Category: General News

ALBANY businessman and chef Giuseppe D’ Antonio is confident in his decision to open a new restaurant in the CBD and says he is excited to be getting back into the hospitality game.

The Weekender can reveal Mr D’ Antonio’s Italian restaurant and pizzeria on York Street, Little Italy, will open its doors in early November if construction targets are met.

Little Italy will add to an influx of new businesses bringing colour to York Street, including Blush Retail Gallery, Monk and Hound Barber Shop and the revitalisation of Albany House by Mark Blyth Fine Jewellery.

It will stick to a rustic Italian theme in its design and menu, and feature a large dining area, a bar and an open kitchen.

Mr D’Antonio says it’s a “golden opportunity” to have snagged the York Street location and does not believe his new family restaurant will be affected by the ennui that has affected some quarters of York Street of late.

“The last time I checked, no cafés have shut down because it’s quiet,” he said, while inspecting the electrical work being completed in the dining area.

“It’s an overreaction, people don’t need to worry about it.”

Mr D’Antonio said there are “too many cafés and not enough restaurants” on Albany’s main drag, so he is keen to add another restaurant into the mix.

He will don his chef’s whites for the first few months of opening until he establishes and trains his staff.

Mr D’Antonio is no stranger to managing and cooking in eateries, having 31 years’ experience in hospitality and chef and barista training from Italy under his belt.

He also co-owned Venice restaurant in its early days and owned Cosi’s Café up until recently, when he sold the popular coffee shop late last year.

CONSTABLE CARE will be seen in schools around the state, including in the Great Southern, for the next four years thanks to a new $5 million contract secured with the WA Police Force.

The Weekender can reveal the WA police will pay the Constable Care Child Safety Foundation $5,684,989 to raise awareness of crime prevention among school children aged between 4 and 17.

Foundation CEO David Gribble confirmed the contract, which commenced on August 12, would run until August 11, 2022.

“We have had a very close working relationship with WA Police for many years, and this is actually our third preferred service provider process from the State Government for delivery of a range of different services on behalf of WA Police,” Mr Gribble said.

“We [will] work state-wide within that agreement to provide in-school theatre and education programs primarily around all aspects of crime prevention and safety and mental health.

“That includes pre-primary through to Year 12 and the spectrum from [in primary schools] protective behaviours, road safety and cultural understanding through to [in secondary schools] alcohol and drug abuse, bullying, relationships and mental health issues … and we get to over 100,000 kids every year across the state.”

Mr Gribble said the contract would see between two and four actors at a time venture south from Constable Care’s HQ in the Perth suburb of Maylands to Albany and other spots in the region.

“We typically will run upwards of 16 or 17 week-long tours to regional areas every year, and part of our contract is that 25 per cent or more of what we do in our contract has to be done outside the Perth metropolitan area,” he said.

“Because the Great Southern is a large population area, we will do a lot of work there.”

Mr Gribble said the Constable Care program covered a dozen different topic areas that were tailored to meet the needs of individual schools.

“We can run any of those topic areas and they’re driven by what local communities and schools are telling us are uppermost in their community at the time,” he said.

“In upper primary and secondary school we use a best practice process called ‘forum theatre’ that is actually designed to stimulate a conversation with young people so they can participate in solving problems.

“We present a short scenario that ends in an adverse outcome, and then we work with the student audience to ask the sorts of decisions that the characters made along the way, how could we have … tried a different strategy or said a different thing … and what we do with those audiences is we get them up on stage to take over from the actors to act out what they think would work in a real-life situation.”

The Foundation was the only organisation to bid for the restricted tender process.

Constable Care has become somewhat of a statewide treasure since his feet first hit the beat in 1989.

A GROUND-BREAKING Liberty fuel stop with liquor store, bakery and mini mart is set to replace McKail’s General Store and an existing servo on Albany Highway, but McKail’s will rise again says the project’s in-house developer.

The so-called Liberty Convenience Centre, pictured, will tomorrow be considered for approval by a state-convened assessment panel in Perth.

A spokesman for Liberty Oil said the project would be the first of its scale in Western Australia, with more convenience centres to follow.

He explained that Liberty bought the block and businesses a fortnight ago from former McKail’s General Store owner Don Perfrement.

“When we purchased it, we did a bit of a due diligence on the asset itself and found it hadn’t had any recent investment, so we thought that given the area and the community itself, the facility was due for an upgrade,” the spokesman said.

“It’s certainly a significant investment on our part, but it’s really designed to get it into the 21st century.”

The $3.5 million project, at the corner of the highway and Lancaster Road in McKail, was not advertised for public comment after City of Albany development services director Paul Camins considered community input was not needed as a servo is a discretionary use and a shop a permitted use under the City’s planning scheme.

Mr Camins has recommended that the assessment panel approve the centre.

The planned redevelopment of the 5526 sqm block includes an upgrade and extension of an existing retail building for a new Liberty service station and liquor shop, and an overhaul of the service station bowsers.

Recently, the fuel station was rebranded from Mobil to Liberty.

A report penned by Mr Camins notes the new servo would have a substantial seating area, enabling patrons to eat on site.

“This element is incidental to the service station operation, as it is designed to enable drivers to take an extended break before returning to the road,” Mr Camins advises.

“This is an important element for a service station fronting a regional road, as it assists in maintaining driver alertness.”

The Liberty spokesman said the Mobil service station had been a Liberty one first, and so was returning to its roots.

The outlet is the only one in Albany run by the partially Australian-owned Liberty chain.

He said the outlet at McKail would be the first of a larger scale fuel stop for the company.

“Albany is the first one off the rank, and then we’re going on to hopefully do a whole lot of new sites in Perth and outer Perth,” he said.

“We’ve kept all the staff there; the staff haven’t changed.

“We’re being very mindful that everything we do in that location looks after the existing community that’s based around there, so we bought this business and we’ve basically changed nothing other than the facility itself.”

Importantly, he said, McKail’s General Store would remain.

“We’re going to keep that name,” he said.

“It will be a Liberty brand, but it will still be known as McKail’s.

“We believe we have an opportunity to make a bit of a gateway entrance to Albany there.”

He said he could only see a positive outcome for the suburb of McKail, and Albany more generally.

“It’s great that we’ve re-entered the marketplace,” he said.

“We are a fuel company that’s generally known for our aggressive pricing strategy, which means of course that we’ll look after the interests of the community when it comes to our marketing mix.”

Albany Mayor Dennis Wellington and Councillor Bill Hollingworth, who will participate in the assessment panel meeting via teleconference, are the only elected officials who will get to vote on the plans.

 

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AFTER a charity tin containing $1000 arranged by five-year-old Jackson Brown was brazenly swiped from an Albany pizza shop, the family of the little girl he was trying to help has this week been overwhelmed with donations.

Last week, after the tin was stolen from the counter at Domino’s in Albany (‘Charity tin swiped’, August 16), the owner of McDonald’s Albany Darren Tyrrell immediately pledged $1000 to replace the cash Jackson had intended to go to his friend Izzy Zerna to help with her treatment for cancer.

Mr Tyrrell said he felt devastated when he read about the theft.

“I showed the story to my wife and we just felt very sad,” he said.

“We thought Jackson must be a great little guy and that this would have been a kick in the guts for him.

“We just wanted to give back, because the Albany community is very generous and were very kind to us when we first came to town.”

On Monday afternoon, Izzy’s mother Kasey Zerna shed tears upon receiving a $1000 cheque from the Tyrrells.

In March last year, Izzy, 5, was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer, known as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

At the time, Ms Zerna thought a trip to the doctor would result in a tonsillitis diagnosis.

However, she was to learn that Izzy was a lot sicker than that.

When Jackson heard his little friend would be away from school for some time, he decided to help her feel better in whatever way he could.

He placed fundraiser tins with photos of Izzy on the front at several well-known businesses (‘Jackson’s big idea to help a mate’, July 12) and held a fundraising event at Domino’s Albany on August 10.

Before the fundraiser, he had already raised $2260.40 from the tins.

Jackson’s mother Nikki Notman said he was heartbroken upon learning the tin had been stolen three days after the fundraiser.

But news this week of two more donations, from Domino’s, helped turn Jackson’s frown upside down.

From Brisbane, John Harney, who heads up Domino’s Give for Good charity, confirmed $1000 would come Izzy’s way.

This was on top of an $800 donation pledged by Domino’s Albany.

“We were disappointed to learn that a charity collection tin containing an estimated $1000 was taken from the store,” Mr Harney told The Weekender.

“We wish Izzy all the best with her treatment.”

Jackson could not sit still when told about the extra money.

“It’s amazing and fantastic!” he grinned.

“And now, I get to play with her more at school and that’s really great.”

Ms Zerna said the money, now totalling more than $6000, would help alleviate the costs accumulated from Izzy’s health scare.

She said this included treatment, hospital parking fees of more than $20 a day, fuel used driving to and from Perth, day care for her two-year-old son Callan and living expenses – Ms Zerna had no income to help her family while she remained bedside with Izzy.

“It’s hard to accept charity,” she said, balancing Callan on her hip.

“We’ve only been in Albany for five years and the community has shown us so much love and support.

“It’s been really overwhelming.”

Ms Zerna said Izzy was happy to have been at home for the past two weeks after spending five months in hospital receiving chemotherapy.

She said Izzy would need to return to Perth every three months for scans and was not quite in remission, but for now the cancer “looks like it has gone”.

Yesterday, Officer in Charge of Albany Police Grant Pollard said the investigation into the stolen money tin was continuing.

“There are no further leads or descriptions of the person of interest, so we are still investigating,” Senior Sergeant Pollard said.

He urged anyone with relevant information to come forward.

Anyone wishing to donate to make Izzy’s recovery a little easier can do so by throwing a fiver into one of Jackson’s money tins at Jo-Joe’s Pizza, Wilson’s Brewing Company, Six Degrees, Alkaline Café, Snap Fitness, Denmark Tavern, Earl of Spencer, Great Southern Supplements, and Gourmandise and Co.

MAYOR Dennis Wellington and Albany’s 12 City councillors get paid more than their counterparts in the only other two cities in the State’s far south, but council supremo Andrew Sharpe says ratepayers are getting good value for money.

Figures provided by an eagle-eyed ratepayer, and corroborated by The Weekender, show Mr Wellington gets paid $135,910, the maximum allowable under the Local Government Act. Meanwhile, Busselton Mayor Grant Henley receives $120,709.50 and Bunbury Mayor Gary Brennan $91,000.

Albany Deputy Mayor Greg Stocks receives the maximum allowable allowance for that position of $22,216, while his counterparts in Busselton and Bunbury get $19,834 and $15,250 respectively. On top of that, Cr Stocks gets paid the maximum meetings allowance of $31,364.
All other Albany councillors receive this allowance, while their counterparts in Busselton and Bunbury are respectively paid $29,613 and $25,000 each.

Each city is a ‘Band 1’ local authority for the purposes of remuneration. Populations are in the same ball-park, with Albany having 37,686 people, Busselton 38,300 and Bunbury 32,244.

At $760, Albany has the lowest weekly household mean income compared to Busselton’s $805 and Bunbury’s $789.

Asked why, given Albany’s lower mean income and the similarities in populations, the City’s elected officials are paid more than in Busselton and Bunbury, Mr Andrew Sharpe said “the salaries and allowances the City of Albany pays its elected members is within the limits prescribed by the Local Government Act for a Band 1 Local Government”.

“Albany’s mayor and elected members work very hard for their community,” he added.

The Weekender then asked Mr Sharpe if, for argument’s sake, it could be assumed the two other cities also observed legislated remuneration limits and had hard-working mayors and councillors, what then would be the reason for the higher pay in Albany.

A City spokesman said Mr Sharpe had nothing further to add.

TREKKING up Bluff Knoll for three hours in the dark in sub-zero temperatures last week was more than worthwhile for Plantagenet photographer Michael Dolphin and his dad Andy when they spotted an impossibly cute quokka sniffing around in the snow just before sunrise.

Mr Dolphin said the pair rose an hour after midnight last Thursday to have breakfast and get themselves organised before clambering into the car and making the 80km drive to the region’s highest ascent.

He said their efforts to keep warm with five layers of clothing were rendered unnecessary halfway up the hiking trail when their hefty backpacks and the mountain’s steep gradient got their temperatures rising to scorching levels.

“We were about halfway up when I stripped down to just my singlet and snow jacket,” he laughed.

“It felt like it was 50 degrees!

“My backpack was just deadweight, I took too much; I only ended up using my 600mm and 24mm lenses and I had three others with me.”

Mr Dolphin said the two men began to see snow approximately halfway up the hiking trail, and felt incredibly relieved that the snow prediction had been accurate.

“It’s the most snow we’ve seen up here,” he said.

“It was a bit thicker, more spread out and a lot lower down than last time.”

After spending 30 minutes admiring the snow and having a look around, Mr Dolphin spotted what he had been searching for at about 6.30am.

“I was pretty excited to see it,” he said of his quokka sighting.

“I was just ecstatic, but I had to wait for the sun to come up to take photos.”

Mr Dolphin and his dad passed the time by making a snowman and getting some signature Bluff Knoll landscape images before settling down on the ground for two hours from about 7am to capture the perfect snow quokka snap.

“There were about 15 people up there so we waited for them to clear out a bit, and then we were just slowly moving around to get the right angle,” he said.

“It was just luck I got the photo [of the quokka] with the icicle…it just came around the corner and was in the perfect spot.

“It made my day, no, my week, getting that quokka pic.

“It was just the cherry on top.”

WESTERN Australia’s original port city has wrested significant control of its waterfront back, with a locally engaged general manager taking the helm for the first time since that position was canned in January last year.

The Weekender can reveal that 10-year veteran at the Port of Esperance Dale Lindkvist was on July 30 appointed interim general manager at the Port of Albany while recruitment is undertaken for the reinstated position.

Southern Ports interim CEO Alan Byers said the position was part of his organisation’s response to the Southern Ports Post-Amalgamation Review.

That review, completed in January, noted that the October 2014 amalgamation of the ports of Albany, Bunbury and Esperance under the Southern Ports banner had seen a “significant loss of connection” with Albany people.

“There is one [Bunbury-based] general manager for Albany and Bunbury ports, which in Albany contributes to the sense that there are no ‘local’ executives,” the review observed.

“A number of long-standing local initiatives in Albany, including publishing advertorials in the local paper and a regular radio segment with the CEO were discontinued.”

For six months from July 2016, when the incumbent port manager retired, to January 2017, the then-chief executive of Southern Ports acted in the Albany general manager position.

Since January 2017, there has been no general manager.

The appointment of Mr Lindkvist, who recently moved to Albany, is in line with a review recommendation that Southern Ports consider reinstating locally-based general managers at each port.

“Southern Ports operations in Albany, Bunbury and Esperance will [now] have a separate, locally-based general manager, all of whom will have a seat on the executive leadership team and will be empowered to make decisions to suit each individual port,” Mr Byers said.

“The creation of a General Manager – Albany role is an important strategic move to drive Southern Ports into the future.

“We are prepared to take the time required to find the right candidate and will not rush the appointment.”

On Monday, Mr Lindkvist gave The Weekender a tour of the port in his Ford Ranger, and said he was working to meet all Albany staff and would strive to reach out to the community.

“I think it’s of foremost importance that we get that transparency from the activities that we’re currently undertaking at the port, and rolling that through to the community,” he added.

In stark contrast to the might of his 4WD, Mr Lindkvist said he looked forward to his wife and two pups, Cavoodle Molly and Moodle Toby, moving from Esperance to Albany soon.

Also new to the port’s leadership team is Julie-Ann Gray who has lived in Albany since 2002 and was appointed to the Board of Directors on July 1.

Aside from the appointment of Ms Gray and Mr Lindkvist, Mr Byers said lots of work had been done to “rebuild” the “connection” with the people of Albany.

As examples, he nominated biannual meetings of the Board in Albany, recommencing a quarterly local newsletter, and helping to deliver the sea dragon mural on the CBH silos.

Southern Ports also recently donated old port timbers for a playground at Bremer Bay, and upgraded the area around Mass Rocks to support the upcoming 150th anniversary celebrations of Western Australia’s first Catholic mass there.

From 1826, Albany was the State’s only deep-water port until Fremantle’s inner harbour was built in 1897.