Sink or swim
IT’S about containers not the port.
When will we ever have a well-informed discussion about the impact of the container operations in North Fremantle, and do the proper planning that should have been underway for the last 28 years and protect the heritage of Fremantle.
That is how long ago a major technical report said that North Quay would be at capacity for containers, and that provision had to be made for an alternative container operation. Neither political party has done anything.
Now we have Fremantle council burying it’s head in the sand again and coming out with a vague statement about containers that muddies the waters and flies in the face of their opposition to Roe 8, 9 and 10, or the famous “Freightlink”.
Helen Hewitt (“Keep the port”, Herald letters, September 22, 2018) perpetuates the simplistic misinformation that we are against the “working port”.
Nothing is further from the truth.
There is a great deal of Fremantle port trade not connected to containers.
Her trivialisation of the impact of the current level of container traffic on North Fremantle is clearly the view of someone who does not live here.
Queen Victoria Street and businesses have improved, against great odds, after years of effort, to traffic-calm the town centre.
However the current stance of Fremantle council and the views expressed in Helen’s letter are giving me an extreme case of deja vu from 28 years ago.
At that time we were conveniently labelled “anti port” and nothing was done.
That is not good enough today.
If the head-in-the-sand approach wins now, then incremental “improvements” to the road system will kill those hard-won gains in the North Fremantle Town Centre and elsewhere.
Ann Forma
Harvest road, North Fremantle

Swan song
“Further damage to the industry,” Clare Watson? (“Burton pans Black Swan season, Herald, September 22, 2018)
The theatre industry has already been struck a lethal blow.
One of the best ever plays written, Angels In America, was recently performed at the Black Swan Theatre.
It was a play in two parts, but incredibly the second part was never performed.
Why? Lack of audience, bad casting and direction perhaps, and do we really need to get actors from over east when we have Perth actors who have won awards in Sydney?
Amateur actors? How senseless to put a seasoned professional out of work yet have the theatre’s offices overflowing with paid receptionists/publicists and the like.
Not only have we lost Deckchair Theatre in Fremantle etc, but also Shakespeare in the Park – a wonderful, packed audience enjoying the bard and directed by Paige Newmark, who like Sally Burton left for the UK.
I speak as a retired professional who has worked in theatre and TV in the UK, US and Europe.
There our desire was to please the audience: a selection of classic plays and one musical each year.
By the way, Ms Burton is right, WAAPA has wonderful musical theatre students. Surely it is time for Ms Watson to resign and for a talented local director such as Adam Mitchell or Laurie Cullen Tate to be given the job.
Avril Fleming
Montreal Street, Fremantle