Welcome, and Happy Australia Day

Wow! Summer time in Perth is just so good. Cricket, the Arts Festival, blue skies, time with friends, a little travel, good conversation and Australia Day.

We live in a wonderfully safe country, we have jobs and businesses in a booming economy, our health and education services are very good indeed, our community is safer every year, our parks are green, our tap water is healthy, our transport systems flow freely, we are tolerant of others, our legal system works, our public services are excellent. There is so much to be thankful for.

On Australia Day I’ll do as I have for five years: join the volunteers, take a big bag of Council Welcome flyers and walk the foreshore from end to end all afternoon, welcoming people to South Perth’s free family events. It’s a marvellous way of meeting thousands of people, with smiles all around. On New Year’s Eve in Melbourne, when walking the whole length of the City area, with a total ban on public alcohol, through six hundred thousand people from six to midnight, I noted not even one aggressive incident. Perth: we’ve started a trend, we don’t need a boozy Australia day!

On Clean Up Australia Day - Sunday 4 March 2012 we’ll be working around James Miller Oval and Manning Hub in South Perth, starting at 9:00 am. You are very welcome to join us, to make our neighbourhood cleaner and have a chat too. Our event is on the web: click here to register or just turn up. With a few more volunteers I’ll even put on a free barbecue. Pickup bags are supplied free for you.

These are such positive events, where we get to connect with others, to make a difference around us and to help neighbours. We don't have to look far to find people much less fortunate, doing it tough, with physical and mental health issues, affected by discrimination or misfortune. Yet there seem to be numbers of ordinary people who are a little grumpy. My experience is that there’s a simple fix for a lot of this feeling - get out and help someone else, volunteer.

Our country is incredibly diverse in so many ways. Through events like these we can meet people from different backgrounds and rebuild some of Australia’s famous trust and friendliness. We have some inspirational community leaders. Can we join them in building our communities and connecting people? I feel really good when this happens, and hope you can too.

Please pass this on as far as you like. Have your say by clicking on Comments, below, (log in as Name) or just email me and I’ll publish for you.

River Care and Mosquitoes

"Poison the river! Drain the swamp!" These are the calls in South Perth for a public meeting about mosquitoes, tomorrow, Tuesday 17 January.

We love our rivers. They are where Noongar Wadjuk people lived, where the Swan River Settlement was formed in 1829. We swim, fish, sail and walk in and by the rivers most of our lives. In 1930 the City tried to drain wetlands and imported Gulf of Mexico mosquito fish. It didn't work; the fish just ate other stuff and are now the most common fish in the Canning River. In 1940 we built Canning Dam, reduced flow by 98%, stopped fresh water flow and left wetlands around Wilson, Shelley and Manning permanently salty. By the 1960s mosquitoes drove families indoors at sunset.

A group of residents wants the City to fog wetlands and lay bait for young mosquito larvae. Fogging chemicals kill all insects, including bees, dragon flies and moths. Larvicide kills all larvae, of all types. Species that naturally eat mosquitoes are eliminated; our rivers are poisoned and natural balances disrupted. The effect of fogging on mosquitoes lasts only a few hours.

We love our rivers; they belong to all of us. We love watching moon rise over the water, pelicans skimming low at sunrise, swans nesting. We are horrified about dead dolphins and disappearing birdlife. These rivers are at the core of our lives and we want them managed with the depth of appreciation that we all share.

Even during the recent, spirited debates about Canning Bridge development, residents, the Como Action Group and Ward candidates spoke and wrote of a desire for “pristine rivers.”

On 7 p.m. 17 January, tomorrow, Tuesday, South Perth is hosting a public meeting at the Civic Hall, corner of South Terrace and Sandgate Street, South Perth. A group is attempting promote an argument to poison the river. Please be there to provide a voice to speak up for care of our beautiful waterways and their complexity, to say that this is just not on.

Please feel free to add your thoughts for all to see, by clicking on Comments below or by emailing me. (Anonymous comments might be edited.)