Category: General News

WINEMAKERS of the Great Southern region are closing in on the arduous task of harvesting their grapes as the picking season comes to an unusually early finish.

With some wineries having already finished their harvest well before the expected end of season in late April, some producers have said this season has been the shortest in recent memory.

Albany’s Wignalls Wines are expecting to finish their harvest by the end of the week.

“So far, the season is looking like an absolute beauty with really good yields,” owner and winemaker Rob Wignall said.

“Our traditionally later varieties have ripened earlier than normal, which is causing our harvest time to be compressed and a lot of pressure put on our storage resources.”

Mr Wignall reported his grapes generally had balanced acids and a slightly higher sugar content; however, with the threat of disease and bunch rot in his crop, Mr Wignall hasn’t wasted time harvesting.

“I would say this has been the shortest and sharpest harvest season we’ve had in our history,” he said.

“It has been exhausting picking in the wee hours of the morning when it’s coolest, but we’re pretty happy overall.”

In the Mount Barker region, Galafrey Wines’ CEO Kim Tyrer said they had completed harvest for all of their white varieties.

“Our yields have been pretty mixed this year, with some varieties doing really well and others not too good,” she said.

“Our season definitely started earlier than last year’s and will be really short, with our red varieties nearly ready to come off the vine.

“I think our vintage will be over quite early. It will be interesting to see if we have anything left after the Easter break.”

“With everything coming off pretty close together we’re getting a lot of pressure on our storage,” she said.

‘It’s coming off thick and fast, that’s for sure.”

Denmark winery Rockcliffe also reported a higher threat of disease this season, with high humidity and the risk of wet weather threatening fungal blooms and mildew.

“Our volume is going to be a bit smaller this year since we’ve had to drop fruit, but I’m confident our quality is there,” Rockcliffe CEO Steve Hall said.

“We’ve had a lot of disease pressure with the weather not being kind to us.

“But we should have all our harvest done by the end of the week.”

In comparison, Porongurup vineyard Zarephath has reported longer ripening times with a slightly longer harvesting time.

Zarephath owner and winemaker Rosie Singer said yields were larger than last year’s season.

Ms Singer attributed the large yield to the late spring and early summer rain last year, which has shown promising fruit for their Pinot Noir.

“The Pinot is doing really well and is always an anticipated wine for us,” she said.

Frankland River’s Alkoomi are also taking longer to harvest their grapes, with owner and vineyard manager Rod Hallett stating that it would still be another three to four weeks until their harvest would be complete.

“We’ve had a pretty awesome season this year,” he said.

“We started a bit earlier this year, but everything is on par with its standard.”

Mr Hallett said the drier weather in Frankland River had spared the vineyard from any issues with disease this year.

“I’m sure other wineries in the Frankland region would be experiencing the same,” he said.

“Frankland is pretty reliable with its weather and its grapes.”

THE Travelgate scandal that saw the Corruption and Crime Commission form opinions of serious misconduct against Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi reared its head in Albany on Tuesday when a city committee agreed that ratepayers foot the bill for a $5000 trip to France for Mayor Dennis Wellington.

Toward the end of debate on the planned trip to Peronne to commemorate Australia’s World War I military presence at the Somme, Deputy Mayor Greg Stocks dubbed Albany’s inability to accept an offer from Peronne of accommodation and domestic transport “a load of rubbish”.

“It’s not as if the mayor is going to the Olympic Games … and drinking with the corporate sector,” Cr Stocks said, precipitating a muffled chortle from one of his elected colleagues.

The observation was a pointed reference to Ms Scaffidi’s acceptance of a trip to the 2008 Beijing Olympics for she and husband Joe, courtesy of BHP-Billiton.

After the CCC published opinions of serious misconduct against Ms Scaffidi in 2015, the ensuing Travelgate affair saw the State Government tighten declaration requirements for all gifts to local officials, including trips abroad.

At the Community and Corporate Services Committee meeting on Tuesday night, Alison Goode, Mayor of Albany from 1999 to 2007, said it was “a shame” Mr Wellington was “unable to accept the gift” but that such hospitality usually came at a cost.

“When the Mayor of Gallipoli came out, we footed the bill for everything,” Cr Goode recalled.

Cr Sandie Smith asked city CEO Andrew Sharpe if the friendship agreement with Peronne was active and reciprocal, as required by the city’s Civic Affiliations Policy for an overseas trip.

Mr Sharpe said that when in Peronne Mr Wellington would discuss a return visit from French officials to commemorate the Anzacs’ departure from Albany in 1914.

“It’s a bit late for that,” Cr Smith observed.

“When was the last time there was a reciprocal visit from them, please?”

Addressing Cr Goode, and not committee chair Paul Terry, Mr Wellington said he thought it was “when you were mayor”.

“I think they were invited for 2014 but couldn’t make it,” he added.

Mr Sharpe acknowledged Cr Smith’s was “a valid question”.

“I think that’s a conversation the mayor is quite likely to have when he visits Peronne to see if there’s a desire to visit in 2019,” he said, referring to the Field of Light: Avenue of Honour installation set to commemorate the Anzacs from October 2018 to April 2019 at Mount Clarence.

Mr Wellington said that since the agreement with Peronne was signed in 2008, the city had realised its bilateral relationships were very expensive.

He said the city had said “no thanks” in the past “four or five months” to two approaches from Chinese cities.

After debate concluded, Mr Wellington left the council chambers and his 12 councillor colleagues unanimously endorsed the $5000 visit from August 31 to September 2.

ADVANCE health directives instructing medical staff not to resuscitate very ill patients have come under the microscope in Albany, the only regional centre to host hearings of the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on End of Life Choices to date.

At Centennial Park on March 7, Patricia Marshall, 77, told the eight-MP committee chaired by Morley MLA Amber-Jade Sanderson, that she had spoken to her GP about an advance health directive.

She said a directive would have no effect if somebody were to collapse at home where an ambulance officer, without access to the document, would be legally bound to revive the patient.

“Something has to be done about these advance health directives,” she said.

“[They] might be in the hospital in the bottom of a thick file.

“They have to be somewhere central and they have to be binding.”

After Mount Lawley MLA Simon Millman asked if Mrs Marshall was concerned the documents might be “treated as relatively fluid directives”, she said they were not being applied satisfactorily and so did not account for the wishes of patients.

She said directives were normally filed only with GPs and local hospitals, and that a central repository, accessible to all medical staff, would help.

When Baldivis ML A Reece Whitby observed there was “quite a population of retirees in Albany”, Mrs Marshall said the city’s senior citizens had been discussing the matter of euthanasia “in quite some detail”.

“So, we have come to the right place,” Mr Whitby smiled.

After The Weekender last year asked Ms Sanderson if her powerful committee planned to convene in Albany, it decided to do so.

The only other regional centre announced for hearings is Broome, where the committee will take evidence next month.

In a written submission, Virginia Jealous told the committee a ‘death care choices’ meeting of 50 people in Denmark on October 22 had supported better access to information about advance health directives.

In Perth on February 26, University of Western Australia research fellow Craig Sinclair told the committee he supported the “rights-based approach” to end-of-life choices that operated in Canada.

Dr Sinclair, who has a PhD in psychology and is based in Albany, said he would prefer an approach grounded in autonomy and equality of access to assisted dying.

Within such a framework, safeguarding the integrity of the decision-making process, rather than providing a criminal defence for medical practitioners, would be paramount.

He said that, particularly with dementia, many people chose assisted dying to maintain independence and control, rather than to avoid severe pain.

Also in Perth, on March 1, Albany-based palliative care physician Kirsten Auret told the committee her UWA medical students rarely expressed concerns about competent patients who refused life-sustaining treatments.

“The concerns that have been voiced by both our academics and our students are around how difficult it can be at times to assess competency in making very complex decisions in medically unwell patients, particularly those with delirium, dementia, and neurodegenerative diseases,” Professor Auret said.

“The issue of discomfort for our students is not the withholding or withdrawing or refusing of life-prolonging treatment; it is the issue of capacity and how do they do that safely and effectively.”

In a written submission, Harley Dekker, a Year 10 student at Albany’s John Calvin School, said euthanasia was against his Christian beliefs.

“My grandpa died of cancer after being told that he could live for another three months, but he only lasted five days,” Harley wrote.

“God states in his bible that he doesn’t like people choosing when they get to end their life.

“I am extremely worried that if euthanasia is legalised lots of old people will choose the euthanasia way.”

In their submission, Gerald and Carolyn den Boer, who last year moved from Albany to Byford, also opposed euthanasia.

“The main reason for doing so is simply because we believe the Bible to be the Word of God, and it is His Word that God forbids all murder and assisted suicide,” they explained.

“It is of great concern to us that if euthanasia is legalised it will have bad ramifications down the track.

“Already in Europe there are cases when people are euthanised when their families desire it for selfish reasons.”

In his submission, Albany resident Andrew Vermeulen said his father-in-law had died in September after a 12-year struggle with dementia.

He stressed that his father-in-law’s life had purpose until the day he died, even though for the past eight years he was unable to speak and had lost control of bodily functions.

“Legalising euthanasia will result in less compassion in society,” Mr Vermeulen argued.

“I’d plead with the government to support good palliative care facilities so that our loved ones can die in good, caring and loving environments.”

On March 2 in Perth, neurologist Robert Edis told the committee that palliative care services in Albany, Esperance, Bunbury, Geraldton and Broome were good.

“In our experience of the country areas, they all muck in together,” Dr Edis said.

“If they live in a farming community, they may go to Katanning Hospital or something, and there will be a palliative care component to their beds.”

The committee is halfway through its inquiry, with calls for written submissions now closed, and hearings expected to wrap up in Perth in April.

DESPITE mixed conditions for racing at the second annual Racewars event, more than 500 drivers and their cars descended on the Albany Airport over the long weekend.

With a mixed showing of Japanese imports, supercars, American muscle and Australia classics, crowds were wowed with displays of speed and the sound of spooled-up turbos.

Racewars veteran Ed Tassone came out on top of the event with a mind-blowing 334.9km/h registered in his 2006 HSV GTO.

Current Australian outright land speed record holder Rosco McGlashan and his 1.2 tonne Banshee J34 Westinghouse jet dragster also made an appearance over the weekend.

To finish off the weekend racers and spectators filled the White Star Hotel for an awards ceremony and to burn off some steam before heading home.

COLLECTING stickers after their grocery shopping has paid off for students at Flinders Park Primary and Bethel Christian School, with a plethora of new educational games and resources turning up on their doorsteps last week.

The Woolworths Earn and Learn program rewards every $10 of grocery shopping with a sticker, and these stickers, once all collected by each individual school, are combined to earn schools new educational resources and equipment.

Bethel Christian School received their goodies last Wednesday and received Pretend and Play, mathematics and developmental resources, as well as stationery equipment.

Flinders Park Primary received theirs last Thursday, and the pressie list includes outside and active, mathematics and cultural resources, games and stationery.

Woolworths Bayonet Head store manager Stacey Seymour said she was absolutely delighted to present the array of resources to the students.

“To get out into the community and make a difference is great,” she said.

“We already have a great relationship with Flinders Park, so it’s an added bonus to support the school in this way.”

Principal Richard Bushell said the school was grateful for the new resources, and said they provided a great opportunity to enhance the school’s Teaching and Learning program.

The top five resource categories redeemed in WA via the Woolworths Earn and Learn program were ICT, sport, construction, mathematics and science.

A WOODANILLING householder will be permitted to keep six chihuahuas after he allegedly needed reminding to apply to keep more than two.

On January 15, Woodanilling shire wrote to Mr J. James requesting that he register any unregistered dogs kept on his Robinson Road property.

The shire asked Mr James why he had allegedly not sought approval to keep extra dogs before taking possession of the chihuahuas.

In a written response, Mr James explained he had been willed the pint-sized pooches two years ago from a deceased estate.

In a report to Woodanilling councillors, Deputy Shire CEO Sue Dowson explained the chihuahuas – named Sheba (aged 11), Snoopie (7), Phantom (7), Junior (7), Tich (7) and Little Bear (11) – were securely fenced and that registrations for the dogs had been paid.

While Woodanilling’s local dog law bans the keeping of more than two adult canines, shire councillors on February 20 unanimously agreed to permit Mr James to keep the chihuahuas until October 31.

This is on the condition that if the number of chihuahuas decreases for any reason, shire permission be sought for any replacement dog.

Deputy Shire President Trevor Young absented from voting after advising he was personally connected to Mr James.

After declaring a proximity interest, Shire CEO Belinda Knight left the council chambers – which like Mr James and his six chihuahuas, are located on Robinson Road – while debate on the diminutive dish-lickers ensued.

TWO Frankland River women have made a heart-felt bid to learn the identity of a mystery man who swept into the local country club, paid his membership dues and vanished without a trace.

With trepidation, The Weekender responded to the pictured ‘personal ad’ placed recently by Frankland District Country Club staffers Laura Adams and Emma Haynes in The Franklander newsletter.

After we identified ourselves, as per journalistic protocol, Ms Adams said she needed to remain tight-lipped on the brand of cigarettes and beer the man bought, unless, of course, “you are the gentleman we’re after”.

“We had a payment that we couldn’t account for that was taken over the bar and there wasn’t a receipt,” she explained.

“It was just some random fellow who came in, paid his membership, bought some smokes, bought a beer and that’s all we’ve got to go on.

“We were just trying to get some attention so we could formally acknowledge his membership.”

Ms Adams said the “handsome stranger”, whose appearance she could not actually recall, had been coy to date, with the only response from two issues of The Franklander received from mocking mates of the two women.

If you think your choice of beer and ciggies measures up to Ms Adams’ and Haynes’ expectations, you can close the triangle by calling 9855 2310.

THE sole licensee of the Ongerup Hotel from April 2009 to October 2017 has been banned from running pubs for five years and fined $10,000 after serving alcohol past the hotel’s mandated closing time to a man who later crashed a four-wheel-drive whose passenger was killed.

In her written decision of February 21, Liquor Commission of Western Australia Presiding Member Mara Barone noted that at 7.27pm on December 3, 2015, John Robert Hooper and Rodney Spencer began drinking at the hotel in the small Great Southern town.

In facts accepted by licensee John William Guy, he and bartender Kaitlin Hilyard continued serving alcohol past midnight, in contravention of the hotel’s licence, until 1.53am.

At some stage, Mr Hooper left the hotel to sleep in his 4WD, and Mr Spencer followed soon after.

In her ruling, Ms Barone observed that Mr Spencer drove the 4WD, before crashing in the early hours of December 4, resulting in Mr Hooper’s death.

Emergency services staff described some people at the scene as clearly affected by alcohol, or intoxicated.

The attending police officer was concerned the situation could escalate, given the bystanders’ behaviour.

Ms Hilyard told police that Guy had told her not to speak to police, and then said that, if asked, she should say she finished work at midnight and had a drink behind the hotel before leaving for home.

Guy did not admit he told Ms Hilyard those things.

On February 28 last year, Guy pleaded guilty in Katanning Magistrates Court to 16 charges of trading outside permitted hours, and one count of permitting a person to take liquor from licensed premises in an unauthorised manner.

He was fined a total of $1500 for those offences.

Guy had been a licensee of the hotel for 23 years, including a period as sole licensee from April 2009 to October 2017.

Ms Barone fined him $10,000 and banned him from running a hotel for five years.

On behalf of Guy, his lawyers, Dwyer Durack, said: “We have no instructions to make any comments to the press”.

A TOYOTA Landcruiser worth $68,000 was gutted in a suspiciously-lit fire at the Cosy Corner campsite, near Kronkup, in the very early hours of Tuesday morning.

Albany Police Acting Detective Sergeant Chris Macaulay said that after the owners of the silver 2008 (200 series) Landcruiser went to sleep in their caravan in the camping ground, the vehicle’s alarm was activated just after midnight.

“The couple were woken up by the alarm going off, and the female had got out of the caravan and located her car on fire,” he said.

“The partner’s come out and they’ve tried to extinguish the vehicle but it’s basically overwhelmed them, and they’ve then called the fire brigade.

Acting Det Sgt Macaulay said the couple had been looking after the campsite for the past month, which on Monday night was housing quite a few campers.

He said the $68,000 4WD was completely destroyed, and the couple’s Regal Commander caravan valued at $120,000 was also significantly damaged.

“They’re very lucky, to be honest,” he said.

“If it wasn’t for the car alarm being activated, it could have been a different story for them.”

He said a full jerrycan that was sitting near the Landcruiser, and scrub around the campsite, escaped the flames.

The overall value of damage at the campsite is yet to be determined, but police believe it may be in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Local volunteer firefighters extinguished the blaze, and Albany police, detectives and forensic officers attended the campsite to investigate.

Acting Det Sgt Macaulay said police believed the fire had been deliberately lit.

Detectives are seeking information about vehicles that may have been moving around the Cosy Corner and Lower Denmark Roads between 11pm and 1am.

Anyone with relevant information can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.