Perth Voice Interactive

A HOMELESS Perth choir is preparing to take centre stage in this year’s WA heritage festival.

The Spirit of the Streets choir—formed in 2007 to help disadvantaged people—will star in The Streets of Northbridge.

The musical drama will trace the highs and lows of Northbridge’s colourful past.

The motley choir includes singers with autism, Down’s syndrome, depression and alcoholism.

Last year it played 40 gigs, including concerts at Telethon, St Bart’s homeless shelter and the Salvation Army.

Choir member Harry Mithen says the production will include famous characters from world history: “We are resurrecting some famous ghosts, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Martin Luther and Rudolf Martin Graebner, the first pastor of St John’s Church who stayed here for 52 years,” he said.

“It is exhilarating to be taking a dramatic part in WA Heritage month and helping recreate some simple but down-to-earth stories of how church, city and community can be married up.”

Former WAAPA student Joshua Bodenstaff, great-grandson of pastor Graebner, will portray Martin Luther, the German reformer and “revolutionary” of the 1500s who fathered protestantism.

Over 140 events are being held between April 18 and May 18 to celebrate WA heritage festival.

The Streets of Northbridge is showing at St John’s Church in Northbridge on May 11.

It will also host the historical drama In Perth for Good, centred around the first German and Latvian people to migrate to WA, on May 4.

The Streets choir has around 40 members including talented musicians from less-disadvantaged backgrounds.

It rehearses at St John’s Lutheran Hall in Aberdeen Street every Tuesday. People of all musical abilities are invited to head along and sing.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

DRONES, hovercrafts, helicopters and swamp boats have all been considered by Bayswater city council in its war on mozzies.

The council has been inundated with calls from residents and sports clubs about a surge in the blood-suckers at the Maylands foreshore. A March 6 public forum attracted about 70 itchy locals.

Maylands Peninsula Golf Club president Rob Graham says the insects make life “horrendous” for members.

Drones have been virtually ruled out because of their small payload and limited range.

Council staff say hovercrafts and swamp boats would require interstate or overseas transport and would be expensive to maintain. Based on South Perth council’s aerial baiting program the council estimates it’ll cost $87,500 to treat 20 hectares of inaccessible wetlands over five months, ballooning the total mozzie budget to around $277,500 per year.

South Perth reports a marked reduction in the number of blood-suckers after the treatment, but Bayswater staff believe the method will be onerous because of the cost of aerial pellets.

Aerial baiters Heliwest said the council would need arrangements in place with Ascot and Belmont race courses as “helicopters and million-dollar racehorses are a recipe for a law suit”.

Approval from Air Traffic Control would also be needed because of Perth’s busy midweek flight program.

Council managers recommend hiring another staffer and buying heavy machinery, which they say will enable wetlands management to double to 12 weeks a year.

The council wants the government to foot the estimated $130,000 bill, counting on a pre-election promise.

It will vote later this month on which plan to adopt.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

LEISURE and sports businesses are choosing to operate illegally in Stirling because planning red tape makes it too hard to go legit.

The council planning scheme does not permit recreational businesses to operate in industrial zones, affecting dance studios, squash courts and indoor cricket centres.

Dance instructor Teresa McGorry says many business owners flaunt the regulations and simply open without approval .

She’d opted to do the right thing and apply for a licence for her Frobisher Street dance studio, but was rejected.

“The city advised me it was in an industrial zone so I wouldn’t get approval,” the 42-year-old Irish dance instructor told the Voice.

“The crazy thing is I can open a noisy dance studio in a ‘commercial’ zone—beside quiet offices and a doctor’s practice—but not in an industrial zone miles away from anywhere.

“With the influx of Irish immigrants into WA and the Riverdance phenomenon there is a huge demand for Irish dance classes.”

She’s hoping to get around red tape by opening the Kavanagh Studio of Irish Dance as a club.

The Voice understands the space she hopes to use has been empty four years.

Sirling city councillor David Michael reckons Ms McGorry has a point.

“I would support activities like a dance studio, gymnasium or indoor cricket or volleyball centre in industrial areas in certain circumstances,” he says.

“Council should have discretion so that we could assess any adverse effects on parking for existing local businesses and industries.

“As well as promoting increased physical activity, this could also decrease the level of crime in industrial areas after business hours.”

A report on the proposed change will be presented to council in the next few weeks.

Last week Spacemarket launched its Why so empty? app, enabling users to tag onto an interactive map disused buildings which they believe could be occupied.

Since 2011, Spacemarket has been pairing up disused buildings with artists and businesses in Perth.

Advisor Reece Harley says based on the city’s Forgotten Spaces Report he estimates at least 40 buildings in Perth are lying dormant, including The Savoy Hotel, The McNess Memorial Arcade and the Hotel and Theatre Metropole.

He says building code red tape is getting in the way of premises being utilised, including finicky regulations relating to the thickness of window panes, the height of balustrades and the pitch of staircases.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

THE owner of a rundown heritage house on Brookman Street has been prosecuted for failing to repair the derelict 19th century cottage.

Number 4 Brookman Street is classified as “conservation essential”, and in 1990 was named one of the two most intact and “grandest dwellings” on the street.

But it’s been empty since 1996 and the intervening 17 years have taken their toll.

Vincent city council has spent six years trying to get owner Norman Ioannopoulos—a builder—to fix up the site.

He told the Voice in February 2012 he had every intention of renovating the place but was waiting on exotic heritage parts. Another year’s rolled by and progress has stalled.

Earlier this month the Perth magistrate’s court found Mr Ioannopoulos had failed to comply with the council’s order under the Building Act 2011.

Council CEO John Giorgi says “the city of Vincent is serious about its heritage and particularly those properties listed on the state’s heritage register”.

“We’ve been most accommodating with the owner and it was only as a last resort that legal action was taken,” he says. “At the end of the day, he failed to comply with a legal agreement he had with the city.”

Mr Giorgi says the council will stay on the case and doesn’t rule out further legal action.

The Voice had no luck getting a response from Mr Ioannopoulos on his mobile, nor at his Bayswater business, Hi Constructions.

In May 2000 he was nominated for a Master Builders award for his work restoring the WA supreme court.

by DAVID BELL

THE Perth Transport Authority has failed to consult locals about bus lanes planned for Beaufort Street.

Vincent city councillor Josh Topelberg notes that around the world some cities are removing dedicated bus lanes: Sydney has recently pulled them out of Oxford Street.

“Some people will say the bus lanes have killed retail on Oxford Street, some people will tell you Westfield has killed retail on Oxford Street,” he says.

“I hope we’re not going to be sitting here in two to three years time talking about who’s going to remove these things.”

Cr John Carey says he’s disappointed with the PTA’s “arrogant” approach to the project.

PTA media wrangler Greg Murison says the organisation plans to talk to businesses and residents once technical details are nailed down, but Cr Carey says locals should have been brought in from the start.

He says, “there are significant concerns about this proposal from local businesses”  worried it’ll kill trade. Chief amongst concerns are congestion and speeding buses whipping past alfresco dining areas, ruining quiet meals.

The lanes will be peak-hour only, but Cr Carey says many motorists won’t ever drive in them, assuming the different-coloured bitumen means they’re preserved at all times.

The Beaufort Street Network chair says he is “really disappointed that they have not engaged with the Beaufort Street businesses” especially after he’d raised worries at the last meeting with the PTA, where the authority fronted with a “shambolic” presentation.

Mr Murison says the bus lanes are needed to handle passenger growth. Currently 9500 passengers ride on 308 buses along the route and that’s pegged to grow eight per cent a year.

Mayor Alannah MacTiernan told councillors to be practical. She says there are dedicated bus lanes either side of Vincent’s stretch and the government won’t make an exception. “I think for us to say we’re not going to allow it is just not a practical or feasible decision.”

by DAVID BELL

JOAN DOWSON was a ballerina before serving as a nurse in WWII. She later became the third woman to join the RSL executive in WA.

Fremantle heritage expert John Dowson will piece together the memories of his late mother’s life through personal letters and photographs, which he will draw on for a lecture at the RSL’s From War to Remembrance exhibition May 30.

Titled Through the Eyes of a Lady—Joan Dowson and the RSL Mr Dowson’s lecture at the WA state library will explore unknown territory in his own life. Born Dorothy Richardson, Mrs Dowson served the RSL for more than 60 years until her death in 2006, aged 88. The year before, she’d been awarded the title of senior volunteer of the year by Mosman Park town council.

She served in Egypt, Syria and Gaza with the 9th Division and later New Guinea. She put her ballet talents to work to entertain troops, her concerts reaching the attention of high-ranking military staff who encouraged her to hold shows.

by CARMELO AMALFI

 

 

 

BAYSWATER council staff recommend rejection of a $3.5 million Woolworths’ makeover of the Peninsula Tavern in Maylands.

The final decision will rest with a local development assessment panel, not the council. Most members of the DAP are not elected.

The development application for the Railway Parade pub and bottleshop includes a 743sqm Dan Murphy’s outlet, courtyards and family-style bistro, 123 car bays and two-storey offices above the liquor store.

Council staff say the proposal affects amenity and doesn’t comply with the town planning scheme.

Last year unelected planning authorities overrode council objections to approve a Coles Liquorland on Guildford Road, but that ultimately fell over when the WA liquor commission refused to grant a liquor licence on the grounds the 1250sqm outlet might harm “at-risk” people by providing access to plentiful cheap booze.

Maylands is home to community-based services that support people with alcohol-related issues, including 55 Central, Bulup Kulung Hostel, Derbal Didjar Hostel and Shopfront.

Council staff fear Woolworths’ plans for the hotel pose a similar risk, despite being about half the size.

Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker opposed the Coles plan but backs Woolies’ proposal, saying it modernises what’s already there.

“While I do not support developing new large ‘destination liquor outlets’ that promote cheap discounted grog and have been shown to encourage street drinking and anti-social behaviour, the site under application is already a tavern with a drive-thru bottle shop,” she says.

Maylands Residents and Ratepayers Association president Roger Tomlins has mixed feelings.

“The proposal is better than what we have, but it does not appear to be something that would attract families as a destination bistro and the quality of the proposed building looks cheap compared to the Old Peninsula Hotel next door,” he says. “At least the liquor shop proposed is half what Coles proposed.

“Personally I’m tired of the present tavern and would like to see the area freshened up.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

In her first speech to state parliament new Perth Liberal MP Eleni Evangel says she hopes neglect of Perth’s CBD is a thing of the past.

A Perth city councillor for eight years—resigning to take up her new post—she says she’d first stood for office because of the, “lack of attention and investment by successive state and local governments in city infrastructure”.

“What in fact occurred was described by highly acclaimed local academic and historian professor Jenny Gregory as the ‘doughnut city phenomena’.”

Money had been spent expanding the northern and southern corridors but for too long the centre had missed out.

It was only in more recent years that attention had swung back to the CBD, with the sinking of the railway line, a spruced up cultural centre, Northbridge renewal, waterfront and riverside projects and a new museum on the cards.

She is confident the capital now has a bright future.

“The 2008 election of the Barnett government marked the beginning of an unprecedented investment in major city projects and the recent re-election of this government is a strong mandate for projects currently under construction and those which will transform Perth into a dynamic, sustainable city.”

The first Liberal to hold the seat since the late Peter Durack in 1968, Ms Evangel says local schools are her priority.

“With the growing number of young families in the electorate, we see additional pressure placed on our local schools.”

Having visited Mt Hawthorn, North Perth, Kyilla and Highgate primary schools Ms Evangel says “I place school upgrades in our Perth electorate as one of my primary priorities”.

by DAVID BELL

BEAUFORT STREET locals joined in the rainbow rebellion Sunday, chalking a colourful crosswalk on Grosvenor Road, but they only got three-quarters through before police rocked up to put a halt to the illicit chalking.

Beaufort Street Network members drew the rainbow as part of a nation-wide response to the NSW government’s removal of a rainbow crosswalk in Sydney.

NSW roads minister Duncan Gay cited safety concerns as the reason for its removal, after people had been sitting and lying down to pose for photos.

In response, guerrilla rainbows have been popping up across Australia.

Annoying

Network member Mel McVee took part in the local chalking and told the Voice, “I’m also an artist so having large installations like that pulled down because they’re too popular is quite annoying”.

She says it’s “frustrating” to have been stopped by police mid-creation. “There were holes in the middle!” she laughs.

After being stopped the group headed off for coffee but the police car stuck around for another half-hour.

Network chair John Carey says the group was simply trying to add a little colour to the street: At 9am on a Sunday the road was pretty quiet (it’s a loop and only leads to a carpark).

“The event brought quite a few people together who didn’t know each other, so it was in the end a really positive event.”

The Voice contacted the cops to ask whether a car hanging about for 30 minutes to prevent disorderly chalking was the best possible use of resources, but no-one got back to us.

by DAVID BELL

MICHAEL SUTHERLAND is putting the pomp back into parliament.

The newly appointed speaker of the Legislative Assembly will be the first to don the ceremonial gown since Liberal George Strickland 12 years ago.

The Mt Lawley Liberal MP says he wants to bring a little tradition back to the lower house.

“But don’t worry, the wigs and tights are staying in the trunk.” Mr Sutherland is the assembly’s first South African-born speaker.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK