perth

Green, Vibrant and Well Loved

/ Katherine Howard / Leave a comment

Strategic planning for public open space networks that make the world a better place

Parks Week 2016 - Alpaca

I think we can all agree that taking the time to think strategically is generally a great idea, no matter the topic. This is especially important when the implementation of any vision is likely to be conducted in a piecemeal manner.

It is via local open space strategy and policy that the greatest impact on park provision can be achieved.  Open space policies and strategies have the capacity to guide how public open space is distributed to establish and protect a parkland network which enhances sense of place, ensures a balanced provision of sport, recreation and nature functions, retains significant environmental and cultural features; and realises opportunities for achieving efficiencies and sharing of infrastructure.

Crucially, Public Open Space (POS) strategic planning is important for making the absolute best use of limited resources; like your water for irrigation budget! It’s an opportunity to consider all available integrated water cycle management information such as district/regional water management strategies, water supply strategies, water license availability and/or storm water management planning in coordination with the Department of Water, and fit it in to how we meet the sport and recreation needs of the community.

We’ve recently developed a step-by-step online resource to guide local governments through the process of developing a POS strategy. It is available on the Department of Sport and Recreation website (www.dsr.wa.gov.au > Support and Advice). It outlines eight steps to take on your journey to creating a POS strategy (or the POS section of another strategic document) and includes lots of spin off information, examples and references along the way.

Here is a quick and dirty brief of the eight steps we think are crucial in thinking strategically about creating an open space network which meets the sport, recreation and access to nature needs of the community in the most equitable and resource efficient way.

Step 1 – Committing to Action

A project champion is vital but without full local government/council uptake early on you’ll be pushing uphill when you get moving. A Public Open Space Strategy needs to incorporate input from all divisions of the Local Government, as it will impact on all of the Council’s activities.

A great way to begin the journey is to pull together an internal working group with representation from all divisions should be established. Ensure that the people who come along are able to make commitments on behalf of their branches or directorates.

At your first gathering of the internal working group the first order of business should be the vision and objectives. It is essential that the strategy reflect the Council’s vision for the future. It should be aligned with the Council’s overall values and objectives as articulated in its Strategic Community Plan. There are some great examples on the website to get your word smithing started.

Step 2 – Scope and Context

The next discussion to have is how to make your vision come to life. What does the strategy aim to achieve? What is its sphere of influence? What aspects of POS planning will you focus on so you get the most impact for your efforts?

Something that may seem obvious but actually isn’t; how you define ‘Public Open Space’. In land administration terms the definition is somewhat clear but limits you to discussing land that is created through the subdivision process and excludes many of types of open space which is publically accessible and provides beautiful space for sport and recreation pursuits (like some types of bush land reserves, national parks and regional open space).

The Classification Framework for Public Open Space offers a potential definition for your consideration:

“POS refers to urban green spaces: parklands, play areas, playing fields, bushland, greenways and other similar spaces people use for recreation, sport and social interaction.”

Classification Framework for Public Open Space (DSR, 2012)

The strategy should also consider the relationship between public open space in its district and that within neighbouring Local Governments and spaces that operate on a regional scale. On that note, what is the scale of the strategy? Some in the past have teamed up with other local governments or regional councils to take on a broader scale; others have narrowed their focus to precincts or activity centres.

How it will link to other strategies and policies within the organisation and at a regional and or State level? What will give it teeth and status? It’s important that the strategy is integrated with other council documents and aligns with other similar documents like the Council’s Strategic Community Plan and/or Local Planning Strategy. It is important to identify all Local Government plans and activities that may influence or be influenced by this new strategy. Check out all the potential areas of overlap or conflict and be ready to work with them or blow them out of the water!

Decide whether the strategy should stand-alone and form part of a suite of strategic documents alongside, for example: a housing strategy, economic development strategy and environment strategy. If you go with this structure the relevant strategies and priorities would then be captured in the Council’s Strategic community Plan, Budget, Local Planning Strategy and other key Council documents.

Step 3 – Audit of existing POS

Show us what you’ve got! Lay all your cards on the table by conducting an audit of all the Councils existing POS assets. This forms the basis for determining how well current needs are being met and what is required to meet the future needs of the community.

Detailed information on these assets should be collected including:

  • Ownership (facilities and land);
  • Land administration information such as leases/licences/easements on the land;
  • Its purpose/function;
  • Facilities and infrastructure;
  • Current condition;
  • Usage;
  • Cost/revenue;
  • Cyclical maintenance requirements; and
  • Upgrade, replacement and redevelopment intentions.

Also, it is important to consider what is provided in surrounding areas that may also be meeting the needs of the community (i.e. regional playing grounds, parks and facilities). Thinking in terms of catchments is useful here, for example; a park with regional scale sporting facilities is likely to attract people up to 2km away, whilst smaller sites generally attract only the locals.

Step 4 – Current and future needs analysis

What is an adequate provision of public open space? What do your community want now and what are they likely to want in 10 years time? Understanding the community’s recreation aspirations helps identify and implement strategies to enhance the opportunities, experiences, benefits and the quality of life for the community.

Defining what an adequate provision of POS is, will form an aspirational standard delivery model and a clear baseline. The POS provision requirements in State Government planning policy (Liveable Neighbourhoods) are a good (and required) standard however Local Governments can develop a more thorough and locally significant definition. Seek help from best practice guidelines such as the Public Parkland Planning and Design Guide (DSR, 2014) especially for matters that are not covered in state government policy such as facility provision and development of POS.

Changing community needs may generate a demand for new or different facilities. Struggling to tell the future? Consider that these changes could occur due to population growth, a changing community (e.g. ageing, diversifying culturally or becoming more or less affluent) and/or a general shift in community attitudes.  For example, increased appreciation of natural and conservation values has increased demands for the retention and protection of land with landscape and environmental values.

A great place to start is to get out and talk to the community. A comprehensive ongoing program of research, profiling and consultation is the best way to gauge changing needs. Ask them these sorts of wonderful questions; which of the existing recreational provision works well and must be protected and strengthened? What recreational opportunities need fixing and how might they be fixed? What will ensure the community has access to the activities it would like to pursue?

Step 5 – Gap Analysis

And now we compare notes! A comparison between what is currently available (Step 3) and the current and future needs of the district (Step 4) will allow you to see the gaps in current provisions or areas where there might be an oversupply.

This is not going to look like comparing two maps – you’ll have quantitative and qualitative information to consider in the form of ideas from the community, data from facilities and catchment mapping, to name only a couple! Mapping is a great place to start though because you’ll be able to analyse the existing open space supply in terms of how well it meets various needs. Needs are met through good access to functional spaces. The basis of this is the location, distribution and connectivity of the network of open spaces (with each other and with other key destinations and spaces of interest in the neighbourhood).  However, also consider other impediments to using spaces including physical, geographic, financial, social and cultural barriers.

Step 6 – Strategies, opportunities and priorities

Now this is the tricky (exciting) bit! How do we go about filling those gaps? Step 6 is the opportunity to determine how best to implement both adequate and aspirational POS provision.

There are a number of great ways to meet gaps in provision. Such as;

  • Better use of existing spaces (efficiency measures)
  • Converting or adapting existing space (change of use)
  • Strategic land acquisition to improve linkages or increase capacity of existing space;
  • Integrating and colocation with other services/users;
  • Using new technologies and enhanced design (installing lighting to extend times that facilities can be used, using artificial services to reduce maintenance costs and time);
  • Providing more indoor facilities that can be used throughout the year rather than being subject to weather or seasonal vagaries;
  • Rationalising facilities by identifying poorly used and/or located spaces; and
  • Providing detailed, locally appropriate guidance (supported by planning instruments) to developers on site provision and development.

Step 7 – Implementation

This is where it all takes shape; take all those strategies, opportunities and priorities from Step 6 and create a plan of attack. Your comprehensive implementation plan, in addition to identifying responsibilities and timing should also consider:

  • Input from, and integration into the activities of, all divisions of the Local Government
  • Integration into the Community Strategic Plan and Corporate Plan
  • Facility management, programming and services
  • Statutory planning instruments
  • Funding opportunities
  • Budget pricing and charges plan

Step 8 – Monitoring and review

Of course, any good plans comes with some way of determining if it’s been successful or not, and a plan to realign with its goals in the future.

A great idea is a plan to keep the data collected in the auditing stage up to date into the future.  A curated database can come in handy at budgeting time.

Keeping an eye on how the community feels over time via periodic surveys can monitor and gather feedback on performance of the strategy and track changes in demand. Set up regular opportunities to talk to people who use the parks – casual users and those who have a more formal relationship like a lease arrangement for a sporting facility.

Ready to do it all over again yet? The strategy should commit to both comprehensive review (say a 7-10 year cycle), and interim or ad hoc reviews if there is a major change in the planning context (for example if the State or Federal Governments provide funding for a major new facility which changes the supply context). Just when you thought you’d got to the last step!

For much more thorough guidance on this topic please visit the online Public Open Space Strategy Guide for Local Governments, available on the Department of Sport and Recreation website (Www.dsr.wa.gov.au > Support and Advice).

The online resource www.parklandwa.org.au is a wealth of information on various aspects of POS planning including example POS strategies, academic articles and guidance documents to both support your argument for undertaking POS planning and help you through the process.

 

 

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The Entertainer – City of Vincent’s lifts ban on Icecream Trucks

/ Katherine Howard / Leave a comment

Keep an eye out for the City of Vincent’s draft ‘Mobile Food Vendor’ policy over the coming weeks!

Last night (2nd December 2014) City of Vincent Council considered the draft and agreed it was ready to go out for public comment. Hurray! The Food Truck take over is alive and strong.

Two major changes as far as I can see, the first being that they will lift their current ban on “itinerant vendors” AKA Ice cream vans! Watch out Vincent residents, soon the delicious sound of impending soft serve will be tinkling gently through your house on a sunny sunday afternoon.

simpsons icecream truck

The second change being that they have identified a few car parking bays throughout the city where licenced food trucks can park and trade.

Here is the  City of Vincent 2 Dec Agenda, the pages concerning the new policy if you fancy a look. I’ll be having a closer look when it comes out!

Congratulations City of Vincent!

 

 

Farmers Marketing

/ Katherine Howard / Leave a comment

I thought I’d share with you an excerpt of a paper I wrote at uni in 2008 about the role farmers markets in community building, alongside some photos of mine from various farmers market adventures.

“People like to go in at a leisurely pace – they might stop for coffee and listen to the entertainment, there’s a real social component to it. And more than that, the appeal is that the vendor is actually selling products they’ve made or grown. People are more and more concerned with how things are made and at farmers’ markets; you can talk to the vendor and find out exactly what has gone into it. That’s important to people.”     (P. Wilkes of Alberta Agriculture Food and Rural Development in Dey, 2008)

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Food forms an integral part of the social, environmental and economic fabric of human society, and where our fare comes from matters just as much as what we do with it and how we share it with the people around us. With the spotlight firmly on ‘sustainability’ there has been a renewed passion for local and organic products to replace the unsustainable trafficking of goods over huge distances and the use of environmentally damaging chemicals and pesticides.  As any good chef will tell you, the foundation of any sensational meal is the quality of the ingredients, as celebrity chefs the world over promoting the use of locally sourced, organic and top quality ingredients, it is no wonder that consumer’s interest in sources of these products has grown substantially. Farmers markets provide an opportunity for urban dwellers to find locally grown, fresh and often organic produce, and enhance the local economy by providing a revenue stream for small farmers and supporting tourism (Tiemann, 2008) (Hinrichs, 2000) (Halweil, 2002). Can these casual meeting places also provide a space for the community to reconnect, both with each other and the source of their provisions? Could they be a source of social capital, and a community support structure?

Farmers markets, as used in this discussion, can be defined as any gathering of stalls in a temporary or semi-permanent arrangement (which is not open for the majority of the week) purveying products sourced from the surrounding region and so includes both fresh fruit/ vegetables and valued added, locally made, products such as jams, pickles and honey. This definition can also be extended to include collections of street food vendors, or any market adjacent permanent restaurants/cafes and even associated art and craft stalls/galleries.

The market structure dates back to Ancient Rome and Greece where these areas where just as much about purchasing supplies as they were spaces for informal association, social interaction and forums for political debate (Wilkins & Hill, 2006). Informal association, according to Hugh Mackay, is an important aspect of human society;

‘Humans are herd animals, and we cut ourselves off from the herd at our psychological peril…This is a society in which we have rediscovered the importance of the community… It’s a society in which we have worked out how to live like modern, urban and suburban villagers. We’re eating out more, as we recognise that grazing with the herd is an important step towards reconnecting with the herd; coffee shops and cafes have become meeting places for incidental as well as planned contact. We’re creating and using more communal space in the manner of a European plaza, the local park has become a kind of village green.’ (Mackay, 1999 p xxxIII)

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Parks and public spaces serve as a place to observe the positive aspects of public life and space,  develop civic pride, social contact, skills of association, acceptance of diversity, sense of freedom, and even common sense (with respect to aesthetic standards and public taste)(Tiemann, 2008). Markets can act as mediators, to introduce people to public spaces thereby raising their awareness, and perhaps leading to increased appreciation of location, identity and pride (Hinrichs, 2000) (Tiemann, 2008). Shared places promote feelings of ownership and hence occurrences of vandalism and antisocial behaviour decrease as people define an area as “theirs”, people are more considerate when consuming spaces they will visit again (Archer & Beale, 2004). As farmers markets only a occur one or two days per week the space may have other uses,  this encourages many different people to take ownership of a space and appreciate community’s complexity,  as the space is utilised by a mixture of different groups (Tiemann, 2008). In the context of planning; one of the Western Australian Planning Commissions  ‘Liveable Neighbourhoods’  objectives under ‘Community Design’ is to enhance the context of development , strengthen local character and identity and promote a sense of community (WAPC, 2000).

The social interaction between shoppers at farmers markets is much higher than at traditional shopping centres (Sommer, 1985), it is estimated that people have 10 times as many conversations at farmers markets than they do at supermarkets (Halweil, 2002).  These spaces aid in the creation of social capital; connecting and developing networks of trust and reciprocity across social groups, developing casual association, and acceptance of diversity (Gasteyer et al., 2008) Urban consumers are more likely to visit a farmers market for the atmosphere and entertainment rather than strictly to purchase food (Gasteyer et al., 2008) which leads to a relaxed and friendly atmosphere amongst shoppers.

Sense of community is not only an matter for patrons of the market but also for the producers. For the farmers the market gives them a chance for escape from their solitary work in the field, to develop informal relationships with others in the industry, and a chance to reconnect with the herd (Tiemann, 2008). This would not be the case if the market where to be open every day of the week, as the sense of novelty would be lost and it would just become part of the daily grind. The market atmosphere provides a forum for casual association between producers, networking opportunities, sharing of knowledge and may also breed a healthy competition for quality and presentation of produce (Hinrichs, 2000)(Tiemann, 2008). Having a casual opportunity to sell produce allows small scale producers to remain financially viable, adding an aspect of solidarity to the community’s economy (Sommer, 1985) (Gasteyer et al., 2008). Money spent at locally owned, run and produced products stays in the community for longer, thereby raising incomes and creating jobs (Halwiel, 2002). Local employment opportunities are another important aspect of the ‘liveable neighbourhoods’ concept (WAPC, 2000). Remaining economically viable also allows farmers to stay on the land and reduces the pressure to develop rural land for residential or industrial purposes, therefore preserving open space and vegetated landscapes providing clear environmental benefits especially in city environments (Mender & Goldsmith, 1996).

Alongside ‘supporting local farmers’ and ‘buying from the community’, ‘the connection with the Earth’s seasons’ was one of the most common responses to the question ‘ What is your favourite aspect of the market?’ in a survey of the Carrboro Farmers’ Market (North Carolina) in 2002 (Tiemann, 2008). The produce which is available at a farmers market changes from week to week as what is grown locally evolves with the season and so consumers stay in touch with the world outside the urban disconnected environment. This is an issue which speaks to Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City design that incorporated a glass-covered, open-air market in the centre of the city (Clarke, 2003). Garden cities where specifically designed to reduce the alienation of human society from nature and dissolve the divide between town and country (Clark, 2003).

‘While millions of farmers have vanished from the local landscape since the 1940’s, generations of consumers have completely lost touch with their food supply. Today’s average consumers have little knowledge of how or by whom their food was grown.’(Mender & Goldsmith, 1996 p426).

The face to face interactions and the security the comes from knowing the source of, and production method of the food you consume is lost when products are shipped over long distances and are separated from the landscape (Halweil, 2002). This does however limit the diversity of goods offered to consumers because only what can be produced locally (with restrictions of climate and water supply) and with the available infrastructure is available (Mender & Goldsmith, 1996) (Hinrichs, 2000). In a society accustomed to having all things available at all times this has the potential to become a restraining factor for farmers markets (Halweil, 2002) (Mender & Goldsmith, 1996). However, research conducted by Govindasamy et al. (1998, p4) found that the most common reasons for not shopping at farmers markets where: ‘no farmers’ market around’, ‘did not know about them’, ‘not convenient’, ‘no time’, and ‘supermarket is convenient and offers good prices’. Whilst the convenience of super market shopping was mentioned, no direct association between markets and lack of choice was cited.

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FACET: Delivering the Customer Experience & Creating Ambassadors

/ Katherine Howard / Leave a comment

WA’s Forum Advocating Cultural and Eco-Tourism, known by those in the know as FACET, is a great organisation of people brought together with a common interest in cultural, nature based and eco-tourism. They are a fantastic rescource for anyone working in ecotourism.

FACET logo

They often run events, workshops, forums, conferences and the like in Perth. I spotted one that is coming up that you might be interested in!

If you are customer service, a buisness owner or manager, involved in marketing or interested in creating incredible customer experiences then you may be interested in this.

Delivering the Customer Experience & Creating Ambassadors

Venue: WA Conservation Science Centre Building, Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW)

Date:Thursday, 1 August 2013, 1.00 to 5.00pm

 Repeat visitation, customer referrals, free advertising, business ambassadors.  These are all guaranteed when you and your staff focus on the customer’s experience.  It is important to make wise investment decisions about your marketing and to ensure that the experience you offer your customers gets tongues wagging in a good way.
FACET is delighted to offer this half day interactive workshop aimed at guiding participants through the development of an experience that will keep customers coming back and more importantly get them raving about you to their friends and family.

Claire Savage of Savagely Creative will open your eyes to how your customers may view your business and provide you with the tools to ensure that you engage them and keep them loyal to your business.
Claire has over 21 years experience in product development and marketing in the public and private sector.  She has a particular focus on the service industry and has plenty of experience delivering interactive training across Western Australia.
Don’t miss this opportunity to make every customer count!

Lunchtime Twist – 45min Yoga in the Perth CBD

/ Katherine Howard / 1 Comment

Very exciting news for Perth yogi’s. A new spot in the CBD offering regular lunchtime (and evening) yoga.

The Yoga Vine (Donna Buchanan) has just opened up at 140william – above the Perth Underground train station and opposite the entrance to the Aviary.

They are offering yoga at 12.15pm and 1.15pm for 45 minutes every day of the week and a wednesday evening class at 6pm (1 hour).

Classes are only $10 – bring cash and your own yoga mat.

TheYogaVine_finx2

Staring at the Stairs

/ Katherine Howard / Leave a comment

Many clever people have spent considerable time and effort thinking of ways to get people out of their cars, lifts and off their bums for the sake of health and wellbeing for the community as a whole (and a very noble cause it is). Have you seen the Piano Staircase? Very very cool.

I recently read this article about the book Making Transit Fun! How to Entice Motorists from Their Cars by Darrin Nordahl,  and whilst I agree that it’s always a good thing to make day-to-day activities as fun as possible and I’m a strong advocate of being very silly, I think that people would use public transit more if it was simply more convenient than driving the car. I take the bus to work because the traffic and parking in the city make it quicker on public transport. It’s not pleasant for the most part but I would prefer the operator spent funds on more buses, training their drivers to use their brakes more gently and customer service rather than making my stop look like a strawberry. Your never going to make sitting on the bus with smelly strangers more appealing than the airconditioned, quiet (or jazzy) comfort of your own car.

However, there are some places where a bit of fun and good design would really make a difference. Fun end of trip facilities and bike storage at major transit stops/transfers which made it really nice to ride even part of your journey would be great. One of my colleagues stopped riding her bike to the train station because the bike lockers provided are just a pain in the ass to use, her bike was stuck in there for a while when the card scanner was playing up, they are ugly, frustrating, dark etc.

I work at 140william in the Perth CBD , it’s a truly lovely building which has won many design awards, is pretty great in terms of its environment impact, with a pretty speccy lift system running through the centre of the building to move us all about. I get pretty horrible motion sickness and so tend to use the stairs when I can to avoid head spins.  I often only need to go up or down 1 or 2 floors so it’s even more efficient. The stairs are just the emergency exit route of the building, they are not intended to be used for access and as such are cold, ugly, dark and pretty yuck to use. This is a brand new building, built to make life in it really comfortable and healthy, but stair access was not considered other than as Plan B for avoiding horrible elevator v. fire situations. This isn’t unusual right? What a shame! What if the stairs where well lit and comfortable to use, would you consider taking the stairs at your work place?

Here’s what the stair case at 140william looks like. In fact just after I took these photos the lights went off on me and I had to go down the last floor in the dark… terrifying.

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Maybe we should get a few hundred litres of paint (a selection of only a few colours so we don’t look insane – each floor already has a bit of a colour theme going which we could use) and get all the inhabitants to come and paint the walls. We’ll need some really really long paint roller poles and some professionals to make sure we get to the tricky to reach bits and that it doesn’t end up looking like a broken kalidoscope. Or we could hire an artist to paint a gigantic geometric mural spanning 14 floors.

Some sound dulling material/carpet on the landings to soften it up a little bit, and it would make the experience of using the stairs so much more appealing!

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The Old Ways of Butchers and Bakers

/ Katherine Howard / 2 Comments

When you go grocery shopping do you go to the supermarket for your basics then on to the butcher for meat, the baker for bread etc.? Or do you just do all your shopping at the supermarket?

It’s such a nice idea to support your local butcher and baker and go to them but in reality it’s just so convenient to do it all in one stop. My heart sinks when I see articles like this about a local butcher in Perth just not getting enough business to stay alive, or walk into a shopping centre and see the fruit and veg shop which has been there as long as you can remember, all closed down.

At the shopping centre close to me there is a Leonards (chicken), a very gourmet looking butcher, a bakers delight and a Coles. I’ve bought from Leonards once (Christmas time for a turkey), the rest of the times I go straight to Coles. What a missed opportunity! Is it really that much harder to go to the butcher aswell? We used to, before Coles and Woolworths got all speccy with their bakeries and butchers.

I am happy with my weekly (best case scenario) trip to the farmers market in Kalamunda for my fruit and veg because I know I’m supporting local farmers and getting the best stuff! We really do notice the difference when I don’t go. But I understand how its difficult to even do that, I go so often because its time when Mum and I have together each week, a major added benefit for making the trip.

I know, very well, that I get a much better product if I go to the market or a specialty shop, to the people to which their product is their art. You can ask for what you want also, butchers can make up a rolled roast or the exact type of steak you like, and can help when you don’t know which cut to use for a particular dish.

Think of how wonderful and inspiring our shopping centres would be if we all went to that little bit more effort. Perhaps the standard Bakers Delight and Leonards franchise stores would be accompanied by a marketplace of locally run butchers, preserves, bread, cakes, and fruit and veg.

It’s not likely to happen if we just say that we should. Shopping centres and local businesses need to think of ways to make it easier. Local butchers could offer online shopping and delivery, a company could gather all the local producers together and offer an online service which collects the things you want from different producers for you.

Shopping centres could have a card which you pick up on the way in the shops, you swipe it as you shop and then pay for all your items from all the different places in one transaction. I would love that!

Do you have a butcher or baker who you go to all the time? A baker who greets you by name and hands you your usual sourdough freeform rye loaf cut extra extra thick, without you even saying a word? A butcher who knows that thursday night is lamb chop night at your place? or am I dreaming of a decade ago? Is our laziness and adoration of convenience getting the better of us?

Fremantle Bathers Beach Summer Food Market

/ Katherine Howard / Leave a comment

The Bathers Beach Summer Food Market in Freo! They are running every Saturday night from now onwards over summer (not Australia Day) just between the maritime museum and the beach, next to Sweetlips/Cicerellos.

It’s a truly beautiful spot, from all angles you can see something lovely, ether the calm Bathers Beach or the maritime museum’s beautiful limestone facade,there is lovely lighting under the trees, and there is plenty of space to sit on the grass or the deck to eat (come prepared to sit on the ground). There were about 15 vendors all up including a coffee van, and a couple of different ones in addition to the usual Perth mobile food merchants including quesadillas, which where exceptional.  Whilst you have probably seen most of the vendors before if you’ve been to the Twilight Hawkers Market in Perth, the location really did make it worth the trip in my opinion. Of course if you live in Fremantle or find the Forrest Chase markets a bit too claustrophobic for you then Saturday night in Freo is the place to get your hawker fix.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started our adventure with a beverage at Little Creatures to watch the sun set, made our selections at the market and perched on the edge of the deck to enjoy it, feel dangling over the beach and watching the kids splashing in the water, then afterwards walked into Freo for a San Churros hot chocolate to finish off our evening in chocolatey style.

Overall, not much new to try or as much choice as elsewhere but the location made it pretty great. Perfect excuse to head into Freo for a cheap, relaxing dinner on a summers evening.

Click on the pictures to see the rest of the shots I took, on flikr.

New Year, New Inspiration

/ Katherine Howard / Leave a comment

Looking for a burst of wild inspiration for the new year? Maybe it’s time to take on something new!

Here’s a few ideas for some extracurricular things in Perth that you might be interested in taking on;

UWA extension – One of my personal favourites, you can sign up for classes in everything from cheese making to rocket science or do a course online too (languages, adobe programs and other work related skills). I did a Supervision and Management one not that long ago and it was a great experience and because it’s from UWA it looks relatively legit on the CV. Here is a link to the program to get you excited.

Central TAFE Short Courses – How does a french class after work sound? or perhaps guitar lessons or fabric screen printing? You can even learn how to sew your own knickers on monday nights. The campus is only a 5-10 minute walk from St Georges Tce.

Polytechnic West – TAFE Short Courses – These guys have a few campuses around Perth including Bentley, Victoria Park and Midland. With languages, singing, massage, art, cooking, I’m sure you’ll find something there that pikes your interest.

Challenger – TAFE Short Courses – for those of you in the south of Perth (Freo, Applecross, Bibra Lake, Murdoch, Rockingham, Mandurah) Challenger TAFE have short courses near you. A bit of an odd mix of things on offer here.

Fancy doing something creative but don’t want to be told what to do? Check out Art Jamming with The Art Things. Pippa runs workshops in the park (currently in South Perth or Kalamunda) where you can go along and throw some paint at a canvas, and dance or picnic or whatever else you want to do whilst you’re at it. Great fun.

Want to learn how to give your hunny toe curling massage? Jenny Sherwood runs workshops and classes from a her studio on Canning Hwy, Victoria Park. She’s a bit sharp but a powerful teacher. Look out for coupons/deals for this one.

How about Yoga? Yeah its excercise but if you’ve never tried it before it’s quite a learning curve. Perfect for expanding your point of view. Best yoga teacher I’ve found in Perth is Sue Byrne. runs classes throughout the week in Cannington.

Also check out scoopon et al. for deals, recently I’ve seen rock climbing, and scuba diving.

Any others I’ve missed? Send them through!

As mentioned in my previous post, I’m about to start sketching classes (enrolments open tomorrow), can’t wait!

What are you taking on in 2013?

 

 

It’s a bit sketchy

/ Katherine Howard / 2 Comments

My brain thinks that I can draw, but then when I put my hand on to the paper it appears that I actually cannot. I can see it exactly how I would like it to look, can imagine most details in my head but these ideas don’t travel from there onto the canvas. My mum is a fantastic artist and so I gues thats why I’ve always just assumed that I could.

Anyway,  I’m kicking off throwing myself and my career towards urban design/landscape architecture and a big part of that is being able to get the ideas out of my head and onto paper. I quickly realised that the ideas part isn’t my problem, which is what I was warned about when I first discussed the course with lecturers – apparently many planners like me struggle with this. Well the good news is that that is not a problem! I can be tought! I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ll probably never be one of those natually talented artists (not really talented at anything naturally..) but who knows, maybe you wont notice.

In January I’m going to enroll in Sketching and Drawing class and the TAFE near me. Then after that I’ll start learning the Adobe programs I’ll need – InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and then on to AutoCAD, after which I’ll know if its worth me starting masters :) I know I’m serious because I just cracked open a brand new Macbookpro capable of running all these fantastic peices of programming.

What fanastic new thing are you going to learn in 2013? Come drawing with me?