salad,
    for just $15.

    Gurpreet and Jagdave run the Red Cray as a family business and pay tribute to their father, a veteran of Perth’s restaurant scene who mentored them along the way. “We work hands-on at the restaurant all the time,” Gurpreet says. “My brother cooks in the kitchen and I am front of house.”

    Call 9471 8945 to reserve your
    table today.

    Red Cray on Beaufort is open for lunch Thurs and Fri noon to 2pm and for dinner Tue to Sat 5.30pm to late. It’s closed Sun and Mon.

    The restaurant is currently BYO until the liquor licence comes through.

    MAKE A BOOKING HERE

    SEE THE MENU HERE

    Red Cray on Beaufort
    2nd Avenue Plaza
    755 Beaufort Street, Mt Lawley
    Phone 9471 8945

  • Poetry in motion

    “I Wander lonely as a cloud” and a limerick about eating peas with honey “because it keeps them on the knife” is about the extent of my poetry.

    If I’d been exposed earlier to the biting wit of West Perth local Helen Child’s Barbie Doesn’t Fart as a teenager I’m sure things would have been different.

    “To keep us girlies placid,

    “Domesticated sheep…

    “Coz Barbie has no body hair, no pubes

    “And no vagina

    “And her face is only painted on, with a pencil liner.

    “Although she has no fanny, she dresses like a tart

    “And Barbie has no anus, so she cannot even fart.”

    The work of Mt Lawley poet Danny Gunzburg, however, reveals a softer, more lovelorn side in poems such as Her Name—penned to a love he’s too shy to approach.

    “And in a scattered daydream

    “I almost say her name, it comes to me in music

    “And melts me in the rain. ‘She doesn’t have a boyfriend’

    “I tell this to my head

    “Then turn away forever

    “And write her songs instead.”

    His poems sing from the page and the musician/poet says often the music comes into his head first, then the verse.

    Now in his 40s his love of poetry first blossomed at 13 when an English teacher set the class to studying ballads.

    “It resonated with me and I wrote my own.”

    Gunzburg and Child are amongst a swag of poets nationally taking part in the Perth Poetry Festival next weekend.

    Now in its ninth year the local poetry scene is booming, coordinator Karen Murphy says.

    Two years ago around 25 people turned up to events—last year that had quadrupled to 100.

    “[And] we hope for shows to sell out this year.”

    Penning verse has become fashionable, especially amongst young people, Ms Murphy says.

    “Being literary has become cool.”

    In the past Gunzburg played down his poetry because blokes looked askance at blokes writing poems.

    “It’s hard in an Australian culture of heavy beer drinking, football and violence to be a poet…it’s seen as too sensitive.”

    From an early age Fremantle’s Jaya Penelope was fascinated by fairy and folk tales, and her poetry flows from enchanted forests to the kitchen sink and back again.

    “I composed my first poem on stars and fountains at three,” she recalls.

    “Delicious words gathered inside me until they could do nothing but spill onto the page.”

    This year’s festival covers a variety of styles from haiku to bush poetry, kicking off with readings by well-known poets, such as Child, Allan Boyd and Penelope, Thursday August 15, 6pm, at the Cheeky Sparrow, Murray Street, Perth.

    The first heat of the Australian Poetry Slam takes place Saturday August 17.

    “A chance to grab the mic and impress the judges with poetry, hip-hop, lyrics, monologues or whatever else you have up your sleeve,” the program says.

    Part of the City of Perth winter series, the festival runs August 15–18, with readings, workshops, talks and discussions at venues across Perth.

    Head to wapoets.net.au/wa-poetry-festival/2013 for the full program.

    by JENNY D’ANGER

  • Bowing out

    17. 791ARTS2After 30 years WAAPA’s head of acting Chris Edmund will take a final bow.

    In his time at the Mount Lawley school he’s trained Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), William McInnes (Look Both Ways), Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) and Jai Courtney (Die Hard V).

    He says it’s great to drive through Los Angeles and see WAAPA graduates on every billboard.

    “It’s great! It’s such a pleasure to see Les Miserables and see [Jackman] in an extreme close up being so present and brilliant, it’s exciting of course,” Mr Edmund says.

    “I’m incredibly proud that we’ve cracked an international reputation.
    “Everywhere in the industry there are WAAPA graduates from this particular course, so it’s very gratifying to see that.”

    Mr Edmund came over from London in 1983 to teach part-time and took up the full-time headmaster gig 25 years ago.

    He says he loves directing students and quickly came to prefer it over professional troupes.“They’re incredibly open… incredibly motivated,” he says. With a typical turnout of 900 auditioning for just 18 places at WAAPA’s world-renowned acting course, he says fierce competition keeps students motivated and he doesn’t need to crack the whip.

    “They come to WAAPA for the rigour that will take them through the cold, hard reality of a very competitive industry.”

    He says his retirement won’t be entirely quiet.

    “I’ve been doing a lot of painting recently, I’ve got an exhibition on at the moment, and my writing… and I thought after 25 years I’ve paid my dues,” he chuckles.

    “I’ll just focus on a freelance career, on projects that interest me, and see how I go.

    “I’m not going to retire in the sense of putting my slippers on: Hopefully it’ll be a new adventure.”

    by DAVID BELL

  • A bull in a china shop

    In hindsight my oohing and aahing over this View Street, North Perth home was probably salt in the wound for the tenants, who no doubt face an uphill battle finding anything as delightful.

    But a true Taurean, I went at it like a bull-at-a-gate: “This is gorgeous!” I enthused insensitively yet again as I stepped into the capacious rear extension.

    With banks of massive windows (some stained glass) and doors to a lovely garden, jarrah floors and soaring ceilings this space is both vast and cosy, a sense enhanced by the beautifully decorative fireplace in the spacious lounge area.

    Attractive golden-timbered doors lead out to a huge, covered, timber deck, big enough for a dining and a chilling space.

    “Oh wow, it’s like being in a Bali resort!” I exclaimed, adding insult to injury, as I stepped across the neat paving for a closer look at the covered spa-cabana, lushly surrounded by palm trees.

    A quick look at the double-garage (off a rear laneway) before heading back inside, revealed plenty of space for the cars and storage.

    Keeping with the vintage credentials of this 1900s home, which sits on 486sqm, there’s a section of corrugated tin wall around the kitchen.

    But the guts are pure 21st century, with a drawer-dishwasher, five-burner stove and massive oven, and a scullery, which is also the laundry.

    Three of the four bedrooms are at the front of the home, all commodious, all with ceiling roses, and two with fireplaces.

    The main bedroom is upstairs, a voluminous space, with a fairy-story peaked roof, and a twee balcony and ensuite.

    Book-ended by Charles and Fitzgerald Streets, this home is central to just about everything, with a plethora of cafes, restaurants and shops in any direction and easy access to the freeway, north or south.

    by JENNY D’ANGER

    56 View Street, North Perth
    $1.19 million
    Greg Balogh | 0409 411 866
    Donna Buckovska | 0419 928 467
    Beaufort Realty | 9227 0887

  • Merger madness

    01. 790NEWSOutrage over forced council amalgamations

    THE VOICE SAYS: Premier Colin Barnett may have dreamed of Anchluss, of a seamless stitching together of borders with grateful, pretty frauleins casting flowers at his feet, but the reality is anything but.

    His merger plans have been greeted instead with almost universal opprobrium, and with good reason.

    He’s had more than three years to get this merger thing right in his head but he’s muffed it. What a mess he’s presented.

    Inexplicably, the premier is splitting Vincent in two, rather than putting all of it in Perth, which is what everybody had asked for, and which would have been far easier to achieve.

    So Vincent’s unhappy because its trendy inner-city hipsters get lumbered in suburbia and Stirling’s unhappy because it loses its debt-free Terry Tyzack pool and gets lumbered with Beatty Park, which is $15 million in the red. Stirling also loses all of Inglewood and the vast majority of prized Mt Lawley, which go into the merged Bayswater and Bassendean.

    The Barnett Merger is a master class in political incompetence, failing on just about every level: Social, political and economic. There is little, if any, practical benefit for residents and ratepayers: The mergers will certainly do nothing to drive down rates (there’s plenty of evidence from over east to show that), executive pay will skyrocket and residents’ voice in their “local” councils will be all-but snuffed out. The winners are big developers who’ve never liked the inconvenience of small, elected councils getting in their way.