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SOME drongo has vandalised a sign erected by an octogenarian to commemorate the recently heritage listed spot where his long-gone relative Major Edmund Lockyer raised a flag to claim Frederickstown, later known as Albany, as part of the British Empire.

Colin Lockyer, 81, is three generations removed from his well-known relative, who has a well-known Albany suburb and a well-known Albany avenue named after him.

“I got a call on Sunday morning from the householders of the home here to tell me the plaque that I’d put up has been pulled out, thrown on on the footpath and smashed,” Mr Lockyer said at Parade Street on Monday.

“I came ‘round and saw them and ended up having a lovely cup of coffee with them.

“They are very friendly, and very nice people.”

The framed commemorative information the vandals had so brazenly smashed had only been in place for four months.

The Weekender recently revealed that the site where the flag was raised has now been added to the City of Albany’s heritage list (Heritage list swells by 48, April 12).

“I think that the people of Albany really need to know that this relative of mine, three generations before me, gave the whole western part of Australia to King George IV,” Mr Lockyer said.

“He proclaimed Frederickstown for King and Crown.

“And we’re so proud of that.”

Mr Lockyer said that until his sign went up, a green lectern erected some time before by the city was “in a very poor state”.

“Those two screws, we had to put in because this had fallen off,” he said.

He said the hole where Major Lockyer raised a flagpole still existed, beneath a yellow cap on the road beside the lectern.

“This is a very valuable tourist site and people come here and find something that can’t explain what went on,” he said.

“I’ve done, in layman’s terms, the best I can do to make it a bit more understanding, then we find out that some vandals have come along and ripped this out and smashed it.

“It’s just a bit devastating.”

But heritage buffs never say die.

“I’ll go down to Red Dot and get another A3 frame and cut out another picture, and put it back into place, and screw it up and try to replace this flag that’s gone,” Mr Lockyer said.

A REPORT commissioned by the City of Albany on whether local Noongar people support water skiing on Lake Mullocullup east of Albany reveals the “root of discord” between some Noongars and the City over the matter is their lack of a say early in the decision-making process.

In his 27-page report, anthropologist Myles Mitchell advises that “feelings of humiliation and anger” resulted, leading to “a less constructive conversation”.

“Whatever the final decision, some Noongar community members who are passionate about this place feel that they had to agitate for their position to be heard, rather than being engaged in a constructive dialogue from an early stage,” Dr Mitchell reported.

“It should be noted that not all Noongar community members shared these concerns.

“Nonetheless, consideration for improved processes in future is provided here.”

The report notes that at a recent meeting with Noongar people at the lake, chief City engineer Matthew Thomson conceded the City did not do well on its initial consultation.

Asked by The Weekender how his organisation intended to right things, City CEO Andrew Sharpe said Dr Mitchell’s report had “given us valuable feedback”, and would help the council decide whether to recommend that the Department of Transport approve water skiing at the lake.

“We respect the cultural significance of Lake Mullocullup to the local Noongar people and, learning from our experiences, are striving to not only improve our consultation with them regarding the lake, but also to employ better practice into the future,” Mr Sharpe said.

“The independent consultant’s report is part of a more rigorous process council has resolved to undertake to consult the Noongar community about the recreational use of Lake Mullocullup.

“We are now waiting on the outcome of an assessment by the Department of Land and Heritage in relation to the registration of Aboriginal sites at the lake before preparing a further report for council.”

Carol Pettersen, a former Albany city councillor whose Noongar mother was born beside the lake in 1917, told The Weekender she had lodged papers with the State to have the lake listed as an Aboriginal heritage site.

Mrs Pettersen anticipates the listing process will take about three months.

Image: Carol Pettersen has lodged papers to have the lake listed as an Aboriginal heritage site. Photo: Chris Thomson

AMIDST national critique of NAPLAN testing, a handful of Great Southern schools have jumped on board with the assessment’s latest development of adapting to an online format.

NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) is completed annually by grade three, five, seven and nine students across Australia and is composed of reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy assessments.

The test has been presented in paper booklet form but is now moving toward using online software.

Great Southern Grammar and Spencer Park Primary School were two of many Western Australian schools selected to participate in an online trial run.

Spencer Park Primary principal Jeremy Hadlow told The Weekender he was excited his school would use the new technology again this year.

“We were one of the trial schools in 2017 and, since then, we have given the kids lots of opportunity to practice using the site,” he said.

“We have the technology and have had the kids learn to log in and manoeuvre around the site without issues, which is very important.

“We want to ensure their experience is a good one, and we are very happy with the students’ progress.”

Mr Hadlow said one benefit of the NAPLAN online format was its adaptability, with the difficulty level of questions presented to students during the test determined by their answers to previous questions.

“You can see where their abilities actually lie, which is a real positive,” he said.

“We can also pause the test if we need to address ICT issues, and the timeframe for results should hopefully be shorter, so I’m excited for our school to participate as a way of stepping into the future.”

Great Southern Grammar principal Mark Sawle said the online NAPLAN format could create faster results and be a more sustainable way of creating test papers.

But he questioned the validity of scrapping pen and paper testing.

Mr Sawle confirmed Great Southern Grammar students would not use the online NAPLAN format this year.

“It is critical to ensure that online testing does not reduce the validity of the knowledge and understandings that are being tested,” he said.

“For example, in year three writing, do students have the typing skills to undertake the test? Are we testing the students’ capacity to type, rather than their capacity to create a narrative, for example?”

Mr Sawle also suggested schools more remote than Great Southern Grammar had issues with internet bandwidth and therefore there was an issue with equity.

“It has been suggested that in some schools, year 11 and 12 classes cannot use the internet on the NAPLAN testing days due to issues with insufficient bandwidth,” he said.

“Also, access to computer labs and one-to-one devices is variable across schools.”

WA Education Minister Sue Ellery confirmed $7.5 million had been provided for infrastructure upgrades and additional devices to help public schools prepare for NAPLAN Online, an amount she says will total $10 million by 2020.

Ms Ellery told The Weekender NAPLAN testing would be reviewed next month.
The online rollout comes amid recent statements by New South Wales Education Minister Rob Stokes that NAPLAN should be scrapped.

“The broader issue of NAPLAN is regularly discussed at Education Council meetings,” Ms Ellery said.

“It was decided at the last meeting, three weeks ago, to consider terms of reference for a review of NAPLAN, including reporting of NAPLAN results, at the next meeting in June.

“The feedback I receive in WA is that parents want to see published data about how their students, and how their schools, are achieving literacy and numeracy, and they want the information presented in a way that is easy to understand.”

NAPLAN will be conducted next week from May 15. Mr Hadlow said schools participating online would have a 10-day window to complete the testing, to “spread the load” on schools’ internet capabilities.

According to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority – the organisation responsible for developing NAPLAN and reporting the results – schools across Australia will start to move to NAPLAN Online from this year on an opt-in basis.

The Authority’s website confirms state and territory education authorities are responsible for determining when their jurisdictions move to NAPLAN Online.

The WA Department of Education website states that all schools will complete NAPLAN Online in 2019.

INFLUENZA season is rapidly approaching and the single best way to protect yourself from the illness is to get vaccinated each year, according to WA Country Health Service (WACHS).

Population Health Director for WACHS Great Southern Sandra Crowe said flu vaccine protection is most effective during the three to four-month period after the vaccination.

She said because flu activity in WA most commonly peaks between August and September, now is the best time to get the jab.

“To get maximum benefits, the best time to get the flu vaccine is during May or early June,” she said.

“Each year, a new vaccine containing the most common strains of circulating influenza is produced, so getting vaccinated every year is important because the most common strains of the influenza virus change every year.”

Ms Crowe urged people to remember the seriousness of the highly contagious disease, which she says presents itself in the form of fever, aches, pains, cough and sore throat.

“Importantly, the vaccine is not made from a live virus, so you can’t get the flu from the flu vaccine,” she said.

The Weekender’s own Kristen Gardiner (pictured) said she will be taking up the company’s offer to provide employees with the flu vaccine, despite her slight fear of needles.

The flu vaccination is available at pharmacies and doctor surgeries across the Great Southern, including Albany’s Southern Regional Medical Group.

At SRMG, the jab will be free for people over the age of 65, pregnant women, people with a chronic health condition and for children under five.

For all other patients, the out-of-pocket expense will be just $13.50.

Participating pharmacies include Amcal, Terry White Chemmart, Priceline Pharmacy and Friendlies Pharmacy, but you can also call your GP to see whether they administer the vaccination.

PREMIER Mark McGowan will not compel the City of Albany to extend trading hours for Coles and Woolworths, while Opposition Leader Mike Nahan and the Economic Regulation Authority say Albany’s shopping hours must be liberalised.

Mr McGowan told The Weekender he did not intend to change the long-term arrangement where local councils decide when Coles, Woolworths and ALDI can open.

“The council makes the decision,” he said.

“I’m happy for that to continue.”

But Dr Nahan, who has a PhD in Economics, said trading hours needed to be consistent across regional Western Australia.

“Albany is an important tourist region and it would be bewildering for visitors to the city to not be able to shop on a Sunday at retailers when they can do so in other regional centres, or in their home towns,” he said.

“Not only should we have shops being able to open on weekends to provide choice for consumers and employment opportunities for locals, it is important to provide certainty and consistency for tourists.”

Albany is the only place in the south-western corner of Australia with a Coles, Woolworths or ALDI where these larger supermarkets are not permitted to trade on Sundays and most weeknights.

IGAs can trade seven days a week, and every weeknight.

Dr Nahan said customers should not be denied choice, nor young people jobs.

“It is inconceivable that on a Sunday someone in Albany can purchase groceries online, but they can’t go to a bricks-and-mortar shop, which is paying rent while it is closed, which is not employing anyone while it is closed, because of the antiquated trading hours,” he argued.

“I note that Albany has lower median incomes, so introducing competition can drive down prices, which is in the interests of consumers, particularly those on fixed and low incomes.

“It’s time to fix this.”

Asked if employment gains at larger supermarkets could come at the expense of jobs at his North Road IGA, proprietor Bob Cybula referred The Weekender to a spokesman who suggested that it speak to WA Branch Secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association Peter O’Keeffe.

Mr O’Keeffe said emphatic anecdotal evidence from members of his union, was that big supermarkets did not employ extra staff when trading hours were extended.

“What you’ll find is they’ll stretch the existing staff,” he said.

“They’ll get salaried staff to work additional hours.

“Typically, [the large retailers] don’t get huge boosts in their wages budgets just because there’s been an extension of trading hours.”

Mr O’Keeffe said that in a deregulated environment, people who shop at night or on Sundays at an IGA tend to shift to the bigger supermarkets.

“The small stores will come under pretty savage pressure in terms of sales and they may well start laying staff off,” he added.

He said the union objected to extended trading because members would be compelled to work beyond hours to which they had become accustomed and planned their lives around.

In 2014, the Economic Regulation Authority recommended that shopping hours be fully deregulated statewide except for three public holidays.

ERA Chair Nicky Cusworth said her organisation had not examined the issue since.

“The ERA stands by the recommendation made in its Inquiry into Microeconomic Reform in Western Australia that trading hours should be fully deregulated with the exception of Christmas Day, Good Friday and Anzac Day morning,” Ms Cusworth said.

In 2016, a majority of Albany councillors voted down a plan, put forward by a senior city official, that in 2019 the council consider consulting the community on extended shopping hours.

PREMIER Mark McGowan says a trial of mandatory life jackets will occur at Salmon Holes after two Afghani nationals from Mount Barker were swept from rocks at the Albany fishing hotspot on Saturday.

The 45 and 50 year old survived, but both were rushed to Albany Hospital for treatment after they were swept off rocks just after midday and made their way to a reef before onlookers helped them to the beach.

In the wake of the latest emergency incident at Salmon Holes, Mr McGowan on Monday said trialling mandatory lifejackets for rock fishers there was a priority for his government.

“Look, what we’ve seen in the course of the last 15 or 16 years is 34 people die from coming off the rocks while fishing,” he said.

“That’s more than double the number of people killed by sharks.

“So obviously we need to take further action.”

On Easter Monday, days after a coroner’s report into the deaths of Perth fishermen Chunjun Li and Jialong Zhang at Salmon Holes in Easter 2015 recommended that lifejackets be mandated for rock fishers, Bayonet Head man Samuel Roth was swept to his death off rocks near West Cape Howe.

Mr McGowan acknowledged some safety measures had already been implemented, with tie-down points and life-saving rings placed at dangerous spots.

“But we still see people injured or killed rock fishing,” he said.

“So what we’re looking at is gazetting certain areas where you must wear a life jacket if you’re rock fishing.

“Salmon Holes in Albany would be an obvious candidate for that.”

Mr McGowan said the chances of someone surviving a fall into the ocean while wearing a life jacket were “very high”.

“That’s one of the things that we’re looking at, whether existing laws allow us to gazette areas like that as requiring wearing a life jacket,” he said.

“If the existing laws don’t allow us to do that, well then we’ll have to look at what new laws need to be drafted or new regulations need to be drafted.

“It would only be in certain defined locations, not on every rock across every beach in Western Australia.”

Mr McGowan said a mandatory lifejacket law would be enforced by Parks and Wildlife, and Fisheries, officers.

“I’ve spoken to [Fisheries] Minister [Dave Kelly] about this after the fatality in Albany,” he said.

“Because, what the Coroner said, as I understand it, was that if you go rock fishing then you need to wear a life jacket.

“Now, obviously where the coastline’s 16,000km, [it’s] very difficult to police that and also, what actually is a rock versus a beach, if you know what I mean.”

For anyone who did not know what he meant, the Premier painted a picture.

“You can sometimes be standing on a beach and there’s rocks there – are you rock fishing?” he posed.

“So, what I thought was a good compromise way of dealing with that is you gazette certain areas where there have been fatalities before and you say if you’re going to rock fish there you must wear a life jacket.

“And Salmon Holes would be an ideal trial location.”