Community Bulletin

The bunnies hopped back on to the Darlington Tennis Courts this Easter to bring smiles to our little Darlings and furry friends. For the past five years, wonderful local Sue has been saving the special Bunnies from her volunteer op shop role to spread the joy at Easter time. This year was her biggest and most successful one yet with over 120 bunnies pegged up and taken down within just a few hours!

Darlington lost a favourite son in April with the passing of revered photographer and former well-loved resident Richard Woldendorp. You will find a small Vale to him following the editorial and a more comprehensive one on page 28.

The Darlington Review has rotating editors and occasionally the advertising and business managers are away, therefore using the below addresses are the best way to ensure that you can reach whoever is doing the role at that time.

• editorial@darlingtonreview.com.au

• advertising@darlingtonreview.com.au

• business@darlingtonreview.com.au

Wheelchairs for Kids asked, and you delivered! Thank you to everyone who heard this Editors shoutout on our local Facebook pages. Together we collected over 100 new and pre-loved soft toys to send with their wheelchairs to those most in need. With over 3000 wheelchairs made and shipped by the outstanding volunteers each year they need ongoing support. For more information on what they do and how you can donate, please visit www.wheelchairsforkids.org

The Darlington Hall will be closed and unavailable for hire during their scheduled periodical cleaning periods between 3rd to 7th July 2023 and 8th to 12th January 2024. The Darlington Pavilion and Changerooms will be closed and unavailable for hire during their scheduled periodical cleaning periods between 25th and 29th September 2023. If you need to relocate your bookings for these venues during this time, please email bookings@ mundaring.wa.gov.au

What's On!

Mundaring Arts Centres’ current exhibition ‘Altered States’ by seminal artist Stuart Elliott will close on Sunday 7th May. Genius Loci, Spirit of Place and Into the Gully are on display from 20 May to 16 July 2023.

Mainly Music is back beginning Tuesday 9th May, from 9:00am at St Cuthbert's Anglican Church, Darlington. Half an hour of singing and dancing, followed by morning tea and free play. Contact 08 6292 0074 for more information.

Darlington Residents and Ratepayers Association has their next meeting on Thursday 11th May, 7:30pm at Darlington Hall. Residents are encouraged to attend and participate in community discussions.

Australian of the Year award winner and WA State Recipient

Meeting Points | Trea Wiltshire

Crunch time for Hills battle

It’s crunch time for the decades-long battle to stop developers attempting to urbanise the elevated green swathe of the Perth Hills.

May 8 is the deadline for public comment on Satterley’s proposed township for thousands in rural Stoneville. Save Perth Hills’ stalwarts Debra Bishop and Peter Brazier were at the April Darlington Ratepayers and Residents Association (DRRA) meeting to remind us:”“We’ve proved over 30 years that people power works…! Now’s your chance … !”

And the pair had good news: making your submission just got super easy thanks to a couple of talented Darlington locals. After reading the Review’s rally article in March, Josh Thillagaratnam (pictured right) and his wife McGee Noble decided they had to help. Says Josh who works in communications: “We got to work over Easter, revising the wealth of content that the SPH team had written, and putting together a new website that gives visitors the key information needed to understand the issue, and guidance to make a submission online. The whole process from the moment you get on the website to completing submission takes under five minutes flat!” Says Debra Bishop: “The Universe sent them to us just when we needed them most in regard to our external reach.” Visit: https://www. saveperthhills.net

Local Hero 2022 Craig Hollywood is set to give a talk on Friday 19th May, 9:00am at Boya Community Centre.

Darlington Community Recreation Advisory Group has their next meeting on Monday 22nd May, 7:00pm at Darlington Community Pavilion.

Earnshaws Real Estate Fundraising Quiz Night for Swan City Youth Service is on Saturday 27th May, 6:15 pm at Boya Community Centre. To book tickets please visit www.trybooking. com/events/landing/1041823.

And you can catch up on discussions at several meetings in Trea Wiltshire’s Meeting Points following the editorial.

Marie Sherwood | Editor

So why is SPH asking us to SAY NO? There’s a long list of reasons on their website, but one we in Darlington will respond to is this: if the government says YES to Satterley it will set in train not just the three townships already on the drawing board, but the full-scale urbanisation of the Perth Hills: “once it’s gone, it’s gone”. So, do a mental cutand-paste of a slice of Perth’s ever-growing urban sprawl and paste it across the green elevation of the scarp, our capital city’s backdrop. Those grazing horses, that majestic stands of eucalypts, the dense greenery that evokes a big EXHALE as you leave the city’s creeping concrete … it could become history, because countless developers will be hatching plans to carve up our green spaces. You can reread back issues of the Review on the Darlington Village Website: https//www.darlingtonvillage.org

There were lots of other issues discussed at an extremely lively DRRA meeting including: the Post Office’s very reasonable request for designated parking bays (it’s been there since the 1920s and is visited by, on average, more than 200 people a day); whether the proposed double BBQ to replace the existing one is two big; how to avoid sealing the Station Reserve carpark – and more. There’s a full report in DRRA notes.

Sign of the times

Mundaring Shire’s most recent Community Perceptions Survey scored well overall on resident satisfaction, but only 35 per cent gave the Shire a tick on communication on local issues – as illustrated by the lack of consultation when LED Shire signs were erected in three Shire parks at the cost of $150,000. The idea of increased Shire signage on highways to promote local events emerged from an Annual Electors’ Meeting. Somehow that got lost in translation and, around Christmas, Glen Forrest’s leafy train park received an unwelcomed gift. When we heard that more LEDs would follow, DRRA lost little time in saying a polite ‘No thanks’. At the last Mundaring Council meeting, Glen Forrest ratepayers presented a petition with hundreds of signatures requesting the removal of the sign and pointing to a similar LED sign on the local fire station across the road. Signage is important – particularly in relation to raising bushfire awareness – but tucked away in parks is not the way to go.

A bridge too far…

On another front, it’s good to report consultation IS happening and hopefully it will illustrate just how important it is for residents and councillors to be proactive early in the planning process. When word went out that the Shire was looking to upgrade two local bridges – the wooden Mofflin footbridge over Nyaania Creek and the Glebe Road bridge – locals contacted DRRA and councillors, and were urged to get neighbours together to gauge responses and provide feedback to the Shire.

The Shire was considering making the footbridge suitable for use by emergency vehicles which struck many as being totally unnecessary given emergency vehicles have access via the heritage trail on one side of the creek and Mofflin Avenue on the other. The local brigade has never requested access to the bridge.

Councillor Trish Cook attended the bridge meeting organised by locals and provided guidance and clarity: upgrading has been deferred but the Shire is investigating options this year. Local Kylie Brinfield tells us : “Infrastructure Manager Shane Purdy has welcomed early community input and we need to question the validity of changes to the footbridge. Too often they get too far down the budgeting, planning and even design path before the community is engaged and it’s such a waste of community funds when they miss the mark. The general feeling is to simply repair the bridge as the main support structure and bearers appear in good condition. We’ve had informal input from a local engineer as well as the local fire brigade and, so far, there’s nothing to suggest that a full upgrade and replacement or widening of the current structure is required.” Kylie would welcome input on the bridge's history and use, past and present so it can become part of the group’s submission to the Shire - kbrinfield@gmail.com

Oval widening proposal

For the latest information on this issue and an update on the way ahead, following several resignations from the Oval Widening Sub-Committee, consult the Darlington Community Recreation Advisory Group notes.