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Hilltop Hoods will headline the WoW Fest Concert in 2020.
They’re multiple ARIA award winners, they have half a billion global streams, they’ve racked up multiplatinum sales… and they’re coming to Geraldton.
In a huge announcement, Hilltop Hoods will make their way to Geraldton next year to headline the Wind on Water Festival (WoW Fest) Concert on Saturday 11 April 2020.
This announcement comes as the band are touring internationally as part of “The Great Expanse World Tour”, a tour that made history in this country by being the largest hip-hop tour ever from an Australian artist with more than 80,000 fans attending.
City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said the announcement was nothing short of “epic”!
“This is absolutely huge and the biggest WoW Fest headliner we’ve ever had, you really won’t want to miss this,” he said.
Joining Hilltop Hoods will be Middle Kids, Montaigne and Adrian Eagle.
With over 41 million streams, Sydney band Middle Kids has spent a large part of their time as a band touring internationally with great success.
Singer-songwriter Montaigne has also hit the scene with multiple ARIA nominations and the release of her second album Complex earlier this year.
Adrian Eagle has garnered widespread acclaim for his breakout singles 17 Again and AOK, and has revelled in a massive national and international touring schedule.
Tickets are on sale today, Friday 22 November from 7am.
The two-day event featuring the Saturday music festival will take place on the Easter long weekend on 11 and 12 April 2020.
For more information about the Festival and to purchase tickets head to www.wowfest.com.au
Christmas celebrations begin for many families with the annual Carols By Candlelight in Maitland Park. Each year over 3000 people bring their picnic baskets to enjoy the music and to celebrate the start of the holiday season.
For the Carols by Candlelight Committee, preparations for 2019 began at the beginning of the year and now we can announce some of our plans for this year’s event.
We have some amazing local and Perth based talent lined up for the stage in the park.
Our headline acts this year is AViiDA.
Paula Parore and Clay Darius formed AViiDA in 2014 and since then haven’t looked back. Both accomplished soul, R&B and blues singers in their own right, coming together as both a musical and life partnership has taken them on a journey that has given their individual and collective vocal styles a new energy.
A powerhouse duo, the pair have a varied list of local, national and International performing credits to their name, both on the theatrical and musical stage. Most recently they have starred in 2 seasons of We Will Rock You, and are currently appearing in the WA Season of CATS The Musical.
They both regularly perform in some of the best venues around Perth, and are in high demand for Corporate Events and Festivals across Australia and New Zealand
The main music will be provided by very own Geraldton City Band who will play all the classic Christmas tunes you all know and love.
This year the Carols By Candlelight theme is Unwrapping Hope. Christmas can be a tough time for people in our community however we want people to feel the joy that music can bring.
Come along and support the Carols By Candlelight on Sunday 15 December in Maitland Park.
The State Government’s recently released Recreational Vessel Safety Equipment Review Position Paper is now available for community comment and local skippers are urged to have their say.
Local Agricultural Region MLCs Darren West and Laurie Graham welcomed the paper which includes 12 proposals designed to simplify laws, making it easier for skippers to comply and save lives on the water.
Mr West said the paper, based on the first phase of consultation, has been formed with feedback from 1,239 responses to an initial online survey and with input from an external reference group representing industry and boating organisations.
It also addresses repeated recommendations from a series of coronial inquiries.
“This is a great opportunity for the local boating community to have input into the requirements governing recreational vessel safety equipment.
“We have a number of recreational boaters here in the Mid West and I encourage them to get involved in this consultation, share their experiences and have their say on the recommendations.”
Mr Graham said that recommended proposals include the compulsory wearing of lifejackets for children and by anyone on a vessel less than 4.8 metres in length, bringing WA into line with other States.
“The proposed changes also require a GPS enabled distress beacon, plus either flares or an electronic night signalling device. A marine radio will only be required when operating more than four nautical miles from shore.”
“Boating is part of community life here in Geraldton and the broader region and I know there will be members of our community who are keen to participate in this consultation.
“I strongly urge them to get involved.”
A public consultation session will be held in Geraldton on Wednesday 6 November from 5.30pm to 7pm at the Geraldton Yacht Club in Marine Terrace.
Interested community members are encouraged to attend but can also have their say online at www.transport.wa.gov.au/safetyequipmentreview before Friday 22nd November.
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Please don’t mistake this short piece as any kind of excuse for the rates we are currently charged. I can barely keep my lunch down when I see the City of Greater Geraldton using our money to employ staff to put out press releases telling us how wonderful they are for giving some of our own money back to us in the form of services and street art we never asked for.
But before I digress into a libertarian rant, the point of sitting at the keyboard tonight was to discuss the issue that is currently being thrown about on Facebook regarding rates, and specifically as to whether the recent rate rises, which have been relatively low, are justified at all.
If you cast your mind back, the CGG CEO during the time of the 27% rate increase disaster was extremely clear about the rationale behind the hike. At the time, the City explicitly told everyone it was not their fault. Rents had increased dramatically due to the property boom, and you should direct your anger at the valuer general for telling the City we were all so rich now. The ‘rate in the dollar’ hadn’t increased, our property values had just gone up so much.
Ah, wonderful. We’re wealthier, so we pay a little more. Makes sense.
Not everyone bought it, but enough did that there weren’t French Yellow-Jacket style riots in the street. I mean hey, if our incomes go up, we pay more income tax. So it seems fair, right?
Riiiiiight.
Except conveniently the narrative has now changed.
Rents and property values have PLUMMETED. You can pick up a house in virtually any suburb in Geraldton for less than 2005 prices. Not inflation adjusted less. Like ACTUALLY LESS DOLLARS. And the price falls haven’t abated. Even just last month prices kept falling by a lot in both Perth AND the regions.
So by all the logic the City used before, we should be seeing steep decreases in our rates, right?
Of course not. Because conveniently, as always, that was a different CEO and Mayor.
But here’s the catch. By the time boom-time hits again (as it eventually will but who knows when) we will likely have yet another CEO and Mayor. When property prices spike, can we expect the logic to once again reverse, and our new-found wealth being the source of large rate increases? Who will hold our current administration accountable for their rhetoric and the continued increases in the face of our present rapidly declining wealth?
No one.
Well, it’s the fact that actual costs born by the City of Greater Geraldton are in no way connected to the potential rental income of Geraldton’s inhabitants. The costs largely hinge State Government expenses like electricity prices, labour costs, and the legislative requirements as to what services a local government is required to provide.
That is to say, the State Government tells the local governments what they have to do, and what they have to pay, and then leaves them to be the bad guys collecting your rates, so you don’t realise that it’s Mark McGowan who is in charge of what your local government is allowed and not allowed to do, and what they can and cannot do to raise revenue, and how much they actually need to raise.
It gets even worse when you zoom right out. Because it’s Melissa Price and co in Canberra who have the bulk of the nation’s purse strings via income and business tax, and who get to decide where that precious GST revenue gets sent. And while they can freely cut or increase services they run as revenue waxes and wains, they in turn put demands on the States through all sorts of mechanisms to get them to keep certain standards or pass certain laws, as no Premier wants to be the guy who can’t fund the new “whatever project” because he burnt Canberra. The federal government also hands out grants like Santa Claus to local governments, boasting about providing funding to some project for this or that, as if they personally earned all that money and weren’t merely giving us back our own funds.
Before I wrap up, I don’t place the full blame at the feet of the state and federal governments. Surely the local government here, like most bureaucracies, is bloated in some areas. For example, regular businesses can’t compete with them in terms of what they pay staff. The irony that they take rates off us in order to out-compete us for the limited talent pool of staff is not lost on me.
But in this author’s opinion, the crux of the problem is not local. It’s in Perth and Canberra.
One of these two things need to happen to see any long term change:
Local governments need to stop existing altogether and just be rebranded what they really are, which is administrative departments of the state government, with the State responsible for setting and collecting land rates, and dealing with the political fallout from all that follows; or
Local governments need to be legitimate independent bodies with actual power to make decisions over their regions, raise revenue as they choose, and to live without fear that any decision they make can be quickly overridden by a tribunal in Perth completely disconnected from the goings on in the region.
As they currently exist, local governments are the perfect scape-goat and revenue raiser for Mark McGowan and Co. State Labor suffer none of the flak for our rates constantly increasing while our home values plummet, but get to dictate all the services that shall be provided AND they get to sell overpriced electricity etc to those local governments in order to extract more revenue from us. And whenever a local government does something the State Govt disapproves of, they can simply override the decision or make a quick legislative amendment and viola, the democratically elected local government’s decision is null and void. All the while, whenever someone complains that our rates keep going up, Labor politicians point to our Mayor here in Geraldton and his National Party affiliations and tell us all that that is where we should direct the voice of our dissatisfaction. Of course, I’m not saying these issues started with the Labor party. This problem of misaligned incentives wasn’t birthed with the latest incarnation of State Labor. It’s been this way for a long time.
I take my hat off to ANYONE who chooses to serve us in the the capacity of local government, state government, or federal government. Politics aside, Labor, Liberal, whatever, I have a lot of respect for all of them. It’s easy to sit in the peanut gallery and opine as to how much of a better job I could do if I wasn’t so busy watching The Politician on Netflix (great show btw).
My argument is simply that sometimes blame over particular issues we are facing may not lie at the feet of a particular individual, but more so with the way a system has been designed, and the incentives it begets.
The City of Greater Geraldton wishes to advise it will be constructing a new footpath in Karloo at the western side of Abraham Street between Aitken Place and Assen Street with works scheduled to commence on Thursday 3 October 2019 for a period of approximately three weeks.
The anticipated hours of work will be from 7 am to 6 pm and traffic management will be in place during this time.
Members of the community are requested to exercise caution and obey all warning signs and directions from authorised City personnel and contractors.
The City apologises for any inconvenience these works may cause.
If you have any queries please contact the City on (08) 9956 6600 or email council@cgg.wa.gov.au
People living with disability in Geraldton now have more options with the opening of Activ’s first new accommodation home in 30 years.
The opening of the new house will provide two Activ customers with the opportunity to move out of home and live independently.
Activ CEO Danielle Newport said the support of Activ, combined with National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) funding, meant customers could aspire to greater independence through increased participation in their community, employment opportunities and independent living.
“We’re excited to extend our service offerings in Geraldton and offer more living options for locals who live with disability,” said Ms Newport.
“With a focus on independence, we are also running an information session called ‘Achieving Independence’ in Geraldton on Monday 23 September,” she said.
Topics covered at the information session will include NDIS and funding, accommodation options, independence and how Activ can help.
Register for the information session at https://achievingindependence.eventbrite.com.au
As part of its commitment to delivering services in regional Western Australia, Activ will also hold its board meeting in Geraldton on the same day.
Fact file
Activ currently supports more than 70 individuals living with disability in Geraldton.
Among a range of other services Activ is perhaps best known for manufacturing and supplying craypots to Geraldton and the surrounding communities since the late 1980s.
Volunteers cleaning up Rum Jungle.
African boxthorn plants growing in ‘Rum Jungle’ will be re-blitzed during a follow-up collection of any remaining rubbish in the area.
On Sunday 22 September, City staff will be holding a Boxthorn Blitz Workshop on the triangular strip of Crown Land, located on the west side of Chapman Road south of Macedonia Drive.
The workshop will demonstrate best practice methods to get the small plants under control.
City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said the clean-up offered the perfect opportunity for community members to learn more about this highly invasive plant species and see demonstrations on how to keep it under control.
“African boxthorn is a very resilient plant,” he said.
“It has the ability to reshoot from old wood or seeds spread by birds who eat their fruit and it can germinate almost anywhere and under almost any condition.
“That’s why it is critical that sites where boxthorn has been removed are monitored and follow up control is undertaken to ensure the plants don’t re-establish themselves.”
Project initiator Heather Beswick said the staged clean-up continues to raise awareness around illegal dumping and the impact invasive species are having on the environment.
“Now that the majority of the rubbish has been cleaned up and the boxthorn removed the area is much lighter and easier to see into which will hopefully reduce the problem of illegal dumping,” she said.
“This community led project has really shown the broader community how our bushland is being mistreated but more importantly, how we can take ‘ownership’ of these public spaces and return them to a more natural state that everyone can enjoy.”
The small piece of Crown Land, which has been the focus of the clean-up, lies adjacent to a number of privately owned bushland lots.
“It would be fantastic to see the owners of the rest of the Rum Jungle match the community’s initiative and clean up their land which has been used as a dumping site for many years,” Mayor Van Styn added.
The City will be contacting these landowners regarding the condition of their properties.
The community clean-up of Rum Jungle will take place on Sunday 22 September 2019 from 9am to approximately 11am. Members of the community interested in taking part should wear long sleeves and pants, bring along a hat and water bottle. A barbeque will be held following the clean-up to thank volunteers for their hard work.
The onsite Boxthorn Blitz Workshop will train members of the community on how to use the Boxthorn Blitz Kits which are partially funded by the State NRM program. Anyone who can’t make the workshop but is interested in Boxthorn control can contact City of Greater Geraldton Environmental Planning Officers on 9956 6600.
The Rum Jungle clean-up began in February 2019 with the mechanical removal of highly invasive African boxthorn plants and illegally dumped car bodies and heavy whitegoods. With the assistance of the Waggrakine Volunteer Bushfire Brigade the piles of boxthorn equivalent in size to 16, 8m long shipping containers were burned on site in a controlled burn.
Walkaway Brigade Captain Brendan McCann, Mayor Shane Van Styn, the City’s Emergency Operations Officer Murray Smith, DFES Superintendent Craig Smith and City CEO Ross McKim.
Volunteers of the Walkaway Bush Fire Brigade have welcomed a brand new 3.4U fire truck which will assist in protecting the local community.
The $600,000 truck built by Frontline Fire & Rescue Equipment in Malaga was supplied to the City of Greater Geraldton by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) under the Emergency Services Levy – Local Government Scheme.
It may have been a long time coming, but the brand new 3000 litre, 4WD vehicle will now be utilised by 54 volunteers for fire management of Walkaway and the surrounding areas.
City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said the new appliance was much needed and was a crucial element of community safety.
“We know there is no one that deserves more kudos for their new vehicle than the incredible volunteers of the Walkaway Bush Fire Brigade themselves,” he said.
“They have worked professionally and persistently to absolutely demonstrate their capacity to make very good use of new resources to protect their community.
“A big thank you goes out to the volunteers for what they do for our community, it doesn’t go unnoticed.”
Early morning traffic congestion at the intersection of Cathedral Avenue and Sandford Street.
One of the busiest intersections in the CBD will be transformed into a roundabout with the assistance of government grant funding.
The City has recently secured $1.27 million in Federal Black Spot funding to build a roundabout at the corner of Cathedral Avenue and Sandford Street.
City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said the 100 percent grant funded project will improve traffic safety and the general flow of traffic in the area in alignment with CBD revitalisation plans.
“Over the years traffic congestion has steadily increased along Cathedral Avenue in the vicinity of the schools with almost 9,000 vehicles travelling through the intersection every day,” he said.
“Peak hour traffic happens around school pick-up and drop-off times with over 800 vehicles between 8-9am and nearly 1000 vehicles from 3-4pm. All while hundreds of students cross this busy stretch of road.
“Anyone trying to turn onto or off of Cathedral Avenue at the Sandford Street intersection knows how difficult and time consuming this can be.
“A roundabout at the intersection will enable drivers entering or exiting Cathedral Avenue at the intersection to do so in a quicker and safer way and provide pedestrians with a safer way to cross the road.
“The roundabout will also be the catalyst for planned improvements to the Cathedral Avenue entrance to our CBD which, along with the Rocks Laneway Project, will help revitalise of the heart of our City,” he added.
The City has also received State Government Blackspot funding to build a roundabout at the intersection of Durlacher and Maitland Streets. The design and relocation of services have been included in the 2019/20 Budget with construction planned for next financial year. The project cost is estimated at $800K of which 75% is grant funded.
“I’d like to thank both the Federal and State Governments for supporting our applications and providing the funding to build the roundabouts,” said Mayor Van Styn.
Design and construction of the roundabouts will take place over the coming months.
Watch the 3D fly through CBD Revitalisation Master Plan video below:
The City of Greater Geraldton wishes to advise ARC Infrastructure will be undertaking repairs to the rail crossing located immediately south of the Goulds Road and Southern Transport Corridor intersection on Thursday 12 September and Friday 13 September 2019.
From 6am to 6pm, Goulds Road will be closed to traffic between the Southern Transport Corridor and the Meru Waste Facility access lane with a detour in place via Edward Road and Rudds Gully Road.
Members of the community are requested to exercise caution and obey all warning signs and directions from authorised City personnel and contractors.
The City apologises for any inconvenience these works may cause.
If you have any queries please contact the City on (08) 9956 6600 or email council@cgg.wa.gov.au.
With ancestry spanning over a century in the Midwest, local man Jason Dutton is proud to see the roots of Geraldton’s maritime history firmly entwined in his family tree.
A self-confessed history buff, Jason can trace his Geraldton lineage all the way back to 1860.
There to witness the early stages of the region’s maritime, fishing and crayfish industries, the Dutton family also played a major part in establishing the beginnings of Geraldton Port.
Three generations of the Dutton line have worked on the berths, beginning with Jason’s grandfather.
“My grandfather Hugh Dutton (MM) was in shipping between his combat service in both world wars,” he said.
“After he got back from WW1 he worked as a Lumper, which is what Stevedores were called in those days, and loaded ships from the old Railway Jetty before the Port was even built.
“He then started working at the new Port when the first 2 berths were constructed in the 1930s and later berth 3, where he worked continuously until the outbreak of WW2.
“He then served in WW2 and was killed in action in 1942 while fighting in New Guinea.”
Hugh’s son, Alan Dutton, followed in his father’s footsteps and began his career at the Port in 1950.
From humble beginnings as an apprentice mechanic, Alan went on to become one of the inaugural Founding Board Members of the Geraldton Port Authority.
He worked at the Port for four decades, with 20 of those years spent on the Board.
During this time Alan also went on to complete his national service - remaining in the armed forces for two years.
But such was his love for his home town, Alan returned soon after to resume life in Geraldton, despite being offered a promotion to become a second lieutenant.
Jason said his father’s true love had always been the Port.
“My father Alan was a great man who cared very much for other people, his community and his beloved Port,” he said.
“It was the hard work and vision of people like my dad and grandfather that laid the incredibly strong foundations that remain today.”
Jason continued this legacy when in 2013 he began working in one of the Port’s Operational Crews at the Bulk Handling Facility.
In his spare time, Jason continued to delve in to his genealogy and began tracing the origins of the other side of his family.
This is when Jason discovered an even greater tie to the region’s aquaculture industry.
“It turns out my great grandfather Carl Newman was one of the pioneer rock lobster fisherman off the Geraldton coast and the Southern Group of the Abrolhos islands,” he said.
Jason also discovered further links to the armed forces – uncovering the tale of how his great grandfather would ferry sailors to and from war ships during shore leave.
“My great grandfather was the last man to ferry the sailors from the HMAS Sydney II when she came to Geraldton,” he said.
“It was only a short time later that she was sunk while in battle with the HSK Kormoran off Shark Bay.
“To this day this story is told when they do tours of the HMAS Sydney II memorial site.”
Ozone Drive-In located on the south-east corner of Blencowe and Utakarra Roads. (Photo courtesy of the State Library of Western Australia)
A range of improvements planned for Rangeway, Utakarra and Karloo this financial year will kick off with resurfacing of part of Utakarra Road.
Works will start with the section between Wandoo Street and Blencowe Road followed by the section of road between Abraham Street and Davies Road at a later date.
City of greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said investing in urban renewals in the suburbs was long overdue.
“Rangeway, Utakarra and Karloo have roads that need fixing, especially Utakarra Road that used to be the Geraldton-Mount Magnet Highway until the Southern Transport Corridor opened in December 2009,” he said.
“This year we have budgeted more than $1.6 million for road works in these suburbs of which nearly $1 million will be used to resurface sections of Utakarra, Eastward and Horwood Roads, the main east-west thoroughfare through these localities.”
The area around the resurfacing works has seen a number of changes over the years.
“Long-time residents might recall the old Ozone Drive-In located on the south-east corner of Blencowe and Utakarra Roads that opened in September 1964,” Mayor Van Styn said.
“I’d be interested in knowing if anyone attended the last films shown there, The Eiger Sanction and A Howling in the Woods, before it closed on 2 July 1977.”
Resurfacing works are scheduled to begin on Monday 16 September 2019 and will take approximately one week to complete.
The Geraldton Regional Airport runway extension was officially opened on Friday 6 September 2019 by Federal Member for Durack the Hon. Melissa Price MP, City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn (center) and Member for the Agricultural Region Hon. Laurie Graham MLC.
Recently completed upgrades to the Geraldton Regional Airport are paving the way to long-term economic growth for the City region.
City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said the $24 million resurfacing and extension of the airport runway to 2400m is part of a long-standing plan to open the region to global markets.
“The ability for larger aircraft to be accommodated at the Geraldton Airport provides an important whole-of-network role in Western Australia aviation, tourism and export industries,” he said.
“The significance of this upgrade was recognised long before the works were completed when in April, the Geraldton Airport was named as an alternative emergency landing site for international flights unable to land in Perth.
“Now that larger aircraft such as the Airbus A330 or Boeing 787 can land here, the region has become more accessible to both the interstate and international tourism industries.
“Whilst larger planes mean new airfreight export opportunities directly into Asia can now be explored.”
Construction on the $24 million Airport Runway Resurfacing and Extension Project was undertaken by locally based contractor WBHO. The project was jointly funded with the Australian Government Building Better Regions Fund (BBRF) contributing $10 million, the State Government Regional Airports Development Scheme (RADS) $6.5 million and the City $7.5 million.
The City of Greater Geraldton wishes to advise beach maintenance of the CBD Foreshore between the Dome Café and Forrest Street will be undertaken on Monday 9 September 2019.
Members of the community are requested to exercise caution and obey all warning signs and directions from authorised City personnel and contractors.
The City apologises for any inconvenience these works may cause.
If you have any queries please contact the City on (08) 9956 6600 or email council@cgg.wa.gov.au.
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