Perth Zoo’s latest breeding success – two Red Panda cubs – made their first public appearance today as veterinarians gave them a health check and vaccinations.
Until today, the cubs had been tucked away in their nest box under the care of their mother Tiamat since their birth on 20 December.
Perth Zoo senior veterinarian Simone Vitali said the eight-week-old cubs looked to be strong and in good health.
The cubs are not expected to venture out of their nest box for another six to eight weeks.
“Red Pandas are susceptible to diseases similar to those seen in cats and dogs so it is important that they are vaccinated,” Dr Vitali said.
“We have confirmed today that we have a male and a female and that they each weigh around 700 grams which is a healthy weight for their age.
“They are suckling well and will start to wean over the next two to three months.”
The zoo has bred 16 Nepalese Red Pandas since 1997 as part of a regional breeding program for the endangered species.
The species is classified as endangered with habitat destruction and poaching the major threats to its long-term survival.
Feeding almost exclusively on bamboo, Red Pandas are found in mountainous terrain from Nepal through to northeast India and Bhutan and into China, Laos and northern Myanmar.
They share part of their range with giant pandas.
Red Pandas are nocturnal. Like Giant Pandas, they have a false thumb that helps them hold bamboo stems and leaves.
They also have partially retractable claws and are very good climbers.
Red Pandas mature sexually at 18 to 20 months.
The gestation period for a Red Panda ranges from 110 to 145 days.
A 47-year-old tree lopper has fallen nine metres to his death from a cherry picker in South Perth this morning.
WorkSafe Acting Executive Director Ian Munns said that two men were believed to have been lopping trees from the cherry picker when the boom snapped and they fell about nine metres.
One of the men was killed and the other survived the fall.
Inspectors travelled to the site and will interview witnesses and investigate the circumstances.
Mr Munns relayed his condolences to the dead man’s family.
It’s a multistorey, not a palace, but the new public toilets at His Majesty’s Car Park are “fit for a king” says the City of Perth.
“Toilets fit for a king” is the headline of a media release issued today to usher in the new loos – located off the arcade beside the City of Perth carpark at 377 Murray Street.
Unlike the marble-clad, gold-plated royal dunny blocks of feudal England, the new toilets are free for the plebs to use.
Perth council supremo Frank Edwards said the facilities replaced others that had been “somewhat utilitarian, uninviting and industrial” in appearance.
“The City has installed new floor and wall tiles, partitions and accessible-compliant toilets,” Mr Edwards said.
“There’s improved lighting and ventilation as well as water and energy-wise products.
“Shoppers and theatre-goers are assured that very high standards will be maintained.”
The new toilets are part of a plan to progressively upgrade, replace and add to the city’s stock of public toilets.
The council provides 25 public toilet blocks.
Six other public toilet facilities are provided within public buildings.
Frustration at vacuous beauty led Australian photographer Petrina Hicks into an arts career she did not believe was possible.
Her complicated work is on show from February 18 as part of PICA’s Hijacked III group-photography exhibition, curated by Louise Clements, Mark McPherson and Leigh Robb.
Thinking there was no way to make a living in the arts, Hicks worked as a commercial photographer for six years.
“I became very frustrated and dissatisfied with the whole process,” she said.
“In commercial photography everything just has one layer.
“There is only one meaning that can be derived from the images.
“It felt like I was creating nothingness.”
However, Hicks became fascinated with the tools and language of commercial photography and advertising – and how they were used to seduce and evoke desire and need in people.
“So I started to explore making images in my spare time that employed the language and tools of commercial photography, but images that were subversive and ambiguous,” she said.
“I was obsessed with creating images that were a tension between two opposing ideas – but a very quiet and subtle tension.”
This tension is seen in works like ‘Emily the Strange’ (pictured) where a young girl cradles a hairless sphynx breed of cat.
There is also previous work like ‘Comfort’, where an albino woman’s face is lost in a mass of pure white fur.
Photography fans loved Hicks’ images and her work has now been exhibited across Australia, Germany, Japan and Mexico.
Hicks is now a full-time artist and hasn’t done a commercial photography for five years.
In the hunt to find the perfect model that can exude a mood or create viewer compassion, Hicks approaches people she spots on the street.
She said the greatest challenge was creating work that is more than just superficially beautiful.
She explained that a stark, minimal surface image ordinarily gave an initial impression of just one layer.
‘Yet it is the content or idea or sub-text of the image that has many layers, often conflicting layers to create a tension, or just a very ambiguous idea that doesn’t really deliver the feeling the surface of the image should promise,” she said.
Hijacked III will display at PICA from this Friday to April 8.
The exhibition showcases work by 24 contemporary photographers, including Bindi Cole, Tracey Moffat, Tereza Zelenkova, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanari.
A 31.2-metre high Optus phone tower disguised as a palm tree has been axed before it even took root.
In August last year, oneperth.com.au exposed Optus plans to ‘plant’ the ‘palm’ at the southeast corner of Perth Oval, near the corner of Lord and Brewer Streets.
The story sparked community debate, and 33 formal objections were lodged.
The WA Heritage Council also objected – claiming the pictured ‘palm’ was too obviously a fake.
Now, it can be revealed that Optus has pulled plans for the faux palm once and for all.
In a letter to the WA Planning Commission dated January 17, consultants for Optus said the multinational telecommunications giant had decided not to pursue the project.
The Optus consultants requested that the planning application be withdrawn and the file on the ‘palm tree’ be closed.
Weld Square at the corner of Beaufort and Newcastle Streets is set to be co-badged ‘Wongi Park’ under a $652,000 overhaul of the clapped-out inner-Perth reserve.
oneperth.com.au can reveal the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council gave its imprimatur to the new name on February 3.
In the Noongar language, ‘Wongi’ means ‘to talk’ or ‘have a chat’.
In endorsing the name, the land and sea council agreed Weld Square had long been a place where Noongar people chatted.
The name has been a long time in the conferring, with oneperth.com.au revealing in January last year that the City of Vincent would consult on a Noongar co-name for the park.
Weld Square is currently European in design, featuring mature Moreton Bay figs, grassy expanses and a brick toilet block.
However, two squiggly paths intersecting in a rough ‘X’ at a $28,000 gazebo give plan for the park (pictured, left) the look of a Central Australian sand painting.
The three-year revamp would see raised, native gardens installed along the southern flanks of the square.
The existing brick toilet block would be demolished at a cost of $14,000. A self-cleaning toilet would rise in its place for a whopping $140,000 – or 21.5 per cent of the project price.
By its mooted 2013 completion date, the park would also receive a new $55,000 playground and $40,000 of outdoor gym equipment.
Design elements would discourage homeless people staying overnight in the gazebo or on new seats. This is despite Manna Industries’ charity six-night-a-week food service having sustained homeless people at the park since 1996.
Weld Square was originally built over 26 years – from 1873 to 1899.
A recommendation that its new name and revamp plans finally go out for public consultation will face yet another debate at Vincent council on Tuesday night.
The owner of the Venezia Restaurant in Pier Street, Perth, is being prosecuted for allegedly underpaying two kitchen staff a total of $78,000.
Facing Court is owner-manager Vincenzo Salvatore Todaro.
The Fair Work Ombudsman alleges Mr Todaro was personally involved in underpaying a cook $53,635 and a kitchen-hand $24,419 between March, 2006 and December, 2007.
The workers, an immigrant husband-and-wife from China who spoke little English, were hired at the restaurant through VST Pty Ltd, a company operated by Mr Todaro.
The workers successfully sued VST in 2010, securing orders in the WA Industrial Magistrates Court for outstanding entitlements to be back-paid, including the $78,054.
The court found the two had regularly been paid less than $10 an hour, leading to them each being underpaid hundreds of dollars a week.
However, soon after the court ruling, VST ceased trading and ownership was transferred to a new company, also owned by Mr Todaro.
This left the two workers unable to secure back-payment from VST.
The Ombudsman is now asking the WA Industrial Magistrates Court to find that Mr Todaro was personally involved in the underpayments.
If successful, the Ombudsman will ask the Court to impose penalties against Mr Todaro and to order that the penalties be paid to the two workers to help rectify the underpayment.
The Ombudsman alleges Mr Todaro was involved in 10 contraventions of workplace laws.
The maximum potential penalty per contravention is $6600.
EXCLUSIVE: Secrecy over the state government’s $2.6 billion Perth Waterfront revamp has raised fears among a powerful Parliamentary committee that the project is not being managed properly.
In its latest report on big-ticket infrastructure projects, the influential Public Accounts Committee concludes that a lack of transparency and engagement with the public raises serious accountability issues.
“This is a large and complex project making major changes to the structure and working of the Perth CBD,” the state Parliamentary committee warns.
“If we get it wrong, in any one of several significant aspects, then the benefits to the city, its liveability and efficient functioning could be severely impaired.”
The committee is headed by veteran Labor MLA John Kobelke. MLAs Joe Francis (Liberal), Tony Krsticevic (Liberal), Rita Saffioti (Labor) and Chris Tallentire (Labor) are the other members.
Public infrastructure for the Perth Waterfront is set to cost taxpayers $440 million – of which $170 million is expected to be recouped from land sales.
REFUSED ACCESS
The Parliamentary committee was refused access to break-downs of expected project costs on the grounds that disclosure might jeopardise the tendering process for the Waterfront.
“Public cynicism is arguably heightened when public money is spent on what might best be described as ‘optional’ projects and where the need for the project is not immediately obvious,” the report counselled.
“Construction of a $500 million hospital is less controversial than the construction [of] a $500 million inner-city redevelopment because the need for healthy communities is usually immediately apparent, whereas the need for an activated inner-city is not.”
Appearing before the committee, the bureaucrat managing the Waterfront project – Glen Finn – admitted it had not yet been included in the WA Planning Commission’s Strategic Asset Management Framework because the project was a “priority of government”.
This was despite the committee having urged in November 2010 that such ‘fast-tracked projects’ be subject to the framework as far as possible. The framework is a high-level risk-management tool.
VISION NOT ENOUGH
In a June 2009 media release, Liberal Premier Colin Barnett first announced his support for the project.
The Parliamentary report noted that vision — even when backed by strong political commitment—was not enough.
“The committee agrees that Perth’s foreshore — potentially its best asset — is under-utilised,” the committee noted.
“Its city centre will need to grow to meet demand from commercial and residential tenants; and other, globally significant cities, have developed lively and vibrant waterfronts that have greatly contributed to the amenity and appeal of these cities.
“What does require close scrutiny, however, is the extent to which the waterfront redevelopment as currently proposed reflects the best option to meet these needs.”
‘DO NOTHING’
The report revealed that a ‘do nothing’ option – whereby the current grassy parkland by the Swan River would remain undeveloped – had never been evaluated.
This was because there had been a clear signal from the government that the project was to go ahead.
The committee noted the reduced size of the project from the one first mooted when Alan Carpenter was Premier was less cavalier but ran the risk of not fully energising the waterfront.
DISSENT
A minority report lodged by Mr Francis and Mr Krsticevic said some statements by the committee were unfairly critical and lacked evidence.
“We do not accept the observation that ‘there was a danger that value for money outcomes would be compromised’,” the Liberal MLAs wrote.
“If anything, any truly impartial observation of the $2.6 billion development of the Perth Waterfront – mostly funded by private sector development – can justify the state net contribution of an estimated $255–$300 million.
“In fact, when considering the benefits that will flow from areas such as employment, payroll tax, stamp duty and tourism, a 10 per cent investment by the state for a $2.6 billion project must be one of the greatest economic stimulus projects ever undertaken in Perth!”
A misguided dash for Commonwealth cash was the cause of a $270 million blowout on the Northbridge Link project, a Parliamentary report reveals.
In what the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee dubs an “inadequately scoped and costed submission”, state officials in 2009 told their Commonwealth counterparts the Link would cost $468 million.
The federal government agreed to fund just over half that cost, $263 million, and – wisely from its perspective – said there would be no top-up.
The budget for the Northbridge Link now stands at $737.7 million.
Contributing to the $270 million blowout have been extra train platforms, bus bays, track, strength to underground components to cater for 30-storey buildings above, and a pedestrian underpass.
In one fell swoop, a government decision that it, and not a private developer, would deliver a town square added $73.1 million to the project cost.
The main purpose of the project is to sink 320 metres of railway line and link Northbridge to the Perth CBD.
The $737.7 project cost works out at $2.3 million per metre of train track.
In evidence published in the committee’s latest report on major infrastructure projects, Transperth boss Reece Waldock said the cost quoted to Canberra was “very premature”.
Mr Waldock said it was only in March 2010 that the final scope was arrived at.
From his evidence, the committee concluded the Link “was probably not ready for consideration for funding” when the Commonwealth assessed it.
The Public Accounts Committee is headed by veteran Labor MLA John Kobelke. MLAs Joe Francis (Liberal), Tony Krsticevic (Liberal), Rita Saffioti (Labor) and Chris Tallentire (Labor) are the other members.
In dissenting comments, Mr Francis and Mr Krsticevic air concerns about “political statements” of the report and say “crucial evidence” had been omitted for political gain.
FEBRUARY 6 UPDATE: A 35-year-old man has been charged with grievous bodily harm after a 29-year-old man presented at Royal Perth Hospital yesterday with multiple stab wounds after a fight in Northbridge.
The fight erupted outside the former fish market on Roe Street just before 5am yesterday.
Police spokeswoman Ros Weatherall said the man had allegedly been stabbed in his abdomen and arm.
He was taken to hospital by his friends and his injuries were not life threatening.
The charged man will appear in Perth Magistrates Court today.
