A numbers game
HERE we go again. Another Fremantle Sailing Club grab for our precious beach (Herald, December 5, 2015).
Most of the coastline south of Freo has been already grabbed by industry and marinas, but they still want more. There are many more beachgoers than boat owners, so let’s do the “greatest good for the greatest number”.
If we stand back from this particular issue, surely we can see a pattern. Traffic congestion, billions on freeways and tunnels, natural wetlands disappearing, water shortages, crowded coastlines, high rise developments intruding on leafy, pleasant suburbs, etc.
Some 30,000 extra people settle in Perth each year, demanding new houses, schools, shopping centres, and offices. We seem unable to discuss these issues in terms of excessive population pressures and to plan for a stable population for Perth. Instead we all “rally to the cause”, going off to protest marches, writing letters, filling in surveys, etc. Rethink population growth is what I say.
Gordon Payne
Jenkin St, South Fremantle

Here forever
DEAR Dr Kim Hames, WA health minister, I am sitting in the JP office in Fremantle contemplating the forum meeting that occurred in the CC Lecture Theatre yesterday.
I’d decided to go and exchange my library books and pick up the Herald: I opened the paper, and there it was in black and white — “Freo cut again” (December 5, 2015).
An excellent article by Steve Grant that epitomises what occurred. I had no idea the media was in the building, but I am glad it was. My analogy: “Fremantle Hospital is like a ship in the port run by the most esteemed Captain Dr Blythe, and it has just been hit portside by its ally SMAS, it has received damage but it is afloat. The crew is regrouping and awaiting its captain’s orders”.
Are we afloat or are we sinking? It is now three weeks before Christmas, and SMAS has just delivered to the staff of Fremantle Hospital, its worst Christmas present ever!
I have been a nurse now for 40 years, and as a health care professional, can never remember being treated with such disdain, and I take umbrage it is my “employer” that holds me in such contempt.
When will the cuts be implemented? Who will lose their jobs? Will I be able to pay my bills? We have been cut, and cut and now we are down to bone, which is a worry.
In 2015, Dr David Blythe and his executive staff steered us through the “transition” of clients and some services to FSH, and then the “accreditation” in which we “passed with flying colours” — and we were told Fremantle Hospital continues to maintain the “gold standard” of client care, that it has upheld for more than 100 years.
Health care needs leaders like Dr Blythe, he is the most caring, grounded and approachable executive director that Fremantle Hospital has ever had, because he is on the front line and is aware of what we face everyday — doing so much, with so little, but still maintaining our care and dignity as health care professionals.
The heartbeat of Fremantle Hospital and its community beats strongly, and the ethos of the staff cannot be replicated — it is known in inner circles as “the Fremantle way” — other hospital sites may not agree with it, but it works.
If I want to make a distressed client, who has just received an inoperable diagnosis, a cup of tea, I can, and will, I do not need a work order to do this. I am able to provide caring without judgement, and this means so much to me as a nurse.
So, I say to you Dr Hames, thank you for your Christmas present, it was not what the staff was expecting, but we realise you are trying to rein in the ballooning health budget.
We are aware of the case mix expectations of the federal government, and of the falling iron ore price, now below $40 a tonne, and the over-expenditure of the Barnett government, but we will not compromise out standard of care at Fremantle Hospital for anyone. Governments come and go, but health care will go on forever.
Fran Chamberlain BN JP
Hayward Way, Myaree

A thriving hub
I READ with dismay (Herald, December 5, 2015) the WA transport department — perhaps with some influence from Fremantle Sailing Club — is making a grab for a part of the northern end of South Beach (dedicated as a dog beach).
This time, thinly disguised, not as disabled access, but as part of a boating protection zone for beach-goers. A very cursory glance at the plans reveals although there may be a 125m protection zone from parts of the beach, the northern end of Dog Beach will be a beaching and launching area for boats.
Not a great combination for beach-goers with dogs and the many groyne-to-groyne swimmers, with a plethora of boats cruising over us.
Remember, we have already lost at least 80 metres of a beautiful crescent-shaped beach due to the construction of the loathsome parallel groyne. This beach is a thriving, vibrant hub of the South Fremantle community and we should be wary of more reduction of our beach by stealth!
Mark Brophy
South Beach user since 1978
South Fremantle

A good start…
MELVILLE shopping centre is to be congratulated on the trees it has recently planted, and we are grateful.
However, a tree at each end of car spaces for a double row of perhaps 40 cars is not going to provide any shade at all for the cars and the poor occupants. They did well, but did not go far enough, perhaps a few more trees, to shade the cars, pretty please.
Suzanne Hanley
Calpin Cres, Attadale

Leaf it out!
I AM disabled and in my 80s. I need a gardener but they all want $50/55 an hour! School teachers don’t get $200 for four hours’ work. Do they declare all this to the tax people? I asked a taxi driver and they said they get about $25 an hour.
P Vickers
Plantagenet Cres, Hamilton Hill

Fairness and equity
WITH more than 3000 members, Fremantle Sailing Club (“Beach fight,” Herald, December 5, 2015) is one of Fremantle’s most significant sporting clubs.
The 11 distinct sections range from yachts to power boats and include a pipes and drums band that regularly plays for civic ceremonies. Membership ranges from kids learning to sail, several that have qualified Australia to compete in sailing at the Rio Olympics, to old salts in their 80s still enjoying the water.
The club employs a sizable workforce and creates substantial business opportunities for a much wider local community. It also is a substantial ratepayer to the City of Fremantle, with several hundred members eligible to vote in the Fremantle electorate.
As a peak sporting body and a recognised centre of excellence, the club is frequently invited to provide expertise and knowledge for aquatic matters, both locally, nationally and overseas.
Indeed, the club is working with and supporting sailing federations and ministries in Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam to name just a few.
Recently the WA transport department invited the club to participate and provide feedback to the Aquatic User Review — one of several groups and associations to do so. In doing so, the club supports the department’s key principles of “Fair and Equity” when it comes to access to aquatic resources, with safety a crucial factor.
The beach to the south of the club is currently open to the boating public, as gazetted by the WA government and both the club and Transport recognise this is less than desirable in terms of safety.
Despite the council erecting signage to limit boating, its jurisdiction stops at the high-water mark and Transport manages the waterways and is the authority in these matters. The current proposal open for public comment via a survey by Transport addresses several of these concerns. The survey can be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/r/aursm3tr0.
The Fremantle Sailing Club supports all the Transport initiatives. These include those immediately to the south of the club, which provide for a new — and extending the existing — Closed Waters Motorised Vessel area, and a new eight-knot speed limit 200m from the shore.
Whilst these initiatives will be to the detriment of the boating community, allowing high-speed craft such as jet skis to operate up to 45 metres from the beach (as is currently the case) is less than desirable.
One of the contentious proposals is for a 30-metre access channel (less than four per cent of the available beach area) so the boating community can land safely in its dinghies to allow small children to swim in the relative safety of the beach, exercise their dogs or to enjoy and support local cafes.
An access channel in nautical terms is the equivalent of a pedestrian crossing on a road. The location of the channel was at the north of the beaches to provide a natural rock boundary on one side with the other marked by channel markers. This had the unintended effect of becoming a 120-metre channel when the tide is out.
“Fair and Equity” access to the beach for the boating community is primarily driven by a need to cater for the wider boating community, not from Fremantle Sailing Club, but those that sail to the area from other clubs or marinas including river clubs.
If the access channel is not gazetted, the boating public will have limited options in the future.
It is ironic that one of the staunch opponents to the proposed changes has posted a photo on social media of a 1954 motor launch with a half-a-dozen kids jumping for joy off the boat whilst anchored. The caption is “Off Dog Beach”. It is a moment in time that may not be repeated in the future.
Fremantle Sailing Club supports Transport’s proposed re-gazetting of the waters in Cockburn Sound via the Aquatic User Review and urges readers to complete the survey.
Terry Baker
Commodore
Fremantle Sailing Club

Drop the hake
WHAT a huge disappointment it was when I took five people to what is a Fremantle landmark, Fishing Boat Harbour, for fish and chips and told them what a great place Western Australia was.
Surrounded by big blue and white fishing boats and expecting the best fish WA could provide I was told the fish was hake from South Africa and the snapper was from Indonesia.
We could have had local snapper for $28. No wonder Fremantle is dying.
Mark Kendle
Eckersley Heights, Winthrop

Learn our lesson
AS a visitor to the beautiful Fremantle area, I was struck by the issues raised concerning the proposed Roe 8 section through Beeliar wetlands.
Please don’t make the same mistakes we made in the US decades ago—for example where we developed most of the Florida Everglades or where we put a development at the marsh where the river feeds into Lake Tahoe in California.
We now realise these developments caused irreversible damage to water quality and to important habitat. You have had 30 years to find out that the proposed Roe 8 section roadway is not good for the region’s welfare.
Lynne Paulson
Contessa Ct, San Jose
California USA

Tunnel could heal Freo rift
FREMANTLE without the port would be like a zoo without the animals.
Far from being an impost on the city, as some people seem to think, it is the foundation stone of our character.
There are many examples from around the world of ports being successfully integrated into town life. Fremantle is one of those with access for the public to see at close quarters the colourful and majestic panorama of ships, cranes, trains and trucks, all building a vibrant scene that is the unique backdrop to our city.
Modernisation has meant increased throughput at the port can be achieved within the existing harbour – ships turn around in seven hours when only a few decades ago it would take seven days. The harbour is not a log-jam of ships and there is only ever half-a-dozen or so waiting in Gage Roads.
I once counted 45 ships on the horizon outside Newcastle port — now, that’s busy. The cork in the bottle is the road network, and that has been stymied by years of protest and indecision. The proposed tunnel under the original bypass route is a great solution.
Beaconsfield and White Gum Valley will become truly integrated into the greater City of Fremantle without that tear in the fabric of the city which Hampton Road has become. And there’s more good news: the privatisation of the port will deliver a massive rates boost to the city coffers – this will be a game changer, and is probably why Kwinana is now so keen to host the port.
With that ongoing boost in the city’s finances, Fremantle will be able to undertake all manner of public improvements.
I respect the views of those who are opposing the PFL but from where I sit there are some great advantages in what the WA government is proposing for Fremantle’s future.
Helen Hewitt
Nairn St, Fremantle

Buying not selling
THE comments by Susanne Taylor-Rees (Herald letters, November 28, 2015) are very misleading and in the most part incorrect.
Any suggestion the council is “hell-bent on selling prime pieces of public open space for high density housing” is absolutely wrong.
On the contrary the city spent $16 million of ratepayer money purchasing land from the WA government that it wanted to sell for high-density housing.
Let me remind your readers of these purchases: Melville primary school site $5.5 million, Carawatha primary site Willagee $5.2m, a Water Authority site on Ogilvie Road, Mount Pleasant $3.3m and a Western Power site on Murray Road, Bicton $2.2m — a total of $16.2 million and 5.7 hectares of land saved from the housing bulldozer to be used as public open space.
Now add to this $8.7 million to cover the development costs of these parcels of land (including Heathcote) and we have close to $25m the city has committed over the past decade to provide new park land.
Through wise financial planning the city found the funds to save these sites without a “carve-up” or “sell-off” of any land. Regarding the building of a new city library and cultural centre, I am confident this will be a one of the most exciting developments in our city when constructed. It will be an iconic building within the city centre hub for all to enjoy.
Cr Clive Robartson
City of Melville

Appalled
I AM appalled you allowed the article about the E Shed Markets (Herald, December 5, 2015) to go to print.
I am a stall holder in the E Shed and I am furious you could let a reporter write such a scathing thing about us. Business is already hard in Fremantle without having derogatory remarks published about our market.
People will read that and then say let’s not bother visiting there, therefore having more negative impact on us.
It is unfair on the stall holders as there are some very nice shops here. I think an apology from Stephen Pollock would be in order.
As for mayor Brad Pettitt, I thought he was in the pulse in Fremantle  but hasn’t been to the E Shed for years. I would have thought he and his family would visit sometimes to shop locally.
Sue Smith
Ba Tay Sue
E Shed Market, Fremantle
The Ed says: Thanks Sue, but newspapers would be pretty dull affairs if we removed everything in them that people might disagree with or take offence to. Best of luck for the rest of the year and have a wonderful Christmas!