Guiding light brings story home

THE LAUNCH of Albany’s Field of Light: Avenue of Honour artwork at the Mount Clarence war memorial last week sparked vivid memories of Afghanistan for State Veteran Issues Minister Peter Tinley, a onetime member of the crack SAS regiment.

“Those lights, when I stood back and got a good space-and-depth look at them, reminded me of flying in the Middle East and coming into towns in Afghanistan where there was a smattering of lights,” Mr Tinley reflected in an unguarded interview with The Weekender on Friday.

“And it brought back memories of … trepidation and fear of what we might find down there on the ground.”

In 1990, Mr Tinley graduated first in class and was Queens Medallist at the Royal Military College Duntroon.

For 17 of his 25 years in the Army he served with the Special Air Service regiment, which is based in Perth.

“It’s really good to be part of this continuous and unbroken story of Albany’s connection to the Anzacs,” he said.

“Actually, I thought the rain made last night’s opening even more poignant.

“It just added to that sense of place that was so important to the Anzac story and will continue to be important.”

Mr Tinley was the first member in the history of the SAS to advance from Trooper to Squadron Commander.

“One of the things that’s really good about Field of Light is the inclusion of the ‘A’ and the ‘NZ’, in the changing colour of the lights to the Kwhai, the national flower of New Zealand, and the wattle,” he said.

“As Veteran’s Minister I go around always and acknowledge there is an ‘NZ’ in ‘Anzac’, because in major missions in Afghanistan and Iraq and everywhere in between our Kiwi brothers and sisters have been there with us.

“They’re two siblings that don’t mind going each other, from Rugby to under-arm bowling, but the relationship is still very strong.”

During his final appointment as Chief Operations Officer from 2001 to 2004 Mr Tinley was principal planner for operations worldwide including East Timor, Christmas Island (Tampa), Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The challenge for us in Government is to make sure all of Australia knows what’s going on in Albany so people can have a fair opportunity to get here,” the Labor Member for Willagee said.

“And it’s on until April.

“My eight-year-old daughter has committed me to a road-trip to get to it again so she can see it.”

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Govt swamped on Carnegie payment

HEATED debate over the Albany wave power project dominated the reopening of Parliament on Tuesday, with Treasurer Ben Wyatt conceding the State may have cooked $2.6 million of taxpayer dough.

Asked by Member for Warren-Blackwood Terry Redman if Carnegie Energy cannot convince the Government it has the financial capacity to complete the project off Sandpatch, will $2.6 million already paid to the firm be lost, Mr Wyatt said: “I suspect so”.

“Because ultimately in nine weeks the State Government will have to assess whether Carnegie has the capacity to deliver the project in the new tax incentive environment,” he explained.

Earlier, Mr Wyatt, outwardly calm under intense Opposition fire, argued that recent changes to the Federal research and development tax incentive that now made the project less viable could not have been foreseen by the State.

Opposition Leader Mike Nahan demanded the Government table any advice it had been given on why Carnegie should have received the $2.6 million.

“We now know that Carnegie is really struggling with its technology and investment off Garden Island,” he said.

“The government did not do an assessment of whether the technology that Carnegie had that was designed to serve isolated naval bases around the world that pay top dollar for energy was competitive down in Albany; it was not.

“We now have Carnegie virtually collapsing as a firm; the man who put it together has left.”

Dr Nahan said Carnegie’s share price had “collapsed to one per cent”.

“It has flogged energy made clean at a 75 per cent loss and it is not capable of undertaking the project, yet it came and asked for its milestone payments,” he added.

“The Government initially baulked, but then gave Carnegie half.

“On what basis did the Government give it … the $2.6 million milestone payment given it has not met the milestones and cannot continue with the project?”

Dr Nahan said the Government did not do its due diligence, and had misled Albany.

“Clearly, the people of Albany wanted to go to 100 per cent renewable energy – fair enough – and the government wanted to titillate them with a renewable,” he said.

“It crab-walked away from it and said the project was not to deliver energy, it was a research project.”

He said Carnegie already had a viable research project in Fremantle that was servicing Garden Island.

“The government has actually undermined that project and probably seriously damaged the whole firm,” he said.

“The Government took this on to get a few votes down in Albany and ruined a good firm.

“Carnegie will not deliver the project and a hell of a lot of money has been wasted just to cater to a marginal seat.”

Premier Mark McGowan retorted, saying: “We proudly support the people of Albany”.

“Again, I do not understand why the Liberal and National Parties dislike the people of Albany so much that they do not want these innovative projects supporting their economic development,” he added.

A question of public interest raised by Mr Redman – that the house condemn the Government for its mishandling of the wave farm and call on Mr McGowan to remove regional development minister Alannah MacTiernan from project oversight – was defeated 34 votes to 19.

In the Legislative Council, Ms MacTiernan, responding to a question from Agricultural Region MLC Martin Aldridge, said: “Of course we looked at the capability of Carnegie and its financial capacity”.

“Carnegie is not in default of its agreement, but we have exercised the right we have under the terms of that agreement to ask it to outline, in this changed legal environment, how it is going to fund its contribution into the project before we make any further commitments,” she said.

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Balcony by degrees

ALBANY pub Six Degrees has landed a $100,000 State heritage grant to reinstate its majestic balcony, a corner post of which was obliterated by a tearaway circus elephant in 1929.

At the hotel on Friday, owner Anton Davey said he would rebuild the long-gone balcony similarly to how the nearby White Star Hotel had rebuilt its in recent years.

“It’s a project that’s going to cost $200,000, and once we do that, we want to re-licence that area, because we’ll have that great view of the harbour that is magnificent,” he said.

The venue, which still carries the ‘Royal George Hotel’ name it went by for decades, was turned down for funding in the past two years but now has scored the maximum amount available under the State’s Heritage Grants Program.

“There was a balcony here in 1929,” Mr Davey said.

“A post was taken out by Jumbo the elephant that escaped from the train down here, and it ran along Stirling Terrace and turned left into what is now our beer garden, into our laneway and actually took out the corner post.”

With editorial aplomb, on August 17, 1929 The Albany Advertiser reported Jumbo’s rampage through central Albany at the bottom of Page 2 under the headline: ‘Jumbo gets a move on’.

“Jumbo, one of the elephants attached to Wirth’s Circus … arrived by the early morning special train, and after breakfast was engaged in hauling lorry loads of gear to the Parade Street reserve, the site chosen for the huge tent,” the newspaper’s local and general roundsman wrote.

“A slight mishap to the lorry necessitated a detour to the Frederick Street works of Mr A.F. Cuddihy for repairs.”

Then things got interesting.

“Jumbo entered the Royal George lane with due decorum, but thereafter became restless and made off on ‘top gear’ with his lorry rattling behind,” the roundsman continued.

“He negotiated the narrow right-of-way without the slightest deviation but the turn to the west into Stirling Terrace proved his undoing.

“Contact with the corner post of the Royal George Hotel Terrace verandah proved disastrous for the post.

“The steel upright was snapped off like a carrot, and the top portion left swaying in the breeze.”

With The Advertiser’s current local and general roundsman not at Six Degrees on Friday for the funding announcement, The Weekender also learned exclusively that Mr Davey had abandoned his application for a 2am closing time (‘Second tilt at 2am closing time’, 24 May).

“I’ve put it on the table twice and I think because of the multi-use of the area with accommodation over the road it actually doesn’t matter [to State liquor officials] that this hotel has been here 150 years and that building down there [on Proudlove Parade] has only been here 15 years, for some reason that doesn’t seem to matter,” he lamented.

He said his current approval to trade to 1am, revealed here last year (‘Six degrees of excitation’, 7 December), was “going along just fine”.

“We won’t go back [to the State liquor licensing director] again for the 2am,” he said.

“We’ll rebuild the business around a 1am closing time.”

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Marina hotel ‘by 2020’

FORGET Middleton Beach; Albany’s best chance of landing a luxury hotel soon is at the harbour-front block beside Due South tavern where owner Paul Lionetti wants a hotel built in the next 18 months.

Albany Mayor Dennis Wellington told The Weekender a development application for a hotel on Mr Lionetti’s block had been lodged and the local business identity wanted the likely six-floor structure built by Easter 2020.

“It’s a design and construct thing with Pindan Constructions,” Mr Wellington said.

“It has 108 rooms.

“It fits within the guidelines of the agreement under which that land was originally set up.”

Mr Wellington said he was not in a position to confirm the hotel’s likely star rating.

“I haven’t had it really confirmed about the operator but we understand it will be a major chain, which would be advantageous in terms of them going to their database around the world and advertising this new hotel in Albany,” he added.

“It’s certainly something that we do need and the sooner we get it the better.”

The plans are being considered by City staff ahead of referral for a decision by a State-convened assessment panel on which Mr Wellington and Councillor Bill Hollingworth are the only locally elected officials.

“I think it’s a terrific idea,” Mr Wellington said of the hotel.

“I think it’s something we desperately need into our tourism product that we have a top-class hotel down there.

“I think if it goes through it would be excellent.”

Last month, State Lands Minister Rita Saffioti confessed not one developer had expressed interest in building a hotel on a plot at Middleton Beach left vacant when the much-loved Esplanade Hotel was demolished in 2007.

Mr Wellington said a recent approach by Mr Lionetti to convert some of the project’s rooms into apartments was yet to be resolved and did not form part of the current application.

Mr Lionetti declined to comment.

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Casting the net

GREAT Southerners have the chance to be in Albany film H is for Happiness if they can make it to casting sessions tomorrow and Saturday.

H is for Happiness follows the story of 12-year-old Candice Phee, who is on a mission to find happiness for her family following a tragedy.

The family movie will be filmed in Albany during November and December this year.

Extras, stand-ins and doubles are being sought of all ages, shapes, sizes and cultural backgrounds and will be chosen from the people who attend the casting sessions at Albany Entertainment Centre tomorrow, October 12 from 1.30pm to 5pm and Saturday, October 13 from 9am to 3pm.

One role to be filled is for a 12 or 13-year-old female student with red hair, Caucasian skin with freckles and who is approximately 154cm tall.

Another is for a 32 to 42-year-old male with brown hair, Caucasian skin and who is approximately 188cm tall.

Other roles include an elderly ladies walking group, couples, paramedics, nurses, orderlies, bands, a six-month-old red-haired female, six to 13-year-old children, teenagers, dog owners and dogs, families and a six-year-old red-haired female.

To register your interest and have your photo taken, email Rachael Karotkin at happinessfilm.casting@ gmail.com.

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Rex defends delays

EXTENDED delays to Rex’s Albany flights have raised the ire of MLA Peter Watson, who says he will raise the matter with his State Labor colleague Transport Minister Rita Saffioti.

“I’m going to catch up with Rita to find out what the benchmarks are, because of the amount of complaints I’m getting,” Mr Watson said on Monday night after belatedly arriving in Perth.

That morning, his scheduled 6:30am flight did not depart Albany until 11.25am.

“It just happens all the time,” he told The Weekender.

“It’s a weekly occurrence.”

The parliamentarian said he took between 30 and 40 return flights to Perth a year, and Rex offered a wide range of reasons for delays.

“Sometimes, they say: ‘Oh, we can’t get the pilots’,” he lamented.

“They’re also putting people off planes because it’s too heavy.

“I was at Perth Airport a couple of weeks ago, and they said they needed two people to volunteer, otherwise they could not take off because it was bad weather in Albany.”

Mr Watson said he checked the weather on his phone and Albany seemed all clear, and when he finally touched down the weather was okay at Drome.

He said a fellow passenger, recently diagnosed with cancer, who missed a 9.45am specialist’s appointment in Perth thanks to Monday’s long delay, had emailed him.

“I didn’t receive a text message and did not find out about the cancelled flight until I arrived at the airport at 5.45[am],” the woman wrote.

“Had I received a message about the flight last night, I could have driven to Perth and made the appointment.

“I have to spend the night in Perth now, which I do not want to [as it] will incur extra charges.”

Mr Watson said that over the past 12 months, delays and cancellations had got “worse and worse”.

“Their name is ‘Regional Express’, but as someone said at the airport this morning, they may as well take the ‘express’ off because they’re never on time,” he said.

“They seem to think: ‘Oh, it’s a business, take what you get, we’ve got the [monopoly] rights [to run the service]’.

A Rex spokeswoman said Mr Watson’s flight was delayed due to “crew rest requirements as specified by Civil Aviation Orders”.

“The inbound flight from the previous night was delayed, resulting in an extended rest requirement for flight crew,” she said.

She said Rex’s on-time performance was “well above” the benchmark stipulated in the airline’s agreement with the State to operate the monopoly Albany service.

“In Financial Year 2018, Rex operated more than 2300 flights between Albany and Perth with 88 per cent operating on time and we expect a similar result in the full Financial Year 2019,” she said.

“There have been slightly more delays between Albany and Perth during the winter months of July and August.

“However, we are already seeing a significant improvement post winter.”

The Weekender asked questions of Ms Saffioti and received no reply.

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Searching for soul

ANCIENT Irish archaeological sites and the Baltics are on the list of places to visit for Albany sculptor Kevin Draper following his win of a $30,000 art scholarship.

Draper is one of three artists to receive the Helen Lempriere Scholarship, an award designed to enable artists to further their artistic development through travel, study and the purchase of new equipment.

The money is also to be used to support the artists’ inclusion in Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi which begins on October 14.

Draper won the scholarship as a mid-career artist, alongside emerging artist Britt Mikkelsen and senior artist Hossein Valamanesh.

Draper began the year with his black-and-white 16-branch tree sculpture Configuration featuring in the Cottesloe Sculpture by the Sea, so being part of the Bondi exhibition for the sixth time and winning the scholarship has added more excitement to his year.

“It’s a very artist-friendly scholarship,” Draper said of the grant.

“My first thought was, well, I could buy new art materials, but it should be used for something special and a bit different.

“Travel is always a good option.”

Draper said he is normally only able to stay for the installation period at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi, so has decided part of the scholarship will go towards a longer stay in Sydney.

He plans to stay for the entire period of the sculpture show with his partner, Indra before travelling up and down the east coast visiting regional art centres.

“We’ve never had time to do that before,” Draper said.

But the travelling art research won’t stop there.

Come June next year, Draper plans to whisk himself and Indra away to Ireland, the Baltic states, the top of Scotland and potentially Berlin.

He also hopes to travel through Sweden and Norway to explore a few outdoor sculpture parks.

“I’m of Irish descent on my mum’s side, and her family’s original farm is still in Northern Ireland,” Draper said.

“There’s some ancient archaeological sites on the edge of Ireland too, and it all influences my work – how farmers use the landscape and my heritage.

“So, that will be a starting point…I’m not sure what I’ll find.”

Draper said he finds the symbology and language of Northern Europe interesting and is keen to visit a number of European art galleries.

“I’ve always been influenced by where I live and have travelled to,” he said.

“There’s just something about ancestry and the thousands of years of history that I don’t have over here [in Australia].”

Draper’s sculpture installation Configuration can be viewed at Bondi Beach from October 18 until November 4.

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Centennial Park smoking ban mooted

ONE footy and two soccer groups have backed a draft policy proposing that game day smokers be banished to nine cigarette spots on the fringe of Albany’s vast Centennial Park sporting precinct.

In a report to be considered by a City committee on October 9, community engagement manager Julie-Ann Gray recommends a ban be slapped on smoking across the precinct that includes Centennial Stadium, and Albany’s main cricket, hockey, athletics and soccer and swimming facilities.

While Ms Gray believes there is a ‘medium’ risk that local media outlets will spread a perception of ‘over-policing’, she recommends that a media blitz follow in the wake of a February 2019 launch of the ban.

She further recommends that venue staff report on patrons’ “smoking/ non-smoking behaviour” and the City conduct an “audit” of cigarette butts before and after the ban’s introduction.

Ms Gray expects the ban will cost $23,000 to implement, including $6000 for radio advertisements and $3500 for cinema ads. Newspaper ads are also proposed.

Albany Sharks Football Club President Geoff Oldfield has offered his organisation’s “support in principle to having the Centennial sporting complex made a smoke free zone”.

“I would like to see sensible designated smoking areas with butt bins to accommodate smokers away from the main buildings and high use areas,” he told the City’s recreation services manager Samantha Stevens.

Great Southern Soccer Association Registrar Jos Pass has told Ms Stevens she supports a ban on smoking, except in designated areas as proposed under the policy, “if there needs to be such areas”.

Meanwhile, Albany Junior Soccer Association President Grace Knowlson has asked the City to prohibit smoking at all playing pitches, clubrooms and canteens when sport is being played.

Under the policy, Centennial Stadium and the 11 sports fields that surround it on the eastern side of the Lockyer Avenue/North Road intersection will have just two designated smoking areas.

The policy would also prohibit smoking at all outdoor events run by the City, and in and around Albany’s library, visitor centre, town hall, airport, Anzac Centre and Vancouver Arts Centre.

Ms Gray recommends that $6750 be spent on the erection of 27 ‘You can’t smoke here’ signs, and $2000 on eight ‘You can smoke here’ signs.

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Bloody battle fought

LOCAL martial arts teacher Daniel McGrath returned from Japan recently after coaching American mixed martial arts fighter Will “The Kill” Chope at a top-level Lethwei tournament.

Lethwei is a Burmese bare-knuckle boxing full contact sport known for being one of the most aggressive and brutal martial arts in the world, mainly because it allows fighters to head-butt their opponents.

McGrath said Chope performed well for his first foray into the bloody sport, while wearing his Albany Fight Fit Martial Arts Centre clobber.

“Will has done heaps of MMA, UFC and Muay Thai style fighting in the past,” he said.

“When he called me to ask if I would coach him for his first Lethwei match I couldn’t book my plane tickets quick enough.”

Chope faced off against seasoned Lethwei fighter Shan Ko, who originates from the sports birthplace, Myanmar.

“It’s a brutal sport and pretty bloody,” McGrath said.

“There wasn’t a win for the night since there weren’t any knock-outs.

“Will’s legs were pretty cut up from Shan’s kicks but he managed to get in a few head-butts and a knee to Shan’s face.

“Shan is one tough-as-nails guy.”

McGrath said the atmosphere in Japan’s famous martial arts arena, the Korakuen Hall, was electric.

“To meet other fighters of that level was incredible,” he said.

“I think Will is the second Westerner to fight Lethwei and he’s already lining up a fight for next year.”

McGrath said he first met Chope around eight years ago at the well-known Tiger Muay Thai gym in Phuket, Thailand.

“I was training in Thailand and it was an experience and a half,” he said.

“It really took me to a whole other level.

“Will heard that I was doing some crazy kicks at the gym and sought me out. I had no idea who he was at the time.”

The teacher became the student not long afterwards, with Chope coaching McGrath through his first fight.

“We’ve coached each other over the years and become great mates,” he said.

“Will even came to my gym for a few months earlier this year and ran some classes.

“The kids absolutely loved him.”

McGrath said Chope would return to the MMA scene next month in Seoul, Korea.

“I’m hoping to coach him there as well,” he said.

“To have him represent our gym on the global martial arts stage is an honour and the least I could do is coach him.”

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RAC aboard chopper bid

THE RAC has revealed it will again throw its hat in the ring to sponsor Western Australia’s two rescue helicopters, with a two-to-five year sponsorship deal for the choppers now up for grabs.

The Weekender recently learned the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, which operates the service, was set to advertise the sponsorship package (‘Sponsor up in the air’, 13 September).

That happened late last week, and RAC’s Executive General Manager Advocacy and Members Patrick Walker says he looks forward “to continuing our partnership with the State Government and the rescue helicopters”.

But continuation of the RAC deal is by no means guaranteed, with DFES calling for tenders from any organisation wishing to pay an annual fee, and chip in an additional $150,000 a year to fund a media campaign to promote the helicopters.

In New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania, the Westpac bank sponsors those states’ helicopter rescue services.

DFES wants a sponsor to slap their livery on the fuselages of the ‘copters for two years from July 1 next year.

Thereafter, three one-year extensions will be available at DFES’ discretion.

RAC has sponsored the WA service since its inception in 2003, and was last selected as naming rights sponsor in mid-2014.

The choppers, based in Bunbury and Perth, serve more than 90 per cent of the state’s population.

Beneficiaries of the service include Hamish Bolto, then 10, who was rescued in 2015 after his trachea was severed in a motorbike accident on his family’s Katanning farm.

Applications for the sponsorship close on November 9.

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