Caring Kaleeya
HUGE thanks to the staff of Kaleeya Hospital. This year I have attended Kaleeya twice and want to thank all the staff there publicly. I was amazed by the caring, efficient, well co-ordinated teamwork I encountered there. I felt so safe in their hands. Please, health minister Kim Hames, if Kaleeya is to be closed do not lose this team of dedicated people.
Jean M Taylor
Giudie Wy, Yangebup

Junk mail from McGurk
I MUST register disappointment in my local member of state parliament Simone McGurk’s recent newsletter. It was a total waste of taxpayers’ money—junk mail!
What I want to read from my elected member is what she has actually done for Fremantle people since winning the seat. Now, that would save taxpayers’ money, because there is not enough data to fill a newsletter.
Seniors receive many benefits from the state government. A new discount directory will be available in September.
Simone should realise seniors are enabling her generation to get ahead: easy, low-interest loans for first-home buyers have affected bank returns to seniors. Inconvenience in parking, driving and detours due to road maintenance are all caused by WA’s increased population, and youngsters who can afford, and expect to have, a vehicle as soon as possible.
The expectations of the young are affecting seniors’ comfort zones—not the government! Come on Simone—in football words—become a ball-getter. Stop playing the man, and tell us what you have done! You are making a fool of yourself with this latest newsletter.
Arthur Marshall OAM
Preston Point Rd, East Fremantle
The Ed says: Mr Marshall is a former state Liberal MP.

National Trust rack and ruin
WELL, I am not the best letter writer in the world but I just have to say something about the Fly by Night.
For the past 20 years I have been involved with the Fly: When I first came to WA with my wife and two kids we did not know anyone. So one night we saw an ad for a show at the Fly. We went and it was the best thing we did—people who love music, friendly and safe, no trouble.
We got talking to the manager at the time and he asked me what I did. Carpenter, I said. They asked me to fix the doors, telling me they was a non-profit organisation. Put me down for a show and I would be glad to help out. Over the years I have put a lot of time in at the Fly, all for the love of the place.
Some of the people who had their start there are now famous and love the Fly and its crew and return to see us. Well, if we have to move so be it. But we will survive the people whose aim in life is to give nothing, just take and make money regardless of the people. Profit. Profit. Profit.
Seven-thousand people want us to stay.
The National Trust? What can I say? Paleface speak with forked tongue. They do nothing. All I see them do is let things go to rack and ruin. The Fly is the community and family—God bless it. I will not support the new owners nor will a lot of other people.
RW Taylor
Studzor St, Warnbro

Club returns church volley
I READ with interest your article “Locals seek purgatory” (Herald, August 9, 2014) and Pauline Farley’s letter (August 16). As president of St Joseph Pignatelli’s Tennis Club I feel obliged to clarify a few facts.
SJP Tennis Club has not opposed the building of a new church in Attadale, but only to the building of the proposed church on top of the tennis courts because that would effectively destroy both the tennis club and its valuable facilities.
When the club was established by the-then parish priest 50 years ago the club was intended to be an outreach into the general community. Our constitution states the objective is to “provide meaningful opportunity for ecumenical exchange within the district of the parish”.
The parish has never charged the tennis club for using parish land but the club has developed the facilities (six synthetic courts, fencing, lighting) and has made regular and significant financial contributions to parish assets such as the parish hall.
It is not practicable for the club to relocate to Santa Maria College  (an all-girls’ boarding college) for many good reasons. Members cannot play mid-week, night tennis is not possible, social facilities are not available and most importantly the college cannot give to the club any security of tenure.
The club did not decline the offer of retaining two courts. It pointed out that two courts would be valuable for the parish school and for the tennis coaching of children (from both Pignatelli PS and Attadale PS), and for individuals, but that the club, with 89 members, could not continue to operate with only two courts.
Richard Finucane
President SJPTC
Kemmish Cres, Melville

Surely this has to be a joke
WHEN I read Deborah Swann’s letter (“Biker son berated,” Herald, August 23, 2014) I was somewhat perplexed, until I realised it was a joke, and the writer was taking the mickey. Surely?
The writer seems to be saying, “we cannot control our son, who lives under our roof, and we rely on the neighbours and the police to do so”.
If this is not a joke this is a very sad cases indeed—the son would have no hope of redemption and would respect neither the law, nor his neigbours.
For a parent to publicly announce their dismal failure beggars belief.
It has to be a joke!
Ron Renton
Westbury Cresc, Bicton

Celebrating Fremulticulture
I LOVE Fremantle. South Mole’s sunrise and sunset. Boats come in, boats go out, the winter sun beaming through clouds.
It’s the people I love most. Alone, together, teenagers, kids. “White” Aussies, Aboriginals, New Zealanders, Asians, Italians, Serbs, Croats, Germans, people from the Middle-East, Irish, Scottish, English and . . . strong, weak, dark hair, grey hair, no hair, big hooks, small hooks, sinkers, floats and always the dream of a big catch.
An Asian couple I met last night got it right. She sat on a rock in a big hat. He stood, line in water, hauling herring. She sat back unhitching his catch, dropping them in a bucket, baiting hooks as he waited and then kept catching.
Two young Italian chaps, no idea of what they’d caught, laughed and joked and asked me to name tiddlers while using an iPhone to snag the internet to validate images of what they caught—me spelling out names, coz’ hey, “hirrin” brings up strange things.
Last night, lovers, fish and chips sat watching the sun set. Kids ran about.
One huge rod, one tall country bloke, Aussie accent I adore, stood on a top rock, too worried his knees would fail him on the up down to get closer to the water. He was after something big.
Music pumped from cars, chairs set up for late-night stays and the wind, the sky, our beautiful sky.
A whopping big fish broke the surface around lines again and again, disappeared and I felt . . . beautiful.
Suzanne Covich
Healy Rd, Hamilton Hill

See the light
BEING a past motorcyclist, I had a numberplate on the back, with the front plate fixed longways to the front mudguard of my bike.
Someone over the years has had the front plate removed, with the argument that if you hit someone, the front plate will injure them more. I cannot see any reason for not having the front plate fixed crossways on the bike, under the headlight.
One rule for all road users.
Frank Granger
Melville Bch Rd, Applecross

Flow blow
WATCHING various government departments, authorities and trusts unloading responsibility for cleaning up the Swan River is akin to re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
Blame is constantly focused on rural land-owners, suburban gardeners and commercial polluters for the increasing decline of our rivers and wetlands. They seem to have ignored the contribution many local councils have made to the problem in the past with their unrestricted use of rubbish landfill facilities alongside lakes and rivers and above underground aquifers.
Tompkins Park and Bibra Lake are examples of this lack of foresight. These contaminated sites are now ticking environmental time bombs. Perhaps the most dangerous one is at Burswood where the overlying soil is being compacted to construct a cash cow for the AFL and the casino operator.
The constant pounding of the soil will ensure the trapped chemicals, toxins, pesticides and other noxious materials in the decomposing rubbish are squeezed out and leached into the nearby river. No wonder the government is rendering its various environmental watchdogs dysfunctional: there is a very good chance they could reveal the truth about a major cause of the decline of our aquatic icons.
Daryl Binning
Norton Ridge, Winthrop

Compassion
I AM writing in to express my overwhelming gratitude to all the healthcare workers I have come to meet in the past seven weeks at the Fremantle and Kaleeya Hospitals.
Having had two surgeries, an eight-day stay and a couple of follow-up visits, thanks everyone who shared stories, told jokes or just listened when I needed an ear. The level of care, empathy, compassion and complete dedication to their work made what should have been an unpleasant experience an altogether pleasant one.
Mark Brown
Edmund St, White Gum Valley

Postal low
HOW much lower can Australia Post go? First, more than 400 postal workers will lose, or have already lost, their job because more people are sending letters by email.
Now, Australia Post is to remove a mailing service to Rottnest Island (Herald, August 16, 2014). Living in the country a few years ago, a farmer had to erect his mail box next to his farmer neighbour, because it was just half a mile from the mail deliverer’s route.
Frank Cherry
Elderberry Dve, South Lake

Trusty Tier 3
DOES the public realise that in the Tier 3 railway line area, if no trains are running, it will take 16,383 truckloads to move an average crop of 900,000 tonnes of wheat to rail heads.
Then of course another 16,383 for the return journey.
That is a total of  32,766 truck movements: one way full and the other empty.
Also consider that most roads are not capable of carrying this heavy load of traffic and the extreme danger to other road users, with the result it is going to cost the state a lot of money through accidents and the possible loss of life.
Is it common sense to close a railway line which is quite capable of carrying all this grain to market?
On top of this, the farming community will be burdened with increased transport costs and higher shire rates for the upkeep of the roads travelled on by these trucks.
Marye Louise Daniels
Osbourn Place, Kewdale

Share the joy
WE were delighted to read your recent review of Parlapa in 11 William Street.
The owners are business migrant clients of our agency—we took them through the whole process of migration through to establishing their business.
It was therefore very satisfying to see this acknowledgement of them having so successfully reached their goal. We are very keen to share such good news stories with other small business owners and prospective owners: I was therefore hoping we could have permission to use your great photo of the Parlapa team.
Helen Axton
Manager, Communications & Marketing
The Ed says: Helen, give our photo sales team a call—they’ll do you a great deal.