Stand up for ourselves
I HAVE lived with the same problem as your correspondent (“A living hell,” Herald Thinking Allowed, January 10, 2015) for many years and have learned that Homeswest and other authorities are almost completely powerless to act in any way other than to issue useless breach notices and provide impotent warnings.
I had to start thinking outside the box in order to stop being a victim of these ungrateful, inconsiderate, and disruptive people who know authorities have no real power to act on your behalf.
Existing laws are designed to protect and defend those people you have described in your article. I had drugs and associated paraphernalia tossed into my garden when my neighbours were raided by police. I immediately donned gloves and retrieved it, bagged it and handed it to police the following day.
Police advised me that where there are drugs there are drug dealers. They advised me to keep a record of all vehicles coming to the property. I made regular reports of those visits (particularly of the same cars) to Crimestoppers. They eventually had to leave their house whenever they needed drugs as their dealer wouldn’t home-deliver.
I also noted these people stayed up late and it was generally quiet in the middle hours of the day as they slept off their benders. So, I set up a workshop adjacent to their bedroom. In those “quiet” hours I used all manner of power tools. Which resulted in sleepless “days” for them and progress on my renovations for me. I noticed noisy nights didn’t last as long nor occur as often.
They set up a fire pit near my fence at one stage which resulted in smoke and noise from their parties disrupting our home life.
So I placed a smoke detector on my wall as close to the fire pit as I could. When the alarm was activated by smoke from their fire it often cut the party short and the fire was extinguished quickly as they didn’t want a visit from the fire brigade.
These are by no means the full account of my experiences and responses. The point I am trying to make is we may need to think beyond using authorities to deal with such situations. We need to stand up for ourselves and stop being victims.
Collin Ralf
Harvest Rd, North Fremantle

The Workers’ united
CONTRARY to your articles in Herald Rewind (December, 2014), everything has worked out for the Fremantle Workers Club according to plans that have been developing since 2012.
The Herald has confused the club’s building with its membership—we may be selling the Henry Street building but the club and its members continue to thrive.
In the medium term we are located at South Fremantle Football Club where our members love the natural light and large dance floor.
The club’s long-term plan is to be part of the purpose-built Fremantle Park Sport and Community Centre and agreement to this was unanimous at the club’s AGM.
Fremantle’s three century-old clubs, partners in this new venture, will retain their identities and not be amalgamated, as the Herald erroneously states. The Workers Club management committee first agreed to this plan in 2012.
The need to sell the Henry Street premises has been recognised since we re-opened three years ago. The committee had no choice on account of the level of debt inherited when the club was re-opened three years ago, as well as  the overheads and maintenance costs of the building.
The 2011 plan was to sell the building, wind up the club as an association and dispose of all its assets.
In September 2011, when I spoke against this approach, I told members that our 97-year-old club could survive another 100 years, but it might not be at Henry Street.
Last October the members’ meeting voted in favour of the sale of Henry Street, with only one member dissenting—far from the Herald’s claim it was by no means unanimous.
I’m delighted the club was able to celebrate its centenary year in the Henry Street premises and in particular that the centenary booklet on the history of the club was launched there. This time a year ago I had anticipated that we might have to leave the premises much sooner.
Don Whittington
President, Fremantle Workers
Social & Leisure Club

Trees please
NOW is the time to order your street trees for winter planting. Most verges will support two trees and if you are on a corner block you can have trees to both.
With all the infill housing and street trees being removed from driveways for multiple developments, we really do need the verge trees.
The council is planting a lot of Claret Ash. These trees sucker from the bottom and, if the suckers are not removed, they will take over the main tree and just become a bush. This happened years ago on Adrian Street, Palmyra and now only about two of the original trees remain.
Chinese Tallow trees do not do well without plenty of water and have lots of dead branches. The council planted six on Canning Highway in Applecross last winter and all look dead or dying.
Choose your trees with care and maybe we will get some shade back in our suburbs. If you visit Peppermint Grove you will see every verge has an abundance of peppermint trees. Where trees are dying, new ones are planted years beforehand so they can be ready when the old ones are taken down.
Our council has millions of our dollars in investments, as we know from the American debacle with our funds. It is time some of this was spent if we are to have shade and cleaner air.
Brenda Taylor
Bridges Rd, Melville

Sorry about the noise, folks
FIRST, this letter comes unequivocally as an apology for the inconsiderate nature of the late-night revelry that emanated from the North Fremantle Community Hall last Saturday.
As Freo locals and parents of two young children we completely understand and sympathise with the precious nature of sleep in the early hours of the morning. But equally, as parents of young children we recognise the precious nature of opportunities to let our hair down.
Last Saturday my wife and I were married in a beautiful ceremony next to the river in North Fremantle. There were dolphins. We then proceeded to the hall where we had arranged, through the council, to have our reception.
The entire day was perfect and, if it means anything, I can only say our enjoyment of that perfection led us to make some poor decisions at the end of the night.
These decisions were inconsiderate to the needs of neighbours and local residents, and for that we sincerely apologise.
The booking was made through the council for the use of the hall till midnight, and had nothing to do with the bowls club, apart from it generously agreeing to leave the lights on for us.
We hope residents take this letter in the earnestness it is given, and hope this one event will not tarnish what is a fantastic community resource into the future.
Tom Lee & Sarana Haeata
Shepherd St, Beaconsfield