oneperth.com.au | Perth news

STAFF REPORTER

Photo: Marcus Obal

CHRIS THOMSON

Garbage giant Transpacific has been fined $170,500 over the 2009 death of a worker at Alcoa’s alumina refinery in Wagerup southeast of Mandurah.

A decision published today by Federal Court judge Michael Barker states that on September 2, 2009, Transpacific broke the Federal work safety law when it failed to identify that open manholes at the refinery constituted a fall hazard.

On that day at the refinery, Transpacific employee Paul Herbert Fry fell through one of the manholes and 21 metres to his instant death.

Justice Barker also ruled Transpacific breached the law when it failed to undertake a risk assessment of the fall hazard and close the manholes.

He heard that since the accident Transpacific and Alcoa have agreed to instal scaffolding across the manholes to prevent a future fatal fall.

STAFF REPORTER

Sunday drivers are being urged to avoid the Kwinana Freeway near Hammond Park where a five-car pileup is clogging traffic.

Police spokesman Samuel Dinnison said his colleagues were alerted to the crash about 4:35pm.

The accident occurred in the southbound lanes, just north of the Rowley Road exit, when a car braked heavily to avoid a large item that fell off a trailer.

Five cars collided as a result of the brake-slam and traffic started to bank up not long after.

Mr Dinnison advised motorists to avoid the area.

CHRIS THOMSON

178 beach shacks from a bygone era have been handed a reprieve by the City of Cockburn planners who had threatened to destroy them.

Residents of the Naval Base shacks that perch above a sandy beach just north of the Kwinana industrial complex had been fighting a bid by the city’s planners to remove their holiday homes.

However, after a deal of political arm-twisting, the planners have had a 180-degree change of heart.

A draft policy they have put out for public comment will effectively enshrine the shacks as monuments to a time when beachside holidays were a low-key affair.

“[The shacks are] significant as a good example of the holiday camps which used to exist along the Western Australian coastline but have disappeared in the face of development,” the new policy states.

“Although the condition of individual shacks varies, as a whole the shacks at Naval Base Holiday Park have a uniformity of scale that creates a unique landscape, and gives the place significant aesthetic appeal, especially when combined with the coastal setting …

“The design and construction of the shacks demonstrates the resourcefulness, versatility and creativity of the shack builders and their occupants.”

The policy is in stark contrast to a paper the planners presented to their political masters in 2010.

Back then, the planners lamented the fact the shacks did not comply with new-fangled requirements of the Building Code of Australia.

A plan to bowl the shacks was unleashed. Owners would have had the opportunity to put caravans in their place, or move on.

The shacks have no internal running water and no mains electricity but oneperth.com.au drive-throughs over the years have confirmed they are very tidy.

One of the shacks has the tongue-in-cheek name of ‘Bonnie Doon’ – after the serene Victorian holiday spot with the power line views that featured in hit Aussie movie The Castle.

Generations of people have holidayed at the site since 1933 – well before the Kwinana smokestacks emerged on the southern horizon.

STAFF REPORTER

Two motorcyclists were killed in separate collisions with cars in Perth’s east and south today.

Police spokesman Neil Blair said that at 4pm a motorcyclist died after the motorcycle he was riding collided with a car on Orton in Casuarina.

Details of the rider’s age and sex are not yet available.

Also today, in the Perth Hills locale of Bedfordale, a man died after his motorcycle hit a car on Canns Road.

CHRIS THOMSON

Twelve-storey twin towers planned for a Mandurah caravan park are unlikely to rise beyond eight storeys after the local council decides the project’s fate on Tuesday night.

Belvedere Caravan Park has been in operation for more than 20 years and is owned and operated by the Gangemi family who wish to redevelop it.

The Gangemis got national architecture firm Hassell to draw up the pictured plans, first revealed by oneperth.com.au in November 2010.

After a year of debate at Mandurah City Council, and numerous objections from park residents, the council’s professional planners noted the blueprints met the city’s community benefit benchmarks and commended the towers for approval.

Mandurah mayor Paddi Creevey disagreed.

At the city’s planning committee on January 17 Ms Creevey moved that the towers be slashed to eight storeys because she believed the council’s ‘community benefit contributions’ had not been satisfied.

The motion met a tied vote before the committee chair exercised his casting vote in Ms Creevey’s favour.

The city is finally set to decide the towers’ ultimate fate on Tuesday night.

A state government working group has been formed to address the fears of residents likely to be evicted from Belvedere and other redeveloped caravan parks in the once sleepy Peel region.

CHRIS THOMSON

JANUARY 25 UPDATE: The private St John of God Hospital has won approval to make what it it has dubbed “WA’s largest ever private health sector investment”.

On Monday night the pictured upgrades to the hospital were approved by a state government development assessment panel.

The expansion will increase the hospital’s capacity from 357 beds to 522 beds, and hhelp it keep pace with the massive and public Fiona Stanley Hospital rising next door beside the freeway at Murdoch.

The revamp will allow St John of God to cater for 25,000 more patients each year.

If built as approved, the $234 million upgrade will include:

• a seven-level, 120-bed medical centre with pharmacy and cafe;
• a six-level ward and 20-place cancer centre;
• eight extra operating theatres;
• an expanded intensive care unit;
• new 30-place endoscopy unit with five procedure rooms;
• a training and education centre;
• an extra 437 parking bays, boosting the number of bays to 1824; and
• refurbishment of the original ward block built in 1994 and of the hospital chapel.

The hospital plans to start building in the first half of this year, and complete the job by early 2015.

St John of God has billed the project “WA’s largest ever private health sector investment”.

The plans encompass stage 1 of the revamp. For stage 2, a multistorey carpark and child care centre are on the drawing board.

STAFF REPORTER

A 69-year-old woman was assaulted in her house tonight by a home invader who carried a knife.

Police spokesman Barry Mann said that about 7pm a dark-skinned man believed to be in his 20s entered the elderly woman’s house in Dewsbury Drive, Bertram.

Inspector Mann said the home invader assaulted the woman and stole several items including a laptop computer and contents of the woman’s handbag.

The man then ran from house into nearby bush.

He is described as 180cm tall and of skinny build. He was wearing a grey hoody and black pants.

Anyone with relevant information about the attack should call Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000.

CHRIS THOMSON

Police were marshalled in full force overnight to disperse wild gatherings in Perth’s north and south.

Inspector Neil Blair said that just before 2am his colleagues attended a disturbance at a Scarborough Beach car park.

There, a male had received a minor stab wound to the back.

A man was arrested by police and broke free.

OFFICER SPRAYED

Inspector Blair said that someone in the 50 to 60 person crowd sprayed a police officer with what was believed to be capsicum spray.

Police dispersed the crowd and the officer who was sprayed did not require medical attention.

The stab victim was taken to hospital where he was in a satisfactory condition.

SINGLETON GATE CRASHERS

Inspector Blair said that earlier, about 1am, a group was reported to have crashed a house party at Federation Drive in the Rockingham suburb of Singleton.

Inspector Blair said the gate crashers were armed with bottles and planks of wood.

Several people received minor injuries. Two people were taken to Rockingham Hospital after being hit with chairs and other items.

Inspector Blair said a number of house windows were smashed.

MUNSTER MASH

The third major disturbance overnight was at Dryden Streen in Munster where 100 youths had gathered in the street.

Police attended about 11.30pm.

A small number of beer cans were thrown at officers whose ranks had been bolstered by mounted police and police dogs.

Inspector Blair said that four people were arrested and charged with “various offences”.

STAFF REPORTER

The State Emergency Service has responded to 80 calls for help after wild winds and driving rain hit Perth and Mandurah this morning.

Damage was reported from Swan in the north to Armadale in the east and Mandurah in the south.

A severe thunderstorm warning for this afternoon and evening was cancelled at 3.50pm.

Most of the 80 calls to the SES have come from Mandurah which received 57.6 millimetres, and Rockingham.

The rainfall was unusually heavy and there has been frequent lightning and thunder.

In the Perth Hills, Stoneville shopping centre reported flooding.

The Police and Citizens’ Youth Club in Rockingham sustained roof damage.

About 70 SES volunteers made temporary repairs to homes, and sandbagged areas in danger of flooding.

Roe Highway was flooded in both directions at Berkshire Road in Forrestfield.

The westbound lanes of Great Eastern Highway were also flooded between Grancey Avenue and Mann Street in Mundaring.

Widespread power outages were also reported.

Morning commuters faced lengthy delays on the Mandurah and Joondalup lines due to what Transperth has dubbed a “technical issue”.