The McGowan Government has moved to improve fishing safety for Western Australia's unique West Coast Zone recreational abalone fishery.
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development conducted a review into the fishery after the deaths of four people since 2012. Following consultation with Recfishwest and Surf Life Saving WA (SLSWA), Fisheries Minister Dave Kelly has approved changes to the management of the fishery, in a bid to help improve the safety of recreational fishers and lifeguards. The West Coast Zone season will now run over summer to reduce the risk of rough weather conditions and fishing days will be on four specified Saturdays, with the first fishing day scheduled for December 9, 2017, instead of Sundays, between 7am and 8am. However, if severe weather conditions are forecast, the department will take action on the advice of local councils, SLSWA and Recfishwest to close the fishery. Throughout the season, the recreational abalone catch will be closely monitored to ensure the fishery's sustainability and that this season's total catch is between 18-22 tonnes, with options to reduce, or extend, the number of fishing days to keep the catch within this range. Almost 18,000 licences are issued annually in this highly valued fishery on Perth's doorstep. More details are available in the new abalone fishing guide at http://www.fish.wa.gov.au Comments attributed to Fisheries Minister Dave Kelly: "This year the abalone fishing season along Perth's coast will be changed in an effort to prevent any more deaths. "It is not worth risking a life for an abalone, so we urge licensed abalone fishers to embrace these important safety changes. "Importantly from now on if poor weather conditions are forecast, we will close the fishery - we won't put fishers or SLSWA volunteers' lives at risk. "The aim of moving to Saturday fishing days in summer is to reduce the potential of encountering bad weather, which puts fishers' lives at risk. "Changing the fishing day from Sunday to Saturday will also help free up SLSWA resources from competing activities, ensuring they can help make the early one-hour fishing windows safer in the new season. "These new arrangements were developed in consultation with Recfishwest and SLSWA and provides a balance between fisher safety and sustainability. "We want to ensure this rare and unique fishing opportunity remains safe and available to recreational fishers in the long term." Outstanding young Western Australians were honoured at the WA Youth Awards last night, with Matthew Bill, 22, from Swan View, named WA Young Person of the Year.
Matthew, an outreach worker in the Shire of Mundaring, was recognised for his work with local families to encourage positive engagement in their children's lives. Matthew works directly with school students in his community, particularly those at risk of disengagement. He was also named the winner in the Community Leadership category of the awards. Other WA Youth Award winners included Habiba Asim, 19, from Huntingdale who used her experience of bullying for wearing a hijab to school as a way of engaging with and working with young people deemed at risk. Through her role as a mentor, speaker and contributor on a number of youth committees, Habiba is a wonderful role model for migrant youth. The WA Youth Awards showcase the achievements and contributions of young Western Australians aged 12 to 25, as well as organisations that work with and support WA youth. The awards are delivered through a partnership between the Department of Communities and Youth Affairs Council of Western Australia (YACWA), and are supported by Lotterywest. Comments attributed to Youth Minister Peter Tinley: "The WA Youth Awards are a fantastic reminder of the positive contributions made by young people in WA and this year's remarkable group of finalists represent the diversity of WA's youth. "These inspiring young people have contributed more in their lifetimes than many people twice their age. I hope they will inspire other Western Australians to ask themselves how they can make a difference to their own communities. "If the calibre of young people awarded tonight are anything to go by, then I strongly believe that we are in very capable hands for the future." Vincent Pettinicchio, 12, Kallaroo Vincent is a Year 7 student who helps improve the quality of life of homeless people in Western Australia. In February 2013, at just seven years of age and after being bullied at school, he started Vincent's Project for the Homeless. His idea was to provide homeless people with packs of toiletries and comfort items, inspired by homeless people he saw on his walks with his grandparents. In 2014 he set his target at 300 packs and delivered 364 packs to St Vincent de Paul. In 2015, targeting 500 packs, he delivered 642, with the help of students from nine different schools on packing day. This number has increased annually since then, with an estimated 4,000 people assisted to date. Vincent's 10-year plan is to help 14,000 people. Lily Purser and Alyssa Wong, Shenton Park Lily Purser and Alyssa Wong are Year 10 students who participated in a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics class at Shenton College. Students were challenged to use design-thinking principles to create a solution for a local or global issue, with the pair choosing to address the community issue of food waste. Thinking globally but acting locally, they engaged with the St Patrick's Community Support Centre to develop a solution to provide unused food to those who need it. The girls' solution was to create a website to link businesses with excess food to charities which could distribute food to support people at-risk in their local area. Named Conneativity, the site also addresses the issue of getting the food to the charities. Matthew Bill, 22, Swan View Matthew Bill is a 22-year-old Aboriginal, Youth Outreach Worker employed by the Shire of Mundaring, who works with families in the community to encourage and assist them to be actively involved in their children's lives. He works across four primary schools and one high school re-engaging students who truant from class, are suspended from school or are at risk of disengagement in the education system. This includes spending his personal time to mentor young people. This year, he developed a 'Yarning Circle' at a local primary school, which provides an opportunity for younger students to interact with older boys from the nearby high school, to help the high school transition become easier. George Foulkes-Taylor, 24, Kalgoorlie-Boulder George is a local producer and business manager born and raised in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, who is heavily involved in developing the local arts scene. George was the producer for Kalgoorlie Fashion Week 2017, co-ordinated a group of 14 local artists to participate in a pop-up gallery showcasing a huge range of artworks from the Goldfields region, developed and managed a local film project that taught local young people about film and technology, and participated in the National Young Rural Women's Muster 2016 - a week of leadership training in Canberra. Lynn Crasto, Hamilton Hill After graduating from Edith Cowan University's Youth Work Studies in 2005, Lynn began his youth work career assisting highly marginalised and disengaged young people. Since then he has developed experience in outreach, case management and intensive support and recreation as well as school-based youth work. He now works with some of the most marginalised young people in WA, delivering street-based outreach in Anglicare WA's Street Connect program. He is an innovative practitioner, having developed and delivered the 'Up and Running' project, which engaged highly marginalised and disengaged young homeless people in regular exercise appropriate to their needs. Habiba Asim, 19, Huntingdale Born in Pakistan, Habiba and her family moved to Perth as migrants when she was 11 years old, and faced racism and discrimination almost daily. She used her experience of bullying for wearing a hijab to school as an opportunity to work with young people deemed at risk. Habiba is a positive role model for migrant young people, is an Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience mentor, a youth consultant with the City of Belmont, an inspirational speaker with the City of Stirling's Youth Empowerment Program, a youth advocate with YACWA's Youth Engaged in Policy Project, and a soccer coach with children 10 years and under. Curtin AHEAD, Bentley Curtin Addressing Higher Educational Access Disadvantage (AHEAD) is an innovative outreach program that fosters the potential of groups and individuals that are underrepresented in higher education. Their vision is to enable positive change by overcoming the challenges of access and embracing the opportunities of participation in higher education. The team run a range of programs, including Year 12 camps with students from regional and remote schools, and AHEAD in Prison ,designed to enhance participants' transition, access, participation and retention in higher education. Since 2014, AHEAD has supported more than 1,000 high school students into university, and 41 prison residents through the Curtin UniReady (enabling) program, of who 10 have transitioned into university. Millennium Kids, Yokine Millennium Kids is a youth-led environmental organisation with young people aged 10-25 years, co-designing practical action projects in their local, regional and global communities. Established in Western Australia in 1996, 2017 marks 21 years of the organisation. Millennium Kids works with individuals, community groups and government entities to develop collaborative, environmental and sustainability-based education and action programs, and projects that provide leadership and citizenship opportunities for young people. Recent projects have included Wetland Warriors, a social media-based holiday program designed by young people to create awareness of the plight of waterbirds in wetland areas, and the Willy Wagtail Project, a social enterprise developed to take waste destined for landfill and create bags to reduce plastic bag use. Letitia Busniak, 22, Geraldton Letitia is a 22-year-old journalist from Geraldton. She first began working for Geraldton Newspapers at the age of 16 before completing a three-year cadetship program with West Australian Regional Newspapers. Her winning story was a two-page spread focused on four young women who had opened successful businesses in Geraldton. These young woman, all aged under 22, are smashing stereotypes surrounding the work ethic of their generation and are also breaking down barriers for women in the business industry - who sadly still remain under-represented in business ownership. The McGowan Government has welcomed the Auditor General's report on pastoral lands, which highlights the failures of the former Liberal National Government to ensure sustainability in the rangelands.
While the fragility of Western Australia's pastoral lands has been evident for decades, the report notes a dramatic reduction in monitoring and research since 2009 has contributed to a lack of understanding about land conditions at a lease level. A number of recommendations from the report have already commenced implementation by the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (DPLH) and the Pastoral Lands Board (PLB), including: Finalising a Memorandum of Understanding in relation to service provision to the PLB from both DPLH and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD); Assisting the PLB to draft a policy on the interpretation of ecological sustainability in the context of pastoral land, with supporting guidance for pastoral managers on good practice land management; and Engaging at director general level with DPIRD, the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions in relation to interagency approvals processes for diversified economic activities on pastoral land. The McGowan Government is committed to sustainable development and diversification of pastoral lands, with further details on future consultations to be announced in coming weeks. Comments attributed to Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan: "This report is cause for deep concern; once again we are seeing the harmful impacts of the Liberals and Nationals' deep cuts to agricultural research. "The former government set ambitious targets for doubling production on pastoral lands and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on overseas travel developing markets - all the while cutting back on the fundamental monitoring and research needed to ensure our lands were in a condition to sustain productivity increases. "Our government is committed to sustainable development of pastoral lands, working in consultation with industry, native title holders and pastoral stakeholders." Comments attributed to Lands Minister Rita Saffioti: "After the mess the previous government has made of this, we are committed to delivering improved rangeland outcomes through Pastoral Lands Reform. "I have already tasked the Pastoral Lands Board to undertake consultations with pastoral lease holders which includes policy development; regulatory improvement and potential statutory change with the aim that this will increase economic diversification, streamline approval processes and security of tenure. "We are currently exploring opportunities to increase the level and effectiveness of monitoring along with recording and dissemination of outcomes. "This may include better utilisation of technology coupled with partnering with stakeholder or local groups (for example Aboriginal ranger programs) to improve the effectiveness of the monitoring regime." Monkey Mia will benefit from $40,000 in Federal Government funding to establish a vision for the area which will include the development of world-class visitor facilities, experiences and tourism infrastructure.
The funding is a partnership between the Federal and State governments as part of the Tourism Demand Driver Infrastructure (TDDI) program. The program provides $43 million over four years to States and Territories for key infrastructure projects that will drive tourism growth. Western Australia received $5.063 million in funding over four years, managed by the State Government through Tourism Western Australia. The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions will match the Federal Government funding and manage the project. The funding will go towards engaging architects to develop concept plans and preliminary designs for the future development of the department's tourism infrastructure in the Monkey Mia area. As part of the program in 2017-18, the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions also received funding for campground upgrades at Yanchep National Park. These are the final Western Australian projects as part of the TDDI program, which has supported 19 tourism infrastructure initiatives across the State. Statements attributable to Federal Member for Durack Melissa Price MP: "I am really pleased to see this joint funding commitment, as Monkey Mia is seen by visiting tourists as a truly unique destination. "I love Monkey Mia and Shark Bay, and this funding provides the first step on the road to the redevelopment of the area to attract greater tourist numbers, and greater growth for the region. "Domestic and international visitors to the Coral Coast have increased 22% over the last three years, so we know that there is an appetite to visit the region and view the wonderful scenery up here." Statements attributable to Western Australian Tourism Minister Paul Papalia: "It is fantastic to see the program helping to make Western Australia a more attractive place for tourists by providing funding for significant tourism infrastructure across the State. "Monkey Mia sits within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area, which is renowned for its extraordinary natural attributes and, of course, close encounters with bottlenose dolphins. "Addressing infrastructure needs for Monkey Mia through the program, and the private investment that is already happening in the area, will help attract more tourists into the region and provide employment opportunities. "Tourism is a key pillar of the State Government's plan to diversify the economy and create jobs. The industry contributed $10.1 billion in visitor spend in 2016-17 and generates around 109,000 jobs." Statements attributable to Western Australian Environment Minister Stephen Dawson: "We are very fortunate to live in a land full of contrasting landscapes with rich and diverse cultural, biodiversity and heritage values. "National parks are vitally important for this State, for its economy through the tourism and hospitality industries, and for their world-renowned biodiversity values and beauty. "Creating more opportunities for people to experience our national parks gives tourists fresh insights into how to protect, promote, and connect with our pristine environment." During a bushfire every
5 minutes counts. Especially your next 5 minutes. Your best chance of surviving a bushfire is to plan what you'd do if one was to come your way. Take 5 minutes now with your family, friends or neighbours to discuss these three simple questions: But what if you were at work when a fire threatens? For more information contact DFES Community Engagement on 93959816 Over the past 5 years the Shire has had you listed as being part of an incorporated club or community group. It is essential that someone from your club or group actions this email as we want to make sure you make all the necessary changes required by law to your constitution.
As you may be aware, the new Associations Incorporation Act took effect in July 2016 and all conditions of the new Act have to be addressed by June 2019. There are 22 conditions in the new Act which clubs have to include in their constitution and we are here to help your club make the necessary changes and use the new online system to submit your documents. Come along to one of our free information sessions where we will help you review your constitution, understand your requirements under the new Incorporation Act and help you identify what changes need to be made to your constitution to comply with the new rules. Staff will be on hand to go through your constitution and support your club. We can also support you to submit your information sheet, look at your club by laws, codes of conduct, policies and strategic plans. These information sessions are essential for all incorporated clubs, the more people who attend per club the better! The information sessions are taking place at 10am, 2pm and 6pm on:
Walpole Pemberton Northcliffe Manjimup Nannup Sport and Recreation Minister Mick Murray flicked the switch tonight on the first full-blown test of Perth Stadium's world-class lighting system.
The dazzling display showcased the full capabilities of the lighting system which incorporates more than 15,000 LED lights, the biggest of its kind anywhere in the world. Inside the stadium the halo roof lights, sports lights, two 340sqm super screens and sound system were activated in unison. Outside, 1.4 kilometres of LED lighting was lit on the stadium's facade and all 43 arches of the 450-metre arbour were illuminated. The flood lighting and halo lighting systems enable Perth Stadium's fabric roof to act as a giant canvas, showcasing a variety of colours and configurations - purple for the Dockers, blue and gold for the Eagles or orange for the Scorchers. Perth Stadium will officially open with a free Community Open Day on Sunday January 21, 2018. The stadium will host an AFLW fixture in February 2018, two Ed Sheeran concerts and the Perth NRL double header in March 2018, Chelsea Football Club versus Perth Glory in mid-2018, State of Origin II and a Bledisloe Cup match in 2019 with more events to be announced soon. Construction of the $1.46 billion Perth Stadium is more than 97 per cent complete. Comments attributed to Sport and Recreation Minister Mick Murray: "The lighting component of Perth Stadium is one of the most stunning features of this state-of-the-art venue. It sets a new benchmark for stadium lighting in Australia. "It is yet another world-class design feature which will help create the ultimate 'fans first' experience for all Western Australians and visitors alike. "The McGowan Government is working hard to fill Perth Stadium's events calendar for the coming years to boost tourism, create jobs and diversify the economy." On the weekend of the Friday 10th – Sunday 12th November, 2017, as part of the Blooming Wild Festival which is taking place in the Southern Forests and Valleys community groups, individuals and businesses in the towns of Balingup, Bridgetown, Greenbushes, Boyup Brook, Nannup, Northcliffe, Pemberton, Manjimup and Walpole are invited to create ephemeral art installations that reflect the theme “Elements”.
An art trail map will be produced and promoted to encourage residents and visitors to travel through each town and view the artworks on display. The Blooming Wild Ephemeral Art Trail will also be featured on the Blooming Wild Festival website www.bloomingwild.com.au What is an ephemeral Art Exhibition? - There are many forms of ephemeral art, from sculpture to performance, but the term is usually used to describe a work of art that only occurs once, like a temporary sculpture or an artistic happening, and cannot be embodied in any lasting object to be shown in a museum or gallery. Ephemeral art first came to prominence in the 1960s with the Fluxus group, when artists like Joseph Beuys were interested in creating works of art that existed outside the gallery and museum structure and had no financial worth. Temporary sculptures, happenings, performances and sound sculptures were all part of ephemeral art. Artists are requested to dismantle the installations at the conclusion of the weekend and to consider risk management, pedestrians, no inclusion of sharp objects or profanities and any Council or Health requirements. For more information and to return your completed registration form please contact Deb Vanallen at the Shire of Donnybrook-Balingup – deb.vanallen@donnybrook.wa.gov.au or ph : 9780 4234 or Louise Stokes at the Shire of Nannup on louise@nannup.wa.gov.au. |
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