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TWO Easters since Perth fishermen Chunjun Li and Jiaolong Zhang were swept to their deaths in massive seas at Albany’s Salmon Holes, a State Coroner has recommended that rock fisherman be compelled to wear life jackets and carry EPIRB devices.

In a report released this week, Deputy State Coroner Evelyn Vickers found Mr Li’s death on April 18, 2015 was “consistent with drowning” and Mr Zhang’s demise on the same day was “likely due to drowning”.

“The loss of Mr Li and Mr Zhang to their families is irreversible,” Ms Vickers concluded.

“They had come to Australia to start new lives and experience the lifestyle and opportunities available here.

“Unfortunately, it ended in tragedy and I extend my sincere condolences to their families and communities for their loss.”

During the inquest into the men’s death, Ms Vickers heard Mr Li, then 42, and Mr Zhang, 38, had a rope each, which they tied around their waists with the other end tied around a large rock.

The men did not use anchor points set in the rocks, and were not wearing life jackets.

Mr Li’s father, who was holidaying with his son in Albany, told Ms Vickers that Mr Li and Mr Zhang had been fishing for a very short time before they were swept from the rocks into the Southern Ocean.

Another witness, Hau Pam Pau Laiteng, said the rope the men used became dislodged from the rock before they were swept into the ocean.

Water Police Sergeant Michael Wear told Ms Vickers rock fishing was recognised as the most dangerous sport in Australia, but not one fisherman who has died at Salmon Holes over the years was wearing a life jacket.

Ms Vickers noted there was little doubt the men’s chances of survival would have increased had they been wearing life jackets.

Jim Allan, who owns Albany Rods and Tackle, said he provided life jackets free-of-charge to anglers who needed one, but that his offer was rarely taken up.

Ms Vickers recommended that life jackets and EPIRB devices be made mandatory for rock fishermen in Western Australia.

She also recommended that Telstra be asked to install a mobile phone tower on Eclipse Island to assist communication around Salmon Holes, and the certification of competent drone pilots be promoted within search and rescue organisations.

“On behalf of all those who risk their lives and emotions in these tragic circumstances, please wear life jackets,” Ms Vickers concluded.

“It may not always save your life, but it will help return a better outcome to your families and the community as a whole.”

THE past 12 months have been difficult for Bornholm potato seed farmer Colin Ayres following the devastating outbreak of tomato potato psyllid (TPP) that was discovered in February 2017.

Despite their crop being free of the pest and the devastating bacteria it carries, Mr Ayres’ business has copped the full brunt of trade barriers to the eastern states.

Mr Ayres said the months without trade had been extremely challenging for the family’s enterprise.

“We had to make half of our casual and full-time staff redundant,” he said.

“We sold what we could to cattle and dairy farmers, but that only covered the cost of filling up the tank. It cost more for us to throw out our potatoes.”

With the GP Ayres & Sons enterprise supplying 60 per cent of WA’s seed potatoes and mini tubers, the recent announcement that they were awarded a $200,000 grant through the Potato Industry Assistance Grants program has enabled them to purchase a state-of-the-art optical sorter.

The Sortop will recognise up to 16 types of defects in an unwashed potato as well as scan and weigh up to 30 potatoes per second and assist in maintaining control over the quality of their produce.

While the machinery is the first of its kind in operation in WA, Mr Ayres said having the sorter earlier would not have made a difference to their situation.

“We didn’t have a market to sell our potatoes too,” he said.

“As it is, we probably won’t be able to switch it on until December.”

During the announcement last Friday at the Ayers’ farm, Minister for Agriculture and Food Alannah MacTiernan said the Department had been doing “a hell of a lot” to contain the outbreak.

“We’ve had more than 400 people continually testing the psyllid and working to contain the bacteria outbreak,” she said.

“There is good news though. We’ve tested more than 8000 psyllids which have shown them all to be clean of the bacteria,” she said.

“We are continuing our work to improve market access for potatoes to the Eastern States and internationally.”

WORK on two silo paintings similar in scale to Albany’s giant new seadragon will soon commence at towns in and very close to the Great Southern region.

Lynda Dorrington, Executive Director of arts promotion group FORM, said one of two remaining silo projects across the State’s south would be at a town in the Great Southern, and the other at a town just outside.

Ms Dorrington asked that the towns’ names – earlier provided to The Weekender by another source – not be reported until major players in FORM’s silo trail project had approved a statement about the remaining two projects in the seven-silo trail.

What can be reported, for the first time, is that about $50,000 of public money was poured into the Albany seadragon project.

A spokesperson for State Minister for Regional Development Alannah MacTiernan confirmed Western Power kicked in $10,000.

Ms Dorrington said the Federal Government contributed $20,511 and the City of Albany $20,000 to the $80,000 mural project.

But City of Albany Executive Director Community Services Susan Kay said the $20,000 her directorate contributed was for the seadragon, paintings on transformer boxes and running local workshops combined.

“Through a successful partnership with FORM, the City has been able to attract significant cultural projects to Albany that have enriched our community with colourful, large-scale artworks and delivered engaging public participation programs,” Ms Kay said.

“We were pleased to provide $20,000 towards the recent Albany silo mural and transformer boxes projects, which included several workshops for youth and school group visits.

“FORM’s work in Albany has also generated significant promotion for Albany and the region which will encourage further visitation to our city.”

Ms Dorrington said an estimate by Federal Minister for Regional Development John McVeigh that 29 ongoing jobs would be created from the overall trails project was “incorrect” and had not been provided by FORM.

“This project has created 12 jobs during development and 29 ongoing roles after its completion, which just goes to show that investing in the arts and culture of our regions is also investing in their economic future,” Mr McVeigh had earlier said.

A statement by Ms MacTiernan that $290,000 of State funds had been spent on the Albany works was corrected following questions by The Weekender.

“The State Government provided $290,000 for the overall public silo project across seven sites (including Albany), via Western Power ($100,000) and Lotterywest ($190,000),” her spokesperson clarified.

“A further $30,000 of Western Power funds were spent on painting 10 Western Power transformer boxes in Albany, which included two … youth arts sessions with the artists.”

Ms Dorrington said it would be “impossible” to calculate the economic impact of the silo trail until at least September, which will be one year since the high profile project was announced.

“It’s about watching this space to see the value of creativity as an economic driver,” she said.

 

A PIZZA delivery driver has been convicted of breaching a violence restraining order by briefly gesturing to his ex-girlfriend as he drove past her after delivering a pizza at Yakamia.

On March 15, Bayley Alexander Haines, 18, pleaded guilty in Albany Magistrates Court to one count of breaching a family violence restraining order.

Police prosecutor Cameron Clifford said Haines had communicated and come within 50m of his ex-girlfriend, contrary to conditions of the order.

Sergeant Clifford said that in December, after Haines had delivered a pizza to a house in Yakamia, he “waved” as he drove past the woman who was walking beside the street.

Haines’ defence lawyer said he admitted those facts, but he had both hands on the steering wheel at the time and the “wave” referred to was the casual raising of a single finger.

“There doesn’t seem to be any indication of intimidation of the protected person,” Haines’ lawyer said.

Magistrate Raelene Johnston heard Haines was in a brief relationship with the protected woman.

Some time after Haines and the woman broke up, a dispute arose over money he had lent to her.

When the woman took out the order, Haines did not object.

Magistrate Johnston said breaking a family violence restraining order was a “serious charge”, but “it was circumstance” that led to the breach.

“Although it is a breach, it is at the lower end of the scale,” she told Haines.

Magistrate Johnston ordered Haines not to reoffend in the next 12 months, lest he be fined $500.

TAMBELLUP’S police station and council chambers will soon get Aboriginal flags thanks to the initiative of the cop shop’s new officer-in-charge, who is a Noongar man.

On Tuesday, Sergeant Allan Mallard celebrated six months as OIC of Tambellup Police Station.

He recently received an Aboriginal flag from State Treasurer Ben Wyatt, also an Aboriginal man.

“I bought two flag poles, one for the shire and one for the police station,” Sgt Mallard told The Weekender.

“They’re getting installed in the next week or so.”

Sgt Mallard’s mother, Margaret, is a Noongar woman with family in the Tambellup area.

“She’s over the moon,” Sgt Mallard said of her response to the flags.

Broomehill-Tambellup Shire President Scott Thompson said raising the Aboriginal flag outside the council chambers had been raised some years ago at the shire, but defeated.

However, on March 15 the shire voted six councillors to one to proudly fly the flag.

“We’ve got a strong Indigenous community in Tambellup,” Cr Thompson said.

A TRIAL of after-hours health care will commence at Albany Health Campus next month to alleviate increasing pressure on the hospital’s emergency department.

From April, an after-hours GP and nurse practitioner service will be offered to patients in aged and palliative care facilities, as well as those receiving care at home, to divert them from the emergency department.

The service was officially launched on Monday by Minister for Health Roger Cook, Member for O’Connor Rick Wilson, Member for Albany Peter Watson, WA Primary Health Alliance officials and the group of Albany general practitioners behind the after-hours service idea.

The program will be trialled for 12 months and be both mobile and in a permanent setup, in a clinic adjacent to the current emergency department.

The general public will be able to access the after-hours health care clinic from June, and it will operate during evenings, weekends and public holidays.

The service will offer treatment to patients who require urgent care, but whose conditions could be treated by a GP during normal hours.

Health minister Roger Cook said the release of the Sustainable Health Review Interim Report highlighted a need for the service.

“There is a need to improve care in our communities, to reduce costs and wastes and to reduce the pressure on our emergency departments,” he said.

“This new service is about better access to GP and nurse practitioner services for patients and carers, which means better quality of care for non-emergency patients and not having to wait in busy emergency departments.”

WA Primary Health Alliance CEO Learne Durrington said the new service would be a great “all-round outcome”, as it avoids distressing scenarios for sick patients and allows emergency department staff to focus on serious cases.

“The on-call service will ensure people who are frail and unwell can be treated in the comfort of their own home, care home or hospice and avoid unnecessary and costly trips by ambulance to hospital,” she said.

“Importantly, the patient’s usual doctor will be fully informed about the treatments that occurred.”

The trial after-hours health care service will complement existing Albany GP services and use experienced nurse practitioners and GPs.

A BID to overturn a ban on residential apartments at a 9599sqm block owned by businessman Paul Lionetti across Toll Place from his Due South Tavern has been lodged with the City of Albany.

Foreshore Investments Albany Pty Ltd has applied for permission to erect up to 6800sqm of apartments on Mr Lionetti’s block, at Lot 3 of the Albany Waterfront project.

The company’s application to amend the Albany Waterfront Structure Plan says Due South has “proven a popular attraction to the waterfront area and wider Albany region”.

The application, prepared by Harley Dykstra town planners, argues that “a lack of private investment in the waterfront area can be partially attributed to overly restrictive planning regulations, resulting in development of the area being unviable”.

“The landowners are committed to completing a high standard of hotel and apartment development on the site,” Harley Dykstra continues.

“Importantly, it should be noted that the holiday accommodation and a hotel will remain the primary land uses on the site, and multiple dwellings will be a secondary use.

“Additional control measures can be incorporated through subsequent planning stages (i.e. – development application) to manage the number and location of any multiple dwellings proposed.”

Harley Dykstra imagines the control measures “should” ensure that the number of bedrooms associated with the holiday accommodation and hotel components will “always, and at all times, exceed those associated with any multiple dwelling component”.

But Albany Ratepayers and Residents Association President Elizabeth Barton said the whole rationale for the waterfront project was to promote tourism, not medium density residential living.

“What will happen is they’ll build the residential, but the tourism will never get built,” Ms Barton, who in 10 days in the late 1990s collected 2500-plus signatures against the waterfront project, said.

“It will become a residential area.

“It was always agreed there would never be residential down there, because it’s a tourist node and residential development is in conflict with the operations of the port.”

Harley Dykstra argues that the modified plan for the vacant block responds to “an increasing trend towards a flexible approach to tourism planning and to support the viable operation of these buildings, which have historically prevented the development of a hotel and short stay accommodation on Lot 3”.

“To facilitate investment in new hotels and holiday accommodation, there has been an increasing trend towards including an element of permanent residential accommodation within tourist developments,” Harley Dykstra stresses.

“Examples of this include the Middleton Beach Hotel site, Elizabeth Quay, Port Coogee Marina and Bunbury Ocean View Hotel.”

State Planning Minister Rita Saffioti recently told The Weekender that residential apartments would likely be needed to make a 12-floor hotel viable at Middleton Beach (‘Residential mix for hotel’, February 8).

Harley Dykstra submitted that owners of apartments on Mr Lionetti’s block would be encouraged to let their dwellings for short stay accommodation.

The City of Albany and State Department of Planning received a copy of the plans for preliminary comment in October.

The final decision on whether apartments are allowed rests with the Western Australian Planning Commission.

When contacted by The Weekender, Mr Lionetti declined to comment.

The Albany community can comment to the City until April 12.