• Missing this gopher? Give the Herald a call.
LOCAL guitar legend Lucky Oceans and his now film-making legend wife Chris Gosfield got an unusual present on Saturday morning—a gopher dumped in their driveway. Gosfield joked it was Oceans’ 64th birthday on Wednesday, so perhaps the gopher was a hint from a cheeky friend, but she’s actually concerned it was stolen and the joy-riders have simply abandoned it. If you’re missing your gnarly ride, give the Herald a call on 9430 7727. Gosfield’s all smiles after winning an international film-making gong to go with Oceans’ Grammy on the mantlepiece. Up against industry heavyweights such as Disney, her How I Became a Refugee won an award of recognition at the Best Shorts Competition last month. “We would have taken home the prize for the lowest budget,” Gosfield laughed.
SO many Melville councillors and staff will be attending a $30,000 European not-a-junket study tour to learn about waste-to-energy recycling they won’t be able to hold their regularly scheduled meetings. With CEO Shayne Silcox and two senior staff away, along with councillors Cameron Schuster, Clive Robartson and Robert Willis, it’s barely able to make a quorum if anyone pulls a sicky (the council’s also a man down following the death of Cr Richard Hill), so it’s pulling the whole schedule forward a week. The council reckons the trip’s a good investment of your cash but critics say it’s a promotional event for the industry rather than an educational one and given the sector’s shifting to the state government, local ratepayers shouldn’t be footing the bill.
MELVILLE’S civic square library could be out of commission for two years as part of the Garden City shopping centre expansion. The council’s doing a land swap with centre owners AMP so the behemoth can grow, and that includes the bit the library’s on. The council’s looking into temporarily rehoming the books in either the civic centre foyer or the town’s main hall (though that’ll cost it $50,000 a year since it won’t be able to hire it out for bingo nights). It’ll cost around $92,000 to set up the ersatz library. The library’s visited 150,000 a year and also handles all back end logistics for the council’s five smaller library branches.
THE Fremantle Society lives on. After president Henty Farrar’s recent mayday call, about 50 members rocked up to this week’s meeting promising to get active. A motion to wind up didn’t get a mover, and a handful of new faces will now sit on the committee. The society plans a new focus on getting its message out to attract new members—particularly youngsters—and will take part in and organise more events. There will also be a renewed effort to work with other community groups. The Chook copped some flak for not getting stuck into Freo council enough.
WEST PAPUANS generally get a raw deal out of the world’s biggest copper and gold mine that’s on their land. The Grasberg mine makes super profits for American miner Freeport and the Indonesian government, but locals have little more to show than an environmental disaster. The region, one of the poorest in the world, was annexed by Indonesia in 1961 and locals have been fighting for independence ever since. Fifteen local bands and DJs will be getting together at the Railway Hotel in North Fremantle tomorrow (Sunday April 26) for a fundraiser to support the freedom movement (which is mostly peaceful but has involved some armed resistance, in the face of brutal military force). On the bill are Cera Kymarni, Dillip n the Davs and Shangara Jive, and it runs from 2-10pm. Tix $15 on entry.
