GIVEN the current rental crisis, it might be better to buy a cheap one bedroom flat instead of duking it out with hundreds of people for a lease.
Priced at $239,000-$259,000, this Mt Lawley property is a great gateway into the suburb and could be a nice little rental further down the line.
Recently renovated with a stylish kitchen, wooden floorboards and a cute entertaining area out the back, it’s very well presented.
The Voice particularly likes the pale blue splashback in the kitchen.
There’s enough bench space for a two-seater breakfast bar and plenty of cupboards and drawers.
The design is open plan with the neutral colour scheme and light floorboards enhancing the sense of space, and you have a nice view of the back garden from the lounge.
The bathroom has been recently renovated with a modern vanity and shower, and there’s enough space for a washing machine.
The real trump card in this property is the large sheltered courtyard out the back, which has a patio, raised garden beds and lots of leafy trees, providing shade and a relaxing view.
It’s a great place to chill out with a glass of wine at night, making this apartment far more desirable than say a third floor apartment with a tiny balcony.
Situated on the tree-lined Stanley Street on the the river side of Guildford Road, you are close to all the walkways and cycle paths at the foreshore, and it’s a short walk to Mt Lawley train station.
This is a cracking one bedroom apartment that will be snapped up by a first time buyer or an astute investor.
$239,000-$259,000 4/26 Stanley Street, Mt Lawley Beaucott Property 9272 2488 Agents Paul Owen 0411 601 420 Carlos Lehn 0478 927 017
A survival thriller that takes a different approach: Two sisters go diving at a beautiful, remote location. One of the sisters is struck by a rock, leaving her trapped 28 meters below. With dangerously low levels of oxygen and cold temperatures, it is up to her sister to fight for her life.
Directed by Maximilian Erlenwein and starring Sophie Lowe and Louise Krause, THE DIVE comes to cinemas 19 October and thanks to The Reset Collective we’re giving away 5 double passes to the film which is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat!
Fill out the entry form below for your chance to win!
BAYSWATER mayor Filomena Piffaretti has resigned just days before the election in a shock move that looks set to trigger a costly by-election.
Ms Piffaretti was in the middle of a four-year term as a councillor, and was elected mayor by fellow councillors in 2021.
This year Bayswater ratepayers get to elect the mayor themselves, and Ms Piffaretti is in the field of four people who’ve put their hands up.
If a sitting councillor becomes a mayor, new provisions in the Local Government Act allow a runner-up from their ward to simply “backfill” the vacancy.
If Ms Piffaretti had resigned early enough, the WA Electoral Commission would have been able to advertise the two vacancies at this week’s elections, or if she’d held off until after the election the spot would have been backfilled.
But her resignation on October 16, just five days before votes are counted, won’t leave an opportunity for a “backfill” of the vacant spot, meaning North Ward will be one councillor short until the by-election.
Bayswater CEO Jeremy Edwards said: “The City understands the vacancy created following Cr Piffaretti‚Äôs resignation will need to be filled through an extraordinary election to be held within the next four months and is in discussions with the Department about what options are available to deal with the vacancy.”
An extraordinary election will probably cost more than $30,000, with some estimates reaching $70,000 based on the budgeted amount for Bayswater’s last extraordinary election in 2018.
• Mayor Piffaretti’s favoured lineup for North Ward, endorsing candidates Michelle Sutherland and Paul Shanahan.
Ms Piffaretti explained her reasoning in a social media post: “This decision was not easy, but after listening to feedback from numerous ratepayers and residents, I firmly believe it is the right thing to do and respects your right to choose the Council you feel will best represent you.
“I believe whoever you elect as your Mayor on Saturday should be able to do so with a clear mandate. The Mayor should be given the opportunity to lead in their own right with the best interests of the community in mind.”
Ms Piffaretti’s manoeuvre has the potential to shut out current councillor Sally Palmer, with whom she’s crossed swords in the chamber over a range of issues.
Cr Palmer is seeking re-election in North Ward against two candidates publicly endorsed by the former mayor.
Based on past performance, Piffaretti ally Cr Michelle Sutherland is likely to command the highest vote, with Cr Palmer a probably second over newcomer Mr Shanahan, who’s also got the former mayor’s backing on election material.
With Ms Piffaretti’s resignation, if Cr Palmer can’t win the top spot, she faces another costly campaign against a mayoral-backed candidate with all that faction’s resources lined up behind them.
Councillor Elli Petersen-Pik said whoever won the by-election would probably only get about 18 months on council before their term ended.
“Following a previous resignation, the Council was asked to allocate $70,000 to conduct an extraordinary election. This unnecessary expenditure concerns me, when there are so many priorities for our communities,” he said.
Mr Edwards confirmed to us via an emailed response: “Councillors have been provided with a series of briefings on the Local Government Reforms with topics including optional preferential voting, and the new backfilling and vacancy provisions in the Local Government Act.”
We attempted to contact Ms Piffaretti via the phone number and email she provided for her election campaign, but did not hear back.
ALL of Vincent’s neighbourhood roads will drop to 40kmh following trials in select spots across the city.
Mayor Emma Cole announced the speed drop at her final council meeting on October 17, saying “Main Roads has given us the green light to go 40kmh on all of our local neighbourhood roads,” while distributor roads and main corridors won’t be affected.
“That is something that this council and previous councillors have worked towards for many, many years and to have that news from Main Roads is really fantastic,” Ms Cole said.
The council first trialed a 40kmh limit in southern Vincent in 2019.
• Mayor Emma Cole and Perth MP John Carey welcome Vincent’s slowdown.
It had pretty modest results: average speeds dropped by about 1kmh (Voice, February 25, 2023), but a majority of survey respondents supported speed reductions and in February 2023 councillors resolved to expand the slow-down.
Ms Cole said in a statement issued a day after the meeting: “Over many years, our inner-city community has been asking us to slow down speeds and reduce rat running in our residential neighbourhoods.
“I have consistently been told that 50kmh on our local streets just feels too fast.
“This change will make it safer for our kids to walk and cycle to school or their local park, and our streets will feel more comfortable.
“We know from our trial that slower speeds encourage more walking and cycling for short trips.”
Perth MP John Carey, who’d been mayor back when Vincent first started its slower speed campaign, told the Voice this week: “When I doorknock, which is most weekends, one of the key issues people raise is about speeding cars on local roads and how it affects amenity and liveability.
“So I think this is brilliant; we are in a far more built up area close to the city, so reducing the speed to 40k is a great step.
“My view is any move to reduce the speed in built up areas is a good thing. I understand others want further reductions, but I’m pragmatic about this; this is a good move and it’s about trying to create that slower speed culture on our local roads.”
The speed limit becomes official once the speed limit signs are in place, and Main Roads is due to start works by the end of 2023 and expects to be complete by mid-2024.
NORTH PERTH Primary School is gearing up to celebrate the school’s 125th anniversary in March next year.
NPPS is one of the oldest continuously operating schools in WA, having opened on January 30, 1899 to cater for the growing suburban population.
It started with 131 students and the school still uses the original buildings, and it was added to the State Register of Heritage Places in 2005.
• North Perth primary school students Flynn Leonhardt, Alfie Duckham, Hudson Stain, Ava Foley, Cleo Leonhardt and Kit Myles with principal Andrew Streeton. Photo by David Bell
Ahead of the anniversary celebrations, the school and its history-buff parents have recently succeeded in naming a nearby laneway after their foundation principal, Joshua Hammill.
Mr Hammill was only about 27 years old when he was appointed “head teacher” at what was then called Toorak School, and he drove the school’s expansion and went on a recruiting drive to find enough staff to cater with the rapidly expanding North Perth population.
In the lead-up to the celebrations, current principal Andrew Streeton says they’re keen to hear from anyone who can help tell the school’s story.
He’s hoping to hear from ex-alumni and “anyone with histories, stories, or photos”.
The 125th Anniversary Fair is on Saturday March 16, and Mr Streeton is at andrew.streeton@education.wa.edu.au if you have any memorabilia or tales to tell.
LOCAL historian and ex-North Perth Primary School parent Susanna Iuliano brings us this history of North Perth Primary School and its foundation principal Joshua Hammill. A facebook page for updates on the March 16 anniversary fair has been set up under the name “125 Years of North Perth Primary School”.
IN 2024, North Perth Primary School celebrates its 125th anniversary.
To mark the occasion, the school has begun planning a range of activities that will shine a light on its history and bring together generations of former and current students in celebration.
“We’re hosting a family fun fair on Saturday 16 March that will include history walking tours, stalls, rides, and food,” North Perth Primary principal Andrew Streeton said.
“This will be a wonderful community event that will culminate with a fireworks show
“In the lead-up to the celebrations, we also wanted to honour our founding principal, Joshua Hammill, by naming a lane beside the school in his honour.
• Joshua Hammill and assistant Miss Amy Ottaway outside the newly opening North Perth school in 1899. City of Vincent local history collection, COV PHO 6143
Hammill Lane
“Hammill Lane is a fitting tribute to the teacher who established our school community way back in 1899.”
Joshua Hammill’s granddaughter Meg Dyson and her family shared information and photos about her grandfather’s life with the school and with the City of Vincent’s local history centre which helped to support the lane naming proposal.
Born in 1872 in South Australia, Joshua Hammill came to Western Australia in 1896 as a 24-year-old teacher.
He worked initially as an assistant at Highgate School.
In 1899, a new school was established in North Perth to service the growing community in the area and Hammill was appointed head teacher.
The school was originally called Toorak, then Woodville school after the fancy names of the first housing subdivisions in the area.
It was then renamed North Perth State School in 1904.
• Joshua Hammill and wife Annie Florence at the opening of the bowls season at Loton Park, 1935.
When Hammill began his role as head teacher at the new school in North Perth, there were 131 students and only two staff; Hammill and his assistant Amy Ottaway.
He was able to quickly expand the school and recruit more staff to cope with the rapidly growing demand for schooling in the burgeoning suburb of North Perth.
Under Hammill, the school population grew to 555 students along with 10 assistant teachers.
Hammill lived next door to the school in Albert Street with his wife Annie Florence Mitchell whom he married in 1901 and had two children, Irene Elizabeth (1902) and Gwendoline May (1904).
He served as head teacher at North Perth State School for 14 years until he was transferred to Victoria Park in 1913.
Aside from his role in establishing the school, Hammill was also active in the broader North Perth community and in teacher advocacy in WA.
He played a prominent role in the foundation of the state teacher’s union in 1898, and variously served as the union’s secretary, president and editor of the Teacher’s Journal.
Hammill was also a well-known figure in the establishment of lawn bowling in Western Australia.
He was the foundation secretary of the North Perth Bowls Club (1907-1911) then later secretary of the WA Bowls Association for various terms in the 1910s and 1920s.
He also became the WA delegate and later president of the Australian Bowling Council, a role he was serving in at the time of his death in 1936.
He was also a regular contributor to the West Australian, writing news and amusing articles (mostly relating to bowling) under the pseudonym Noah Little.
His 1936 obituary in the West Australian pays particular tribute to his passion for bowls and his role in development of the sport in Western Australia and Australia (The West Australian, January 10, 1936).
A RETIRING Vincent councillor has farewelled his term in office in an unusual manner, reading a municipal-themed adaptation of the 1989 Billy Joel hit We Didn’t Start the Fire.
Instead of Joel’s pivotal events from the 1940s to 1980s, Cr Dan Loden’s You Can’t Stop the Progress version covered his eight years at Vincent council.
Here’s one of the five verses Cr Loden read out at his final council meeting on October 17:
“Zero waste by ‘28, going strong, it’s not too late.
Introduced FOGO, commercial waste a no-go.
Kitchen caddy on countertops, now it’s part of standard ops.
Smaller bins are everywhere, a third the space, what a dare.
Verge valet underway, plus less waste every day.
Upcycling’s the next step, it’s tough but a good bet.
Circular economy, sounds really good to me.
Incineration no way, what more do I have to say.”
After also mentioning net zero emission targets, solar power at Beatty Park, and managing to fit in the names of every other councillor he served with, Cr Loden concluded: “After eight years, know what’s in store, and I can’t take it anymore.”
After a light applause, Cr Loden returned to prose and said “more seriously though, to my council colleagues I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to achieve these last eight years together.
“For those of you who are hanging around, lean in to the joy of this experience, ‘cause you are here for a fleeting period of time so take the opportunity to do something with it.”
Cr Loden’s re-write is not the worst adaption of We Didn’t Start the Fire to be released in 2023.
In July American rock band Fall Out Boy released a version covering the Millenial lifespan. Along with ignoring the original song’s masterful sequencing of events in chronological order, the band was widely criticised for rhyming “George Floyd” with “Metroid”, pairing the name of the black American man murdered by police in 2020 with the Nintendo game released in 1986.
Also retiring at this election are mayor Emma Cole after first being elected as councillor 10 years ago, deputy mayor Susan Gontaszewski who’s served eight years as a councillor, and Ross Ioppolo who was elected in 2021 but has opted to cut his four year term and retire after two.
Cr Ioppolo’s farewell speech was less enthusiastic about his time there, as he had often butted heads with other councillors over Vincent’s finances.
“I have plenty of material for a future TV show: It’s The Office meets Parks and Recreation,” Cr Ioppolo said at his final meeting, referring to two sitcoms about dysfunctional workplaces.
He also said: “I felt incredibly humbled and honoured to represent the ratepayers and residents in the City of Vincent.
VINCENT councillors have held off stripping a historic cottage of its heritage protection, wanting justification from Main Roads WA that its demolition is necessary.
Main Roads has asked that the “category B – conservation recommended” heritage inventory listing be removed from the 1904 cottage at 40 Guildford Road, easing the path to demolition and paving the way for a long-planned road widening (“Call to toughen heritage protection,” Voice, October 14, 2023).
Main Roads argued the planned road widening would lop off the front of the block, and without its front it’d no longer be very historic, justifying its pre-emptive removal from the listing. The Cook government also wants to build social housing on the site.
Not willing to give up the old place just yet, Vincent councillors this week voted to defer their decision over the listing.
Cr Ashley Wallace pointed out they hadn’t yet seen detailed plans showing the house needed to be demolished: “In the absence of any detailed road design, and just noting that this lot appears to be the point at which the road reserve widens significantly, I’d be interested to know whether Main Roads had considered whether that widening at this particular point could just be bumped down by two lots to preserve an important part of the Municipal Heritage Inventory.”
He moved they defer it for now until they get reasons from Main Roads as to why the cottage needs to go, and justification for why the widening can’t start just a bit further down the road.
They’re aiming to get the information back in time to vote around March 2024.
THE nation was in a ‘no’ mood, but Perth was one of only two electorates in WA that voted in favour of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament at last weekend’s referendum, as of the current count.
Results are still coming in and as we go to print Curtin is also a slim “yes”, with 50.8 per cent in favour. But that number’s been ebbing as postal votes are being counted and appears to be trending “no”.
• How the Perth electorate voted in the Voice referendum.
Prediction
Ahead of the October 14 referendum, Labor’s federal Perth MP Patrick Gorman made a firm prediction: “Perth’s a yes,” he told us amid his doorknocking campaign in support of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
He was right on that front, with Perth standing at 55.9 per cent ‘yes’.
Vincent council was one of the local governments to throw its support behind the Voice to Parliament, having voted in 2020 to unanimously endorse the Uluru Statement from the Heart calling for a voice to be constitutionally enshrined.
Other supporters included Bayswater, Fremantle, East Fremantle, and Victoria Park.
Vincent mayor Emma Cole told us this week that while she was disappointed with the overall vote, local results were encouraging: “It’s really heartening to see the support in some of our local booths in the City of Vincent, part in our local primary schools where we have really strong communities that are running reconciliation action plans and really encouraging Noongar culture and song and education in our schools.”
Current counts place the two Highgate polling places at above 67 per cent, Mount Hawthorn at 66.76 per cent, and North Perth’s two booths were around 70 per cent.
“It was encouraging to see our community really strongly supporting reconciliation, and I know the City of Vincent will continue to work with elders and our community to ensure that we keep strongly on that path,” Ms Cole said.
THE Starlight Foundation is set to benefit from the third big Halloween celebration at Menzies Oval in Mt Hawthorn on Tuesday October 31.
Organised by Realmark Leederville agent Miles Garner, the event has so far raised more than $6000 for the charity, which brings smiles to sick children by bringing superheroes into hospitals, granting wishes and creating special moments with their families.
Get Halloweeny with your best costumes and join in the fun from 3.30 – 5.30pm, with free facepainting (we’re predicting witchy warts will be huge this year), a bouncy castle, food trucks and a DJ.
Perth Voice Interactive 