Faces of Nedlands

nedlands.wa.gov.au Murray McHenry – publican, vigneron, sportsman Pubs and football – great community meeting places and tribal gatherings. Both create a sense of belonging to a place and a group of like-minded people. Murray McHenry has been deeply involved in both over the course of his life’s journey. Owner of iconic Nedlands institution Steve’s, Chairman of the WA Football Commission and former Chairman of the West Coast Eagles, Mr McHenry wears many hats. At 65, he is urbane and indefatigable. He is also a vigneron, with a family winery in Margaret River, and a hospitality supply business. Steve’s is known to generations of Nedlands residents and the wider community. First opened in 1908, it was called the Nedlands Park Hotel and holds an important place in the hearts of many of us. During World War II, the verandahs were divided up using canvas and lattice and used as dormitories for American servicemen stationed here. After the war, the government of the day required all hotels to accommodate returned Australian servicemen at a rate of 10 shillings per week for full board. The pub became known as Steve’s after Mr McHenry’s father, Stephen McHenry. McHenry senior was the licensee of the hotel from 1935 until his death in 1958. Locals named it Steve’s – “we’re just going down to Steve’s” – as Steve was considered a friend and the pub an extension of their homes. After Stephen McHenry died, his wife Hazel took on the licence and continued to run the pub until the owners, the Swan Brewery, decided to divest its hotel properties to fund its new Canning Vale brewery, which eventually opened in 1977. Mr McHenry grew up at the pub and rode his horse, Silver, around the Nedlands foreshore. Silver was stabled behind Steve’s along with the local policeman’s horse. Rather than walk the distance to school – he attended pre-primary at a church on Elizabeth Street and later Nedlands Primary School – he rode Silver through the streets, surely the best way for a child to get to school. He later attended Christ Church Grammar School. The Swan River is also an integral part of Steve’s, sitting as it does close to the Nedlands foreshore. As a young lad, Mr McHenry would swim to the other side of the river to Applecross Jetty and back – a fair distance! In the old days, before the redevelopment of the property, you could sit in the beer garden and watch whatever was happening on the broad stretch of water. Steve’s was always the “uni pub”. A generation of uni students would have many tales to tell of Wednesday nights and Sunday sessions at Steve’s. Such was its popularity, Steve’s was almost a victim of its own success. “There would be twice the amount of people trying to get in as we could fit in,” he said. While the licence held about 1,900, “We’d set out to get about 1,000 people, but there’d be at least 1,000 waiting to get in. People would be the jumping over fences. It was crazy,” he said. It was also the site of one of the first gigs ever played by the Farriss Brothers – the founders of INXS. Mr McHenry eventually decided to redevelop, which solved the problem of hundreds of patrons pouring out of the pub and disturbing the neighbours at closing time. Steve’s is now a boutique wine bar and bistro, with a stylish development of 58 apartments and townhouses. The old pub, though, remains and has been reborn as four modern apartments, but with the original verandahs, pressed metal ceilings and the grand central staircase. “It was a privilege for to me to restore the old building,” he said. Football has also loomed large in Mr McHenry’s life. In his youth he had to make a choice between football or rowing. Rowing won after he was selected for the crew for the interstate championship the King’s Cup, an important fixture on the national rowing calendar. Later he returned to football, though not as a player. He was part of a consortium that financed the West Coast Eagles’ entry into the then-VFL. He was involved with the Eagles for about 13 years as Director and Chairman. Mr McHenry has now returned to football as the Chairman of the WA Football Commission, after many of his former football connections urged him to return to football to tackle a range of issues critical to the future of the sport in Western Australia. His role is to build on the relationship the Commission has with the State Government over the new football stadium. So what does he think has changed in Nedlands over the years? While he thinks the foreshore itself is much better used today, he thinks people don’t use the river as much as they did. “We used to live in the river as kids,” Mr McHenry said. “All the large yachts don’t live on the river anymore, they live on the ocean. We’ve now developed marinas up and down the coast. When there weren’t any marinas, everyone came up the river somewhere to house their boat. “To see a Saturday afternoon on the river in summer with all the spinnakers flying about four or five o’clock was a massive sight – you almost couldn’t see the water.” Mr McHenry now divides his time between Nedlands and Margaret River, working at the winery – “It’s a great lifestyle, but we do work!” – and eventually sees himself moving down there when his involvement in football ends. The wine business has a pretty impressive pedigree – his brother- in-law David Hohnen started Cape Mentelle. In the 80s, they went over to New Zealand and started Cloudy Bay. The wine from both wineries was of such high quality that the Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton group came in as shareholders. They eventually sold those businesses to Moët Hennessy and started McHenry Hohnen Wines in 2004. He constantly refers to his life and achievements as “the journey” – and that journey has had its roots firmly in the life and community of Nedlands.

4 Doug Arrowsmith – a tireless veteran Doug Arrowsmith has spent a lifetime dedicated to serving his country and local community. He has won an impressive suite of honours – an Order of Australia in 2007, Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and Premier’s Australia Day Active Citizenship Award in 2004. For his service in World War II flying the iconic Lancaster bomber, he was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross, which was presented to him by King George VI. With no previous aviation experience before the war, he found his place as part of Bomber Command in the RAAF’s 460 Squadron and was stationed in Binbrook, Lincolnshire. He completed 35 missions across Europe and considers himself lucky to have returned when so many did not. He’s been a member of the RSL since 1947 after he returned from the war but, in 1999, a chance conversation with a chap at the Subiaco Hollywood Bowling Club saw him named as secretary of the Nedlands Sub-Branch, with his wife Helen named as treasurer. For several years, he was the sole member of the sub-branch and kept it going because he felt the public looked forward to attending the ceremonies it ran. In 2014, a new secretary took over the position and he became president. At the age of 93, he is still active in organising RSL ceremonies. He organises and coordinates volunteers for Poppy Day every year – a day he feels is intrinsic to the RSL because it raises money for the welfare of returned service personnel and their families, as well as keeping alive the memory of all who laid down their lives for their country. His volunteers usually raise up to $4,000 every year. Mr Arrowsmith considers Remembrance Day to be as important and an even more solemn occasion than ANZAC Day. As President of the sub-branch, he instituted a ceremony for Remembrance Day, insisting it was held at the Perth War Cemetery on Smyth Road in Nedlands. He also organises the annual RSL luncheon, attended by members, widows, friends and supporters. The luncheon is a great inter- generational event – Mr Arrowsmith engages the services of guest speakers and local school children to provide entertainment. The luncheon gives children the invaluable experience of performing in front of more than 60 people. Mr Arrowsmith has enlisted the services of children from various schools over the years – St Hilda’s, Churchlands Senior High School, Perth Modern School and Nedlands Primary School among them. “It’s amazing the quality of the kids – it’s unbelievable how good they are!” he said. His Order of Australia was awarded for his long-standing service to veterans, their families and the greater community, and to lawn bowls. “I was honoured, of course, and very surprised to be even nominated for the Order of Australia,” he said. “It was very satisfying but you don’t do all these things for any kind of recognition. There are so many people who do things who don’t get any recognition.” Doug’s Australian Sports Medal Award was awarded for his contribution to lawn bowls. He has won five team bowls championships and was runner-up in the state singles. He has represented WA 51 times in his bowls career and was also WA State Coach for many years. Both he and his wife were honoured with life membership of the Hollywood Subiaco Bowling Club and a green has been named after them. He was nominated for the Active Citizenship award by a City of Nedlands staffer because of all the time he has given to the community over so many years. Mr Arrowsmith has lived in the western suburbs since 1971 but is thinking of moving out of his beloved house because his garden is now too big for him to manage. He still drives his classic 1968 Holden Brougham which prompts many an admiring glance as he motors around town. Despite all the work he continues to do in the community, he still finds time to make his own jam and even creates intricate needlepoint artworks of flowers, birds – and even a Lancaster bomber. Bevan Lawrence – a sense of belonging through sport He’s been a prominent barrister and lawyer and City of Nedlands councillor, but it’s Bevan Lawrence’s contribution to the sport of hockey and local community that have occupied much of his spare time over many years. He loves hockey and has done so since he played for Aquinas, his alma mater. He won the Old Aquinians Hockey Club Fairest and Best award in 1971 and, while playing for Aquinas, the team won the A1 Grade premiership in 1974. He then went on to play at state level a couple of times. Mr Lawrence has been instrumental in establishing hockey at primary and high schools around Nedlands and Dalkeith for many years. It all started when his son started playing junior hockey at the Cricketers Hockey Club, at the time the best hockey club in WA and based at Melvista Oval. He was asked to coach a junior team in 1985 and he didn’t look back. Later he was asked to coach minkey at Loreto Nedlands – minkey being a modified form of hockey designed for primary school children, originating in Australia. He loved coaching minkey and began to develop some very good players. When they were old enough to move onto junior hockey, they joined Westside Wolves, Cricketers’ successor, which had its home ground in Swanbourne and was then a very large junior club. Mr Lawrence felt some of the juniors weren’t progressing in this large club and decided to start his own junior team. The Riverside Lions junior team was made up of 13 players (12 boys and one girl) from Loreto. Three years later that team won the under 11A boys’ competition. He was instrumental in developing players at Lions from East Claremont Primary, Dalkeith Primary, Nedlands Primary and St Thomas’s. He also recruited players from MLC, Christ Church and Scotch. Unsurprisingly, all this took its toll – he was exhausted and running out of steam. In came Garry Fitzpatrick, who took over much of the development work. Garry is currently president of the Suburban Lions Hockey Club and, between them, they have established 16 boys’ teams and 15 girls’ teams based around the schools that play at Melvista Oval, Highview Park and Lemnos Turf in Shenton Park. It’s the second biggest junior club in the state. “Garry was critical in all this. He’s is a good organiser and a good manager,” Mr Lawrence said.. While hockey is his passion, it’s the sense of community being involved in any sport that inspires him. Mr Lawrence believes team sports give people a sense of belonging to their local community. “Once you get to know your community, it’s a very nice thing. You feel like you belong. It feels like home,” he said. He also believes it teaches children to cope with adversity. “In team games, you’ve got to compromise, you’re not the centre of attention and you’ve got to be able to give and take,” Mr Lawrance said. “And at a basic level, it keeps them fit and healthy. You can’t play hockey unless you’re fit.” It’s not just players who benefit – he says the mothers will do anything to help out with things like raising money and organising social events. The mums and dads even have their own teams now and, on Friday nights in summer at Highview Park, they have a program that involves the whole family. Adults play a modified game with their children and everyone socialises afterwards at dinner. City of Nedlands Manager Community Development Marion Granich added: “Few people have done more for the sport of hockey in the City of Nedlands than Bevan. “He’s a wonderful man and continues to push the boundaries on local sporting facilities.” Mr Lawrence is now in charge of the women’s program at Suburban Lions. His aim was to get the women’s team promoted to A Grade, which is exactly what he did. His job is to fundraise, find coaches, assist juniors into senior hockey, scout for good talent and find people who will support the club and its players in many ways including managers, mentors and general administrators. He has only recently retired from the legal profession. Although Mr Lawrence says the law was never his great love, he has had an interesting and fulfilling career. He was a founder, in 1989, of People for Fair and Open Government, the activist group that campaigned for political reform in Western Australia during the “WA Inc” era. People for Fair and Open Government played a significant role in persuading the government led by , who also happens to be his sister, to request a Royal Commission into WA Inc. He stood for Council in 1999, primarily on a hockey ticket – in pursuit of the perfect hockey-playing surface, he wanted the grass cut shorter on ovals where hockey was played. Just as he put his nomination form in, City staff started cutting the grass shorter anyway but, under the Local Government Act, you can’t withdraw your nomination. He ran and was elected. Of course, in his four years as a councillor, it wasn’t all about hockey. Heritage and development were very much issues that interested him. But he’s not tempted to return to local government. He still lobbies Council to upgrade hockey playing surfaces and loves a carefully tended lawn – on his own tennis court and on the hockey pitch. Blair Morgan – your local grocer

Blair Morgan places bags of groceries into the boot of a woman’s car on a bright winter’s day. They’re on first-name terms and he chats awhile, asking after her family and pets. He takes the shopping trolley and tells her not to worry, he’ll wheel it back to the shop. It’s this kind of personal service that customers of Captain Stirling IGA keep coming back for. Blair Morgan is co-owner and manager of the Captain Stirling IGA on Stirling Hwy. Blair and his brother Tony, who co-owns the store, have long been involved with the supermarket. Both Blair and Tony worked for the previous owner Rob Thomas while they were studying at university. When Mr Thomas thought about retiring, he contacted the Morgan brothers and asked if they were interested in buying. They were. By that time, Blair had returned to work at the store, after gaining valuable commercial experience in management and marketing at large companies both in Perth and interstate. The Captain Stirling Shopping Centre has been operating for more than 60 years and there’s always been a supermarket on the site. It’s had various incarnations over the years – Charlie Carters, Supa Valu, Dewsons and, for the past decade, an IGA. Blair arrives pre-dawn every day. While Tony heads off early to the fruit and veg market, Blair sees to things that just can’t be done during business hours. “It’s a very early start to the day for both of us – we’re in here by choice because we want to make sure everything looks as beautiful as possible,” Blair said. The brothers’ respective wives are also involved in the business, selecting gifts and flowers, and sometimes their children jump on the tills and play at serving customers. It’s very much a family affair. The supermarket is held in fond regard by its many customers, who have rallied around the brothers in recent times with the upheaval brought on by the recent sale of the shopping centre. “The community support has been amazing. It is very humbling. I can’t put into words how thankful we are as a family for that support,” Blair said. Part of the supermarket’s success lies in its long-term staff members. The butchers have been at the IGA for 25 years, Andrew has worked in fruit and veg for 20 years, Sonia has been in the deli for 17 years and George has been in fruit and veg for 10 years. “You get to know what’s happening in people’s lives, you see kids grow up – there are babies who used to come in who now run around the shop,” Blair said. “Everyone has seen my kids grow up because they are always in and out of here. It’s the way it should be.” The customers, too, have been loyal. “There’s a lady who shops here who’s 92 – she can tell you the whole history of the place,” he said. A job at the Captain Stirling IGA is a bit of a rite of passage for many local teenagers, who work there after school or while they study at university. Working there offers them great experience for their first professional jobs. There’s also been a fair bit of romance in the aisles – there have been a few marriages among staff members who met while working there! And who knows, perhaps even some customers have found love while doing their shopping. Blair says looking after people is the best job he could possibly ask for. “Old-fashioned service is one thing that won’t change here. We’re here to help, it’s that simple,” he said. Communities are made up of people and relationships and Blair, Tony and the staff at the Captain Stirling IGA have worked hard to build that sense of community, carrying on a long tradition at the centre.

13 Judy Denton – here to help

Judy Denton, Senior Customer Services Officer at the City of Nedlands, is often inundated with chocolates from appreciative residents. Ms Denton has worked at the City of Nedlands for almost 20 years and in that time has become the familiar face of the City for many people. In her time, she has seen people grow up, grow old, move out of Nedlands and move back again. She’s got plenty of stories to tell but she’s far too discreet to tell any tales. She does recount stories of possums crashing through the ceiling onto staff members’ desks and a ghost who may or may not wander the corridors of the administration building after dark. She has lent a sympathetic ear to residents and sorted out many a problem. Her in-depth knowledge about the workings of the council means she can often sort out most queries – or she knows where to direct people if she can’t or if it’s not a council issue. Ms Denton’s gentle manner and long tenure have made her a trusted figure. An elderly resident regularly brings her chocolates. His vision is not what it used to be these days, so sometimes he also brings in a letter or a bill and asks Ms Denton to read it for him and let him know what he needs to do, such is the trust placed in her. “It gives me a good feeling to be able to help people,” Ms Denton said. There are sadder sides to the job as well, such as watching people grow older and become forgetful, coming into council and asking questions, then returning the next day and asking the same thing. Ms Denton gives the council a sense of stability. She said that if a resident hasn’t been into council for a while, they are always relieved to see her. “They’ll say – ‘Oh I’m so glad you’re still here, I know you’ll be able to help me’,” she said. Luckily, she has a good memory. “I know their history and background so they don’t have to go through the story again of what happened last year or the year before because I know,” Ms Denton said. She occasionally gets stopped by local business people or even residents when she’s out for a lunchtime walk or in the local shops. “People out in their gardens will see me and say – ‘Oh Judy, when’s this happening, when’s that happening?’” she said. She has had a few different roles within the council but always comes back to customer service – she loves the contact with people. Since the story was published in the Western Suburbs Newspaper, Ms Denton has retired. As grandmother to twins, she will have plenty to keep her busy but she remains as one of the best-known faces of Nedlands. 16 Dame Mary Durack – gifted writer and patron of the arts When Dame Mary Durack moved to Nedlands in 1939, her property on Bellevue Avenue, in what is now called Dalkeith, sat among the native trees and shrubs on the many vacant blocks in the area. This bush setting suited her well, given her love of the Kimberley region of Western Australia, from which she drew inspiration. Dame Mary Durack was a gifted writer and historian whose books have become Australian classics. Dame Mary lived in the house on Bellevue Avenue until her death in 1994. Despite travelling extensively, especially to Broome and the Kimberley, she always returned to Nedlands. She raised six children in the area, wrote all her books here, and her garden housed a storage room in which she kept all her archives until they were moved to the Battye Library in 2006. Dame Mary’s brother Bill Durack designed the house on Bellevue Avenue. As the years progressed, Dame Mary and her husband, the pioneering aviator Horrie Miller, watched as the suburb was built around them. One by one, the bush blocks were built on and the community grew. A number of the magnificent lemon-scented gums planted by Horrie Miller in the 1940s are still a feature of Wavell Road and Bellevue Avenue. Dame Mary was famed for her hospitality. Her daughter Patsy Millett, who still lives on the same property on Bellevue Avenue, says the house was always filled with writers, poets and artists. It was something of a salon of the arts and Dame Mary was a generous host. “Anyone who was anyone came to visit – one of her great friends Barry Humphries was a regular visitor to our house,” Mrs Millett said. “It was a very small community back then – my mother knew everyone and everyone knew her. She held a yearly neighbourhood party early in the new year. “New neighbours [were] welcomed, people moving on farewelled and my mother always composed a special verse for the occasion.” Dame Mary’s family were pioneers in the settlement of the Kimberley region, owning vast cattle stations – in the 1920s, her family firm controlled more than 7 million acres in that region. While those vast holdings weren’t to last – in 1950 the family stations were sold off – Dame Mary committed to writing her family’s history. In her books Kings in Grass Castles and Sons in the Saddle, she documented the early settlement of the Kimberley region by the Durack family. Kings in Grass Castles in particular, published in 1959, gave the family’s story a place in the imagination of Australia. She also wrote fiction, plays and children’s books. Dame Mary wrote a column for during 1937–38 for women and children in rural areas. She and her sister, artist Elizabeth Durack, collaborated on a number of her children’s books and short stories. Dame Mary was also a gifted artist in her own right and illustrated some of her earlier works. Her writing was shaped by the power of the Kimberley and of her family’s pioneering past but Nedlands remained her home. Mary Durack was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her services to literature on 31 December 1977. On 12 June 1989, she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), in recognition of her service to the community and literature. Mary Durack died on 16 December 1994 and is buried at the Argyle Homestead Museum in the Kimberley, in the place she called ‘her spirit country’. The UK’s Independent newspaper said, in her obituary: “Probably no Australian writer has done more to shape modern images of the outback Australian past than Mary Durack… Her generosity was unstinting, and her home at Nedlands was open to a wide range of bush characters, Aboriginal and white, creative artists and promoters of good causes.” The State Library of Western Australia holds Dame Mary’s archives and the Battye Library of West Australian History, on the third floor of the State Library, contains a bust of her. While the original house on Bellevue Terrace no longer exists, Mrs Millett recycled as much from it as possible when she rebuilt. Her home now includes the floorboards, windows and doors from the original house, which are sure to hold echoes of the creative voices of Dame Mary and her many guests. Trish Hewson – urban bushland warrior

When Karrakatta Cemetery decided to build a crematorium on the bushland at Hollywood Reserve, Trish Hewson sprung into action. With the community up in arms about the possible loss of the 6.41 hectare site, bounded by Karrakatta Cemetery, Smyth Rd, Karella St and Dalkeith Rd in Nedlands, Trish Hewson and her husband David mobilised the community, enlisting children of all ages to write letters and draw pictures to send to the State Government, organising protests, and arranged to show the minister of the day around the bushland. The group managed to persuade the cemetery and the government that the bushland was important to the community and worth preserving. In the mid-90s, Mrs Hewson, along with Eddie Knott, Claire Welsh and a group of dedicated conservationists, started the Friends of Hollywood Reserve to preserve the bushland. The area is now a Class A reserve, vested in the City of Nedlands but maintained by the group. Twenty years on, Mrs Hewson goes to the reserve every day – to walk the dog, pick up rubbish or, on very hot days, to water. She still enlists local primary school children to plant seedlings every year – in what is quite the military operation in terms of troops and organisation. “We have about 250 children coming in over three hours and we’ve got to plant about 500 plants,” she said. “We try to find a [safe] area where the littlies are not going to get lost or disappear down a hole, then we tape off the area and dig the holes. The kids come in and plant and then we water them.” The bushland is a place of refuge and reflection for many – part of the reason Mrs Hewson and the friends group are so dedicated to maintaining it. People have their lunch breaks in the bush, couples have had their wedding photos taken there, children’s parties are held on the lawn area, there’s a pitch for petanque, and occasionally the University of Western Australia sends students down to track and chart insects, plants, birds and lizards. “One time there was an old man at the hospital and he was dying – his family wanted a photo of him. He was from the country, and they wanted a photo of him in natural bushland so asked to use the reserve,” Mrs Hewson said. “And another time I had a letter from a lady from Albany I think – she had been at Crawford Lodge [the Cancer Council accommodation]. She had been up here for treatment and she said it sort of balmed her soul by going into a piece of bushland and just sitting there.” For her efforts at Hollywood Reserve, Mrs Hewson won a Premier’s Australia Day Active Citizenship Award in 2015. She has written leaflets on the history of the reserve, what’s flowering, bird lists and fungi lists. What’s she’s really after for the bushland now is new faces to join the group and help out. Everyone in the group has been involved as long as she has – for about 20 years. She feels they might be running out of energy and ideas, although given many of the group go out on the hottest of days to water, and meet every second Sunday to plant, weed and pick up rubbish, it doesn’t seem so. If you are interested in helping the Friends of Hollywood Reserve, please contact Mrs Hewson on 9386 4476. Morning tea is provided and it’s a great way to meet local people, get involved in the community and help maintain a wild piece of bushland nestled amid the urban landscape. 22 Paul Murray – Veteran journalist Respected journalist Paul Murray barely knew his neighbours around Allen Park in Swanbourne for years, working long hours as he did as editor of The West Australian. He was in and out his front gate, leaving early, returning late. He didn’t see his neighbours, they didn’t see him. Then he and his wife Grace got a dog named Oscar. “It changed everything,” he said. “It changed our appreciation of the area dramatically. It completely changed our way of life, actually.” While Mr Murray loved where he lived, he realised that with the long hours and slipping in and out of his front door daily, he was cocooned from his community. “It doesn’t really matter where you live when you’re not engaging with anyone,” he said. The dog changed all that and Oscar even made it into a fair few of his columns over the years. It was the proximity to the beach that drew him and his wife to the Allen Park area in the first place. “It’s a lovely part of Nedlands; being close to the beach, and with the literary precinct, park and bushland, it’s different from the area most people know,” he said. Mr Murray was editor at The West Australian for 10 years from 1990 to 2000. When he resigned, he was the longest serving metropolitan daily editor in Australia. He has always been a journalist, following his father, who was a journalist at The West Australian, and his brother who was a fellow journalist with the now-defunct Daily News. He started university intending to become a geologist but a stint in Kalgoorlie working underground in the mines put paid to that idea. It wasn’t for him. “Eternal curiosity” drove Mr Murray into the profession but life as a journalist has come with its own set of challenges. As editor, he drove the opinion of the newspaper, in the process provoking the ire of the powerful. Mr Murray said opinion creates discussion and there was a fair amount of discussion surrounding him during his tenure as editor at The West. Halfway through his career as editor, there were moves to have him removed. The government of the day didn’t like the editorial line he was following about issues such as Mabo. The government was against native title; The West Australian under Mr Murray was for it. “So push came to shove,” Mr Murray said, and his job hung in the balance. Staff at the paper, loyal to him and their journalistic integrity, voted unanimously against what was happening. The board relented and he remained as editor. He believes it’s par for the course – the conflict between the media and government. “It’s always part of the stresses and strains between a free press and a democratically-elected government,” he said. He now writes an opinion column a couple of times a week for The West and was morning host, then drive host, at radio station 6PR for 11 years in all, interviewing prime ministers, premiers, politicians of all persuasions and the public. Writing columns “is cathartic” and he continues, despite considering retirement, because he still loves it. He’s never short of a topic for his pieces. He draws on politics and current affairs most often in his columns, and, of course, many column inches were devoted to Oscar the dog and Allen Park when the dog was alive. Mr Murray was posted to The West Australian’s Sydney and Melbourne offices during the 1970s, but was lured back to Perth as an investigative reporter in 1981 by Robert Holmes à Court who was starting a new weekly newspaper, The Western Mail. During his time at The Western Mail, he won a slew of journalism awards – the state’s top journalism prize, UWA’s Lovekin Prize, the Daily News Centenary Prize and the Beck Prize for political journalism. When The Western Mail paper was wound up, he returned to The West Australian which had been bought by Holmes à Court. He went back as chief-of-staff and a few years later was appointed deputy editor, then editor. He hadn’t really had ambitions to be the editor of a major newspaper but when it was put to him: “I went ‘Gulp’, okay that’s where it’s heading.” He was only 39 at the time. Mr Murray thought he’d have about five years of good ideas in him, then thought he’d give someone else a go. “But five years came and they tried to sack me so I stayed another five years just to punish them!” he joked. With retirement on the horizon, he’s considering travelling with his wife Grace, although his friends tell him he’ll never completely retire. He values the opportunity to write his column too much. “I won’t throw it away lightly,” Mr Murray said. “Every journalist thinks he’s got a book or two in him, so that’s a possibility,” he said. It would be fiction but drawing on things he’s “stumbled” over during his career. Watch this space. Gail Stubber – branching out with sustainability Sustainability is a basic, common sense way of living – it always has been and always will be. That’s the message from founding member and former president of Mayo Community Garden Gail Stubber, who is also a member of the Sustainable Nedlands Committee. She is a strong advocate for sustainable living and has been heavily involved with the Mayo Community Garden in Swanbourne. When Ms Stubber returned to Perth in 2013 after living overseas for 16 years, she found herself at a crossroads, searching for something to do. She decided to invest in her green thumb and complete her Masters in Sustainability, focusing on community gardens. It was a timely decision that saw her passion for sustainable living lead her on a journey to the Mayo Community Garden in the Swanbourne heritage precinct, which was in action as she completed her thesis. “I have always been interested in sustainability and development,” Ms Stubber said. “I don’t understand why people don’t do it.” Community gardens are an increasingly popular form of civic and urban agriculture, shown to have multiple benefits for participants and the wider community by providing a hub where people come together to grow organic food, design urban green spaces and nurture sustainable living. The idea of a community garden in Swanbourne originally came from community consultation. After searching for a place, the Mayo site at Allen Park was chosen and the gardens were incorporated in 2014. 26 “The Mayo Community Garden site is great because of the history and natural regeneration work that goes on around it by the Friends of Allen Park Group,” Ms Stubber said. “It has been a good fit and ties in with the natural surrounding bushland area.” With a core group of eight to 10 people, Ms Stubber has enjoyed being involved in a community founded on sustainable practices, which include no chemicals, using a “make-do and mend” mentality and asking for help to make things happen. “The more sustainability you do, the more it comes back to simple answers,” she said. “I once saw a landscape gardener pulling apart a limestone wall and asked, if he didn’t want it, could he leave it at the gardens? He was nice enough to do that for us. Bunnings has also come on board and built a shed for us.” From its conception, Ms Stubber has helped the garden grow to fill a range of needs, whether it’s for people renting, those with small backyards or the less green-thumbed who are still interested in the community and social aspects of the garden. “We have had a lot of people who walk past, interested in talking to us and finding out about gardening at their house, but they are too time-poor to join the garden themselves,” she said. Ms Stubber’s sustainability resume includes running school community gardens in Asia and working with non-governmental organisations to take children on trips to Cambodia to build new homes. As a member on the Sustainable Nedlands Committee, she has also used her passion for sustainable living to push for positive change for the wider community. Some of her achievements include hosting the annual Earth Hour event, as well as tree pruning and composting workshops at the Mayo Community Garden. Ms Stubber stepped down as the president of the Mayo Community Garden in 2016 and is preparing a lifestyle change in the South West. “When I do leave the gardens, I would really love to see it grow with more people,” she said. “We are always seeking new community members who are interested in getting involved.” Ms Stubber continues to provide inspirational ideas to the committee, such as converting streetlights to LED to reduce power generation, promoting green corridors and installing trees along the middle of Stirling Highway to counter the heat island effect (a phenomenon where temperatures are a few degrees higher in cities than surrounding rural areas). “For something to be really sustainable, you have to try and get people from all sides of the problem to sit around the table and talk about it,” Ms Stubber said. “As people come up with intelligent and simple answers to fix the problems, you combine everyone’s responses to come up with a solution.”

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