Rarely a dull moment - Public Art, the WRAP, Sir Fred’s Park, Owls, and Fortnightly Meetings

So many momentous items in so little time!

This week’s Council meeting on Wednesday, 27 August 2024, went for a short and sharp hour with nine minutes change. Much kudos to the City of Fremantle Council staff on their efficiency.

KAARL BOYAK NAARINY PUBLIC ARTWORK

Readers might recall our recent article about this art (“Fire is Burning on the Rocks”) to be located in Walyalup Koort, for which the City has received a $949,993 Lotterywest grant.

Indicative Concept Art for Walyalup Koort – Image from City of Fremantle, 2024

The art has been a long time in the making.

On 18 November 2020, the City agreed to support the “interpretative concept RESPECT, RECOGNITION AND RECONCILIATION” by artists Sharyn Egan and Simon Gilby for Walyalup Koort. The concept art was endorsed by the City’s Public Art Advisory Group in December 2022 and has been presented to the Walyalup Reconciliation Action Plan (WRAP) reference group.

This art will interpret Nyoongar culture and required extensive consultation through the artists’ team, Consultation Lead Wardarndi woman Brenda Hill and the City’s Senior Aboriginal Engagement Officer with the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council and 14 Nyoongar clans to develop the concept. These clans are the Whadjuk, Minang, Korang, Wadjaru, Njaki Njaki, Ballardong, Yued, Wilman, Pinderup, Wardarndi, Pibelman, Amangu, Ganeang and Njuna.

Artist’s impression of final work

The officer’s report emphasises that this was not a process undertaken lightly, nor does it follow the constrictions of a traditional linear non-indigenous engagement that has a beginning and an end. Rather, this engagement is considered part of the artwork itself and imbues it with greater meaning as a consequence.

It will also incorporate interpretative paving and a plaque demarcating the original nearby St John’s Church site.

This financial year’s budget FY24/25 allocates $164,000, and the officer report advises “a provisional amount of $400,000 has been allocated in 25/26 and $800,000 has been allocated in 26/27 forward budget estimates for this purpose.”

In summing up, Council has elected unanimously to:
1. Acknowledge approval of the Lotterywest commitment to provide $949,993 (incl GST) funding contribution for the development of the Kaarl Boyak Naariny (Fire is Burning on the Rocks) public artwork proposed for Walyalup Koort.
2. Endorse the response to part 2 c, d, e and f of the council resolution dated 18 November 2020 and next steps, as provided in this report.

RECONCILIATION ACTION PLAN 2024-2027

The City adopted the officer recommendation to:
1. Endorse the Walyalup Reconciliation Action Plan (WRAP), as provided in Attachment 1.
2. Note that the Walyalup Reconciliation Action Plan (WRAP) will be forwarded to Reconciliation Australia for final endorsement.

Fremantle, or Walyalup, has been a place of significance in Whadjuk Nyoongar culture for thousands of years. The new WRAP tells us that for “tens of thousands of years Manjaree at Walyalup (place of the Walyo or Woylie) has been a meeting place for Whadjuk Nyoongar people to trade, observe customs, celebrate ritual and enjoy the land and waters.” Manjaree is now also known as Bathers Beach.

The Reconciliation Action Plan program (RAP) started in 2006 following the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum. We have come a very long way since then; not as far as many hoped before the outcome of the Voice Referendum, but from little things…

Recent achievements include the formation of the Walyalup Aboriginal Cultural Centre just above Manjaree, the fantastic Wardarnji festivals which feature photographically in the WRAP itself, and the officer report advises that “the target of Indigenous employment of 4%, for example, is on track at 3.5%” which is nearly there and is “more than double the Aboriginal population percentage.”

Beautiful cultural cartographic
representation of Walyalup and cover of the new City’s Reconciliation Action Plan

As the CEO of Reconciliation Australia, Karen Mundine, puts it in the new WRAP:
“This Stretch RAP sees the NIAA [National Indigenous Australians Agency] embed and expand on these successes, to create further impact. It is continuing its focus on formalising structures around partnerships, with plans to integrate the co-design framework into its everyday, as well as promote it across the Commonwealth. The NIAA is using this Stretch RAP to sincerely invest in the education and capabilities of its staff and officers. It has plans to host two different speaker series for its employees: a monthly event on truth-telling and a quarterly event on different issues pertaining to reconciliation.”

There are 17 actions and 95 deliverables encapsulated within the WRAP. It builds upon the previous Stretch RAP 2019-2022, which Mayor Fitzhardinge remarked has involved “a huge amount of work” to get to this point. “Truth Telling” will also have its own Pillar in the WRAP.

The City unanimously adopted the officer recommendation to:
3. Endorse the Walyalup Reconciliation Action Plan (WRAP), as provided in Attachment 1.
4. Note that the Walyalup Reconciliation Action Plan (WRAP) will be forwarded to Reconciliation Australia for final endorsement.

SAMSON RESERVE MASTER PLAN REFERENCE GROUP

In a similar fashion to the process already underway for Hilton Park, the City is now in the process of early planning for Samson Reserve, also known as the Sir Frederick Samson Park Project.

Aerial image of Sir Frederick Samson Park (2024), extracted from Nearmap

There’s a few interesting historic tidbits in this report. Sir Frederick Samson Memorial Park, named after former, longtime Fremantle Mayor, was first designated as a reserve in 1971. The 8.6 hectare reserve is the City’s largest natural park, incorporating Bush Forever protected vegetation including habitat trees, “50 bird species, reptiles, and bats”, and is situated on former Army land.

The Friends of Samson Park valiantly dedicate many volunteer hours to conserving it and raising community awareness, while the Friends of Samson Park Management Committee advise Council on its maintenance.

Sir Frederick Samson Park

Meanwhile, the City has dedicated extensive funding to upgrading and maintaining the park, and has applied for an Urban River Grant with Perth NRM (Natural Resource Management).

To inform the masterplan, the City will run a public EoI – Expression of Interest – process to seek community involvement in the Reference Group. The officer report advises this will comprise of:
• Elected Members
• Friends of Samson Park
• Samson Precinct Group
• Samson Leisure Centre
• Walyalup Reconciliation Action Plan Group
• Other stakeholders (i.e. schools, environmental groups, access and inclusion representatives) • Community Members
• City Officers.

The masterplan vision also aspires to inspire the surrounding local community to upgrade their own verges and gardens to complement Samson Park, which serves two purposes:
“to cool the urban environment and expand vital habitat while enhancing the area’s visual charm, and to establish the green linkages from the Greening Fremantle: Strategy 2020”.

Council unanimously adopted the officer recommendation to:
1. Supports the establishment of a Samson Reserve Master Plan Reference Group and endorses the Terms of Reference for the Samson Reserve Master Plan Reference Group, as provided in Attachment 1.
2. Appoints the following Elected Members to be representatives on the Samson Reserve Master Plan Reference Group:
• Mayor Fitzhardinge (ex-officio)
• Cr Lawver
• Cr Mofflin
• Cr Archibald
• Cr Lang

OWL FRIENDLY CITY PRINCIPLES & PRACTICES

In June 2024, Cr Lang raised a Notice of Motion advocating that the City investigate practices to improve the health of its owl community. This includes banning second generation rodenticides which remain highly poisonous and therefore dangerous for owls preying upon rodents.

You may recall we wrote about this in an earlier RADM.

Council voted to adopt the officer recommendation that:
Council requests the Chief Executive Officer to:
1. Ensure that rodenticide treatments used by the City of Fremantle are not second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides.
2. Develop an integrated pest control program for the City of Fremantle’s property that does not include second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides and initiate a trial of the integrated pest control program on City property.
3. Continue to support engagement activities to educate the community such as:
a. Production of Owl Friendly Fremantle bumper stickers.
b. Including Owl Friendly Information on our website.
4. Continue to promote BirdLife Australia information for the community and businesses on “owl friendly’ choices for rodent control.
5. Provide education flyers to all food businesses and caravan parks as part of the Environmental Health Officer’s regular inspections.
6. Promote the Owl Friendly movement amongst Perth South-West Metropolitan Alliance in a co-ordinated media campaign in August 2024.

Pleasingly, Cr Lawver remarked how local businesses, including Gilberts in Hilton have already enthusiastically taken up the recommendations associated with this motion and have switched to a “no poisons” monitoring system to manage pests. Good show!

COUNCIL & COMMITTEE MEETING STRUCTURE AND REVIEW OF FORTNIGHTLY MEETING FORMAT

This one stirred an interesting discussion so I’m diving right into the details, folks.

For background, the City proposed to review its Committee and Council format in a six month trial after being reduced by 2 council members at the October 2023 Local Government Election and will soon be again reduced by a further 2 council members at the October 2025 Election.

Council at its meeting on 27 August 2024 supported the officer recommendation to:
1. Adopt the Meeting Structure provided in Option 1, being two Ordinary Council meetings per month, with the Audit and Risk Management Committee meeting to be held quarterly.
2. Adopt the meeting schedule for Option 1, as provided in Attachment 1.
3. Revoke Delegation 1.1, Delegated Committees of Councils, contained within the Delegated Authority Register 2024-2025, and associated terms of reference for the Planning Committee and the Finance, Policy, Operations and Legislation Committee.

The discussion leading up to this resolution took my fancy.

City of Fremantle Mayor and Councillors, 2024. Source City of Fremantle

Cr Mofflin lauded the recent changes the Council restructure with two Council meetings per month as it means they are “not restricted to just having planning items in one meeting”. Whatever model is chosen is not going to be perfect, that’s a given.

Cr Lawver moved an Alternative Motion principally to allow for the City to have one Planning Committee and then one Ordinary Council Meeting per month. It “makes it cleaner” from his perspective, items from the Planning Committee can still be referred to Council, and there is the matter of increasing delegated authority to consider which means that fewer planning items will be brought before Council.

He incorporated a car versus campervan analogy to rationalise the decision not to structure these meetings around a hypothetical “just in case” model. It also gives another elected member the opportunity to chair the Planning Committee and build experience, he argued.

Cr Thompson agreed Cr Lawver made some good points, “wasn’t fussed with it either way” given his impending retirement from Council come October 2025. He raised concern that the current structure means that a simple leave of absence for even six weeks results in missing three Council meetings.“Planning does require a degree of knowledge and expertise” and Option 2 allows for that extra level of attention and concentration towards planning items.

Cr Graham agreed and noted that the City has traditionally always had a Planning Committee, and it has been rewarding and more relaxed to have this format. It allows for more interaction with the applicant without requiring proponents to “sit through forty minutes of question time”. (Oh, their loss if you ask me!)

Cr Archibald argued the case for Option 1, considering that planning is the remit of all Council and having this system in place has allowed for Council meetings to flow more smoothly. It also makes it easier to adhere to statutory planning timeframes for development applications that may be deferred or amended.

Cr Sullivan concurred and argued you can still have a conversational, relaxed format even at Council rather than exclusively in the Committee. He remarked that the Planning Committee can be something of a “Poison Chalice” due to their sheer controversy, noting that during Council meetings half the audience frequently leaves once all the planning items have been discussed.

Mayor Fitzhardinge admitted she has “wrestled with this one” as both have their pros and cons. There are worries about having a too small Planning Committee which risks not meeting mandatory quorum requirements. Having a full Council meeting will negate this risk, and perhaps the Working Groups are providing the workshopping and additional Chair experience opportunities that the Planning Committee would otherwise provide. Further, it offers opportunities for “agenda balancing”.

What do I think, you may ask? I prefer Option 1. While I like the opportunities and expertise yielded within Planning Committees, and note the efficiency of separating them potentially, having it all discussed within bimonthly Council meetings makes reporting much easier.

ONE OTHER THING

If you’re interested in public discourse but perhaps not the formality of a Council meeting, it’d be remiss of me not to point you in the direction of the excellent Politics in the Pub sessions held at The Local Hotel in South Fremantle. Pondering over political problems from behind a pint glass. Or perhaps prosecco. I digress. These sessions are always entertaining and Tuesday night’s was no exception. The recording of it can soon be accessed here and if you listen carefully, you’ll hear our very own Captain (editor) raise a pertinent question!

What a meeting!

Thanks for reading and see you next time.

Report by Gayle O’Leary

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