Tag Archives: Perth

Iconic flying saucer in mothballs – 12/12/2008

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Whatever happened to the “space ship” that once stood at the entrance to Willeton’s Burren Dah estate?

willetonfuturo - Examiner 2008 12 12Originally acting as a sales office for the estate, it later served as the subdivision’s entry statement.

It featured on a Jebediah album cover, and in its later days was said to be the site of some late night teenage parties.

When I tracked it down in 2008 it was lying in bits in someone’s backyard. The site’s then occupant, Dennis Jensen MHR, claimed no knowledge of its whereabouts.

Originally published in The Examiner 12 December 2008 p 9.

Organ donor nurse wins compo 7/3/2014

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POST Newspapers

TEXT BY GEOFF VIVIAN

Organ donor coordinator Susan Frew has won a workers’ compensation case against the agency that handles organ donations in Western Australia.

POST 2014 3 7 p17DonateLife has admitted it made “errors” in the labeling and transport of organs.

The arbitrator awarded Ms Frew the equivalent of about four months’ pay.

She is contesting the decision.

I wrote about some of the incidents that led to Ms Frew taking stress leave and leaving her employment here.

Venice trip was ‘arduous’ – 9/12/2008

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Midland Reporter and Kalamunda Reporter

TEXT BY GEOFF VIVIAN

A delegation of local councillors from Perth’s eastern suburbs copped a lot of flack over a European trip to learn about waste management. A team from one of the tabloid TV current affairs programs had shadowed them, portraying the trip as a “junket” in prime viewing time.

Reporter 9 Dec 2008

Click on this image to read the story

As a former local government officer I had the feeling they were taking a cheap shot, so I attempted to find out just how much of the trip was leisure and how much was travel and work.

The trip’s organisers didn’t help the PR effort. When I requested an itinerary, the office took a whole day to send me a four-day-old media release. They also put a gag on the delegates, leaving the media free to interview their political enemies.

Luckily one of the delegates decided to break ranks and talk to me. A few months later he became Mayor of his city.

Artist crowd funds her overseas study – August 2013

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PICTURES AND TEXT BY GEOFF VIVIAN

A needle-felted dog by Liz Marruffo

Perth artist Elizabeth Murruffo used the crowd funding utility Pozible to fund study trips to Florence and Mexico.

After missing out on a grant, she hit upon the idea of attracting orders for needle-felted portraits of people’s childhood pet dogs.

This story is published in the current edition of the Artsource newsletter.

Judgement and the vulnerable male July 2013

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TEXT BY GEOFF VIVIAN

This appeared as a catalogue essay for Paul Trinidad’s latest Bali exhibition. It also appears on his website here.

JUDGEMENT AND THE VULNERABLE MALE

 

“… though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow….”
– Isaiah 1:18
Judgement and the vulnerable male are recurring themes in Paul Trinidad’s life and work.

He grew up in the Western Australian Goldfields towns of Kalgoorlie and Leonora. These communities began as temporary settlements for men who dug and scraped for gold. As deep mines replaced mine shafts dug by hand, male mine workers still vastly outnumbered women. The preponderance of single men in the Goldfields saw the state’s first Premier, John Forrest, reluctantly give women the vote rather than have his conservative government overturned by working men.

In his youth Trinidad spent several years in the wilderness, but not in harmony with nature. With his father and brother he worked a three-man gold mine at Lake Darlot. Together they pitted their minds and muscles against the hostile desert. They were pursuing a universal measure of men’s worth, extracted by toil and fire – gold. Continue reading →

Vegie garden on the verge of a breakthrough 6/9/2008

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Text and pictures by GEOFF VIVIAN

Cottesloe council was set to demolish a friendly verge-side herb garden.

There hadn’t even been a complaint – rangers had reported it because it did not have planning permission.

Eventually common sense prevailed, but any new verge gardens will need planning permission and to adhere to a strict new set of guidelines.

These stories are from POST Newspapers 6 and 27 September 2008