Another Denmark councillor resigned this month, changing the notional balance of power.
Click on this image to read the story.
Cr Dawn Pedro had been a long-standing councillor with a commitment to environmental management.
A group of councillors who campaigned with sacked shire engineer Rob Whooley are now in the majority.
However a day after Ms Pedro resigned, Cr Whooley found every other councillor voting against him on a motion.
Here is a nice local angle on a national story I missed posting last year.
Click on this image to read the story.
Albany man Glen Colbung was acknowledged as the architect of a $1.3 billion native title settlement between the Noongar people and the WA Government.
Former South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council CEO Glen Kelly paid tribute to Mr Colbung at the signing of the deal in Perth last June.
Under the arrangement, the state is to pay $50 million into a Noongar futures fund every year for 12 years.
Six Noongar corporations will then be able to draw on the interest for social and economic programs.
ALBANY’s Mayor said the City had fewer than three months to build a large aircraft hangar if Regional Express Airlines (Rex) was to start operating early morning flights in late February.
Click on this image to read the story.
In late November, Albany Mayor Dennis
Wellington and Member for
Albany Peter Watson said the
airline, which was the State Government’s
preferred tenderer for
the Perth to Albany route, was yet
to speak to anyone from Albany.
“I would have thought it would
have been a really good idea to
come and talk to us before we get
too excited about anything,” Mr
Wellington said.
There are various ways of reporting a local government story.
Some like to concentrate on personalities.
I prefer to show how a given issue will affect everyday people’s lives.
The Mayor’s disappointment at the City not being consulted is worth noting, but not the story’s main angle from my point of view.
The Great Southern Weekender, December 3, 2015.
GEOFF VIVIAN
Click on this image to read the story
Denmark Shire in Western Australia sacked its engineer after he made a complaint to the Minister for Local Government.
However the sacking was supposed to be for an unrelated matter that had allegedly occurred some months beforehand.
[From The Weekender, June 11, 2015 p4]
THE decision by the Department of Water (DoW) not to open the Sandbar at Wilson Inlet could be depriving endangered migrating shorebirds of valuable feeding grounds.
Click on this image to read the story
Local resident and member of Birdlife Australia, Jesz Fleming, said a report prepared by Denmark’s Green Skills noted the water levels in the inlet have remained at an unusually high level in recent years.
The report says this makes it impossible for shorebirds to feed on animals such as molluscs and worms that usually lie buried under the saturated sand.
Great Southern Weekender [go to website]
Writing science stories can be tricky when you have a report before you and you are not sure of its scientific validity.
The author had not trained as a scientist and, while he may have been following the accepted principles of ornithology and ecology, I was not personally able to make an assessment of this.
Luckily I was able to contact a shorebird ecologist I had previously interviewed, who agreed to read the report.
She told me it was a good report, and she added some useful comments of her own.
PICTURE AND TEXT BY GEOFF VIVIAN
Back story: Albany is short of housing for its most vulnerable citizens, including the elderly.
From the Great Southern Weekender May 14 2015, p3.
The state government demolished an old block of flats on this site about a decade ago, while Labor was in power, and apparently it took some time for the City to publish its new precinct plan for the area.
I was concerned I was giving the local member a free kick til I double checked, and realised Council adopted that precinct plan 18 months ago.
The present government gave him the free kick, I just did the reporting.
Meanwhile the region has more than 120 people on the emergency housing waiting list, and the state government is yet to commit to building anything on this land, which it owns.
The new state budget includes $560 million to house vulnerable people this year.
From the Great Southern Weekender May 14 2015, p3.
The Koori Mail
Text by GEOFF VIVIAN
Police, the WA government and Aboriginal community organisations agree that night patrols are an essential service.
Click on this image to read the story
Teams of trained Aboriginal workers drive through the streets of Perth and regional towns at night, stopping to speak to stranded countrymen who are often intoxicated or otherwise distressed.
They then offer them a lift home, or to emergency accommodation
In July 2013 the WA Aboriginal affairs minister ordered a review of the service, with a view to extending it.
Meanwhile the Commonwealth Attorney General, who part-funded the service in Broome and Perth, decided to cut funding for the patrols by 37 and 20 per cent respectively.
TEXT BY GEOFF VIVIAN
Australian Women Online has published my first-ever profile of a living politician.
I really don’t see myself as a celebrity chaser but this one turned out fairly well.
Among other things, Julie told me she was inspired to change her career after meeting Aung San Suu Kyi, who was then under house arrest.
Australian Women Online [read this story]
Two stories from The Koori Mail.
Click on this image to read the story
In the first, a consulting archaeologist and a KLC heavyweight say it is getting easier to destroy archaeological sites in Western Australia.
In the second, the National Native Title Council CEO weighs in along with the WA Aboriginal Affairs minister and another consulting archaeologist.
The newly-elected premier said he intended to fix traffic congestion problems at two rail crossings in Cottesloe.
Click on this image to make it larger.
Seven years have passed, and I am wondering what his constituents and others think of the state of the Eric Street and Jarrad Street crossings in Mr Barnett’s own electorate.