Dogs in McDougall Park

There's been a little discussion around dogs in McDougall Park recently so I contacted the Council on the matter. The Manager, Environmental Health & Regulatory Services for the City of South Perth reports that the Dog Local Law clearly prohibits dogs in McDougall Park.

Some of the signs are not clear on this matter and will be replaced in the near future. Meanwhile it would be good if we could encourage dog owners to walk their pets somewhere else, not in McDougall Park. We all love our park, the wild birds and our pets and sometimes we have to enjoy them separately.

River Bank Storm Damage

Recent storms have brought dramatic erosion even closer to the freeway edge. While the City tries to patch up the river bank protection with ratepayer funds, storms endanger the freeway, a vital link in our State's economy. You can see more photos and details by clicking here.

Further along the shore there is a line of palm trees with almost no visible means of support. The palms are as tall as their distance from the freeway and are due to fall over in the next decent westerly wind, possibly falling into freeway traffic. As with many other parts of the Swan River banks, significant work is required. In this and many other cases the work is important to the State, not just local residents. It is time we made this clear so that high- level funding is made available for protective works.

The older style of protection, with visually attractive vertical walls, has been ineffective, these being undermined and falling over after construction. What is required is an appropriate set of structures that dissipate wave energy. Different methods will be needed in each area.

Where the natural river banks still exist there is often not much of an erosion problem. Where we have moved the river, to accommodate developments such as the freeway, we see significant erosion.

Unless we do something soon the winter storms will be likely to cause much more damage.

A Rubbish Tax

This weekend's fire at Canning Vale Waste Recovery plant illustrates well our successive State Governments' neglect of developments in waste processing. It also highlights the need for significant research and development, which we would expect to be paid from the huge new waste levy.

(Baled plastic bottles in Penang harbour- my photo)

From 1 July Councils in WA will pay a levy of $28 per ton of putrescible (rotting) waste going to landfill, up from $7 this year. Inert (stable) waste will go up from $5 to $12. While the tax on landfill is probably of some use, to discourage us from burying our rubbish, we really would have thought that the proceeds should go towards developing WA's waste management practices. Instead it will go towards general expenses of the Department of Environment and Conservation.

As it turns out with the fire, one of our biggest waste plants has been collecting recyclables with no idea of what to do with the tonnes collected. One hundred sea containers of waste are now cinders and sludge. It might make us feel good to put stuff in the yellow bin but we also expect that the materials perform the boomerang trick of being re- used.

Fortunately South Perth's waste is not part of this fiasco, our truckloads going to the Bayswater facility operated by Cleanaway. We will however be slugged with the Government's new levy, without any direct benefit. We also have little market for recyclables in the current downturn. Big thinking is needed here.

This shows once again that Local Government can be subjected to simple political forces unless we act as a strong lobby, thinking deeply about big questions. We need to address many substantial issues, including how to handle the mountains of waste that we produce. We can do this only if local authorities combine forces and look to the big picture.