Swan dog parks not an option

Dear Echo News,

What a difference a postcode makes.

The City of Kalamunda provides two first class off leash dog exercise areas for residents, the latest of which has justly won an award.

Here in the City of Swan, we can’t even get consideration given to a dog park proposal.

The residents of the City of Kalamunda are far better served by a smaller, interested council involved with the community, than older suburb residents of the City of Swan.

Further proof that bigger is not best.

G Ross
Swan View

No benefits from Harry at night

Dear Echo News,

In response to the recent letter from R Furfaro Long Live Harry Potter, I wholeheartedly agree that the City of Kalamunda needs tourism to help showcase our wonderful area.

But while I am sure that many people will have fun at the Harry Potter event, it won’t have the benefits R Furfaro suggests.

The Harry Potter event is occurring at night, when many of Kalamunda’s interesting shops and wineries are closed.

So, no benefits there.

People will not be able to see the gorgeous scenery, because it will be dark.

So, no thinking “Wow, this is so pretty here, I think I will come another day and have lunch, a shopping trip, a walk or a winery visit”.

The event will have its own food and liquor licence (so our local restaurants and pubs are unlikely to benefit, especially since people will largely be bussed from an orchard in Walliston), and we have very few overnight stay options here (so no benefit to hospitality there).

So, the best we can expect is some short-term employment for people working to prepare and staff the event.

I think our council has been taken in by the proponent who would have touted the amazing tourism benefits.

They put a nondisclosure agreement on the proposal to prevent widespread discussion and analysis, and the council thought they would be getting a whole lot of ‘free’ promotion of the area from a big company.

But who is really going to make money?

The proponent, that’s who, they will make their money and leave and they will not be at all bothered by what they leave behind.

Which will be a reserve in which the many creatures who live there will have had weeks of disturbance, fear and starvation.

There will be a terrible effect on the wildlife and environment of Jorgensen Park, and the bush environment is one of the key points of difference that Kalamunda has, a bit of country right near Perth.

To my mind, tourism in the area could be much better served by the promotion of daytime events and things which run for an extended period - a stellar example is the Giants in Mandurah.

These encourage people to visit in the day, walk through a variety of habitats (estuary, beach, bush)  and actually be able to see what is in Mandurah.

They are spread out, so people spend a long time in the area, and make repeat trips to be able to see them all.

Along the way, they buy some lunch, stop for a coffee, fill up at the servo, visit the shops.

So much smarter.

We do have some great things going on in Kalamunda - we have the monthly art markets, the weekly farmers markets, the gardening shows, the Bickley Harvest Festival, and open studio events.

These are all things which encourage people to visit the area, see what is actually here, spend money, and have a good explore.

However, there is no really consolidated way of these events being promoted.

There is signage in the area, but how do people living elsewhere find out about them?

These days, there are so many channels through social media, TV, radio and traditional print, it is very difficult to get advertising and promotional material out to the public at large.

Maybe the council should start thinking about well thought out tourism promotion instead of trying to rely on a large international company which does not have our interests at heart.

H Sanders
Kalamunda

Harry event a comedy

Dear Echo News,

The lease of Jorgensen Park, a popular public recreational park, to a profit-driven entertainment company would be comical if it weren’t so depressing.

And the bleak comedy goes on.

As Echo News reported City of Kalamunda staff confirmed in a public council meeting that they had signed a lease over Jorgensen Park for the (likely $100 per ticket) Harry Potter event.

This was surprising news to the 180 people who, days earlier, had turned up to a specially convened electors meeting and unanimously passed seven motions against it, all carefully argued.

Many had spent hours researching the issue, because the Kalamunda councillors they’d elected couldn’t tell them anything.

Extraordinarily, every councillor had agreed - some perhaps reluctantly - to sign a non-disclosure agreement to protect a commercial entity the city was negotiating with.

The surprises went on.

Council meeting attendees’ asked the most pressing question - for how many nights each week are local residents going to endure the disruption of paying crowds, nighttime noise and massive lighting until 11pm?

A city staffer replied she couldn’t answer, because the city is still negotiating to reduce the proponent’s wish for five nights to possibly fewer nights.

Still negotiating on the most vitally important issue affecting its own residents yet they’ve already signed the lease?

You’ve got to be kidding.

The staffer didn’t mention that the same Harry Potter event in Victoria ran over seven nights a week during school holidays.

Another revelation came - that the city at this late stage is conducting its own environmental report.

This comes after they fast-tracked their lease approval based on an environmental report supplied by the private company, the beneficiary, but not available to the public.

You couldn’t make this sort of thing up.

The day after that council meeting, cyclone fences went up in Jorgensen Park barring nature-lovers, bird watchers and dog-walkers from entering the main part of their own city-managed park.

Trucks began bringing recycled waste into Jorgensen’s conservation/recreation public reserve, which is located in a Priority 1 water catchment area.

The consternation increased when a few individuals picked up samples of the waste.

One resident paid for it to be tested, and it was friable asbestos material.

When a Department of Water and Environmental Regulation employee attended, he also found an asbestos sample, but the resident was told such a small amount was not enough to trigger concern.

The city mayor Margaret Thomas publicly responded that the fill “had been tested with no asbestos identified” and that “if any risk is identified, appropriate action will be taken immediately.”

The city then continued spreading the recycled land fill waste around and crushing it with a rolling machine.

Soon thousands of nightly fee-paying patrons will be walking the crushed pathways – the company is aiming for up to 100,000 visitors.

This would be funny if it weren’t so deeply disturbing.

Watch for the next bizarre episode, brought to you by the City of Kalamunda and its councillors.

V Laurie
Gooseberry Hill