KEEP THE BLOODY NOISE DOWN!

It’s Thursday. It’s hot. We need to get out of our homes and get some cold drinks. Freo, here we come!

Thankfully they have opened the bar inside the Old Courthouse, where the AC is keeping it pleasantly cool, but within minutes two people are making very loud sound checks for the Blues night that is starting in two hours. It’s annoying, so we reluctantly go sit outside, where it is still hot at 5.15pm, but at least we get some reprieve from the noise, or so we thought.

We have fifteen minutes of peace, but then a good musician starts his gig under the tree, but he is way too loud! Why don’t musicians understand the difference between a huge concert in front of thousands, and a pub gig in front of fewer than twenty people, who came to socialise and talk with friends, and why do pub owners not insist they turn the sound down? We leave, although we wanted to have dinner and more drinks there.

It is also very quiet at The Federal, so we order drinks, to realise too late that piped music is blasting out of the speakers. It is unbearably loud. We sit just one metre away from each other, but can’t hear what we are saying. We finish the one drink, have no meal again, and wander off in the hope to find a quiet space.

Let’s try The National. We have not been there for quite some time, so up the stairs we walk to find a true oasis. It is wonderfully cool, the music is just distant in the background, and the two young ladies behind the bar are very friendly.

We stay and chat, order more drinks and spicy squid and yummy pork belly. We are the only patrons inside the upstairs bar, with just another five people on the balcony, but this is bliss.

My mate Bob texted me when he got home, to say, let’s go to the National again next week.

So dear publicans, there is a message here for you. Many of us want to have a good talk when we go out, and we don’t want to have to yell at each other to be understood. Keep the bloody noise down, no matter how good the music might be!

When we walk along the Cappuccino Strip on our way home, many more people are now out and about and Fremantle feels fun, so hopefully the hospitality venues are doing better than when we were there. It is clear that the first four days of the week are a struggle to get patrons, so look after us better and turn the music down.

Roel Loopers

HIGH VOLTAGE TRAFFIC SHOCK

Road closures will be in place in Fremantle next Sunday 7 May from 10am to midnight for the High Voltage event, that will attract thousands of people to Freo:

10am–midnight: South Terrace (Cappuccino Strip) / Market St to High St (full road closure)
10.30am–6pm: South Terrace (full road closure and parking restrictions)
10.30am–6pm: Norfolk Street (full road closure)
10.30am–6pm: Parry Street (full road closure)
11am–5.30pm: Wray Ave (full road closure)
11.30am–6pm: Douro Road (full road closure)
11.30am–6pm: Marine Terrace (full road closure and parking restrictions)

There will also be residential road closures with no vehicle access from 11am to 6pm in following streets:Douro, Arundel, Bannister, Collie, Essex, Gold, Grey, Howard and Little Howard, Nairn, Norfolk, Pakenham, Price, Russell, Silver, Scott, Suffolk streets. There will also be partial road closures in many other streets.

So basically the great event will be a serious traffic nightmare for those who don’t use public transport, but busses will also be impacted by all those road closures.

There will be three live music zones from 1-6pm, at Fremantle Oval, Wilson Park and the Esplanade, as well as along the roads on South Terrace, with bands playing on the back of trucks.

More than 50 performances along 5km. Roving festival street circuit across three hubs. Australian musical acts, including Diesel, Body Type, Cash Savage and the Last Drinks and Eddie Perfect to perform songs made famous by AC/DC frontman Bon Scott throughout streets of Fremantle.

If you have any concerns or questions contact info@highvoltagewa.com.au or call 0409833 405.

I am looking forward to the spectacle, and as a person who lives in the inner city, I am feeling privileged that traffic does not concern me.

Come to Freo for a great day out-it’s free!-but leave your car at home!

Roel Loopers

CONVERSATION FRIENDLY PARLAPA

Great to see that Ada Guglielmino of Freo’s Parlapa cafe in William Street, has reacted to my Roel’s Round column in the Fremantle Herald and blog post here on Freoview, about the excessive noise in many hospitality venues.

Ada has put a sign on the door stating that they are a Conversation Friendly cafe. Well done!

Parlapa is across from the Townhall, next to the yellow Good Sammy’s, and just around the corner from the High Street mall. It serves delicious Italian food.

Roel Loopers

HOSPITALITY CONVERSATION FRIENDLY CAMPAIGN

Many Fremantle hospitality venues have stickers on their doors or windows to announce that they are dog friendly, so what about also starting a campaign to let people know that venues are conversation friendly?

So many people, and no, not just the older ones, complain about the excessive noise in cafes, pubs and restaurants, so why is the hospitality industry not listening?

A friend who visited from Lismore thanked staff at Chalkys cafe that they did not play loud boom-boom music and that he, his wife and I actually could have a proper conversation. A well-known North Freo resident and former Fremantle Councillor walked out of Gage Roads on the weekend because the loud music noise was unbearable.

I fondly remember the good old days in those wonderful old cafes in Vienna and German cities, where background music was soft and wonderful classical music, instead of the crap and rap we are subjected to nowadays.

Since I got hearing aids just over a year ago the ambient noise in venues has become even more of a problem, especially since there are so many venues with hard surfaces, where noise bounces around and increases. People start talking louder because they can’t hear each other, so that makes the noise problem worse.

When cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants are full with people there is no need for loud music at all, so pipe it down, and please only quality music. Cafes are not discos!

Roel Loopers

FREMANTLE NO GO TO DINGO CAMPAIGN

Concerned residents and property owners in the Fremantle Pakenham Street area have started a No Go To Dingo poster campaign. They are concerned about the proposed two-storey Dingo Brewery tavern at 47 Pakenham Street, next to and opposite residential living, and fear it will have a big negative impact on their lifestyle.

Plans have been lodged with the City of Fremantle and will be considered in the next few weeks.

Roel Loopers

DOES FREO CBD LIVING MEAN SUCK IT UP PRINCESS?

The proposed development of the Dingo tavern in Fremantle’s Pakenham Street has created a bit of debate in the community, with some people arguing that one has to put up with it because it is in the Central Business District. You live in the CBD, so suck it up, princess? I don’t believe that is reasonable or fair.

The argument that these NIMBYS are the ones who also opposed the Esplanade skate park, and presumed it would become a centre for drug dealing and antisocial behaviour, but that turned out not to be the case, is flawed. One person commented that one cannot presume that noise will become an issue at the proposed development, until the pub is open. That is nonsense. The skate park was a one off and unknown, so a few people wrongly presumed the worst, but we all hear and read the reports of what is going on in Northbridge, and it’s not pretty, and certainly not something I would like to see repeated in Fremantle.

Pubs are noisy. Doof-Doof music penetrates walls, no matter how much sound proofing has been installed, and even more so when there are alfresco areas, open windows, so the noise of people speaking and laughing loudly becomes a nuisance for neighbours.

But from my own daily experience of living in the inner city, it is the noise from inebriated patrons leaving licensed premise that wakes one up. The noise of people screaming, fighting, loud laughing, very loud talking, car doors slamming when patrons are being picked up by taxis or Ubers, etc. can be highly annoying, and it interrupts one’s sleep. I was aware that this was likely to happen before I moved here, so I accept that, the same as I accepted the noise of the freight trains and port activities when I lived in one of the Pilots’ Cottages at Arthur’s Head.

But when one has bought an expensive apartment in a predominantly residential street, even when that street is in the CBD, one should not have to accept unacceptable noise, antisocial behaviour, or inappropriate development.

And one more thing to note. Noise from pubs does not only happen during business hours. One only has to walk past some of them early in the mornings, when cleaners have the music on very high, or the kitchen staff wants to be invigorated during early morning pre-prep for the lunch and dinner trade.

Roel Loopers

WHAT ABOUT THE NOISE, FREMANTLE?

As a highly opinionated, know-it-all, up himself, and absolutely perfect human being I am entitled to be a grumpy old fool at the ripe age of 73 now and then, so here is my whinge:

What is it about noise, and the apparent lack of regulations about it, City of Fremantle? I love living in the inner city and I absolutely accept that inner city living comes with the noise of people coming to entertainment venues, etc. BUT, it is really necessary to twice test the siren at Fremantle Oval at 6am on a Saturday morning, when the AFLW Dockers game is only in the afternoon?

And why do other LGAs have restrictions on when streetsweepers can start in the morning, but we in inner city Freo get woken up by them at 3.30am on many mornings?

A bit of consideration goes a long way.

Roel Loopers

NO COUNCIL LOVE FOR DARLING PARKLET

It appears that the owners of the cosy Darling Darling bar in Fremantle’s Henry Street won’t get support from Fremantle Council to install a parklet in the road. The item is on the FPOL Committee agenda this Wednesday and the officers recommend to not approve it:

1. Rejects the application for a parklet permit for 1/36 Henry Street, Fremantle.
2. Request officers review and update the parklet policy to include controls surrounding the proposed use of parklets for liquor licencing.

Elected Members and local residents are concerned about noise levels, due to the consumption of alcohol, and that Darling Darling wants to operate seven days a week from 12 midday till 12 midnight.

Freo City estimates the loss of parking revenue would be $ 16,000 per year if the parklet takes over parking bays.

Councilors have also expressed that when they started encouraging parklets just over a decade ago, when the Moore and Moore cafe became the first hospitality venue in Fremantle with a parklet, the intent was not for licensed premises.

Roel Loopers

ARUNDEL COURT RESIDENTS LIVING UNDER SIEGE

Residents of Arundel Court, the highrise opposite Fremantle Hospital, are the victims of the incompetence of the WA Communities Department, the public mental health system, and the powerlessness of the Strata company that manages the building.

For many months a tenant of a Communities department unit in the complex has been engaging daily, day and night, in antisocial behaviour. The tenant, who has schizophrenia, bangs extremely loud on walls and kitchen benches, so that the sound reverberates from his Level 3 apartment through the building and vibrates in the apartments adjacent to him.

WA Police have attended, many complaints have been made by many residents to the Strata company and the Communities Department, but to no avail. I live in the unit above the aggressive tenant and emailed Minister Simone McGurk’s Fremantle office early this week, but did not even receive a reply from them.

The noise is affecting our mental and physical health, because we don’t get uninterrupted nights of sleep, and quite a few women in the building feel unsafe and feel disgusted, having to listen to the loud and violent screaming of four-letter words, addressed at imaginary women. It’s disgusting, even for an old bloke like me! This troubled man is not fit to live in a high density environment.

The Strata company has issued the noisy tenant with ‘tenancy breaches’ but they told the property owners AGM that they are more or less powerless, because Communities have their own rules dealing with disruptive tenants.

Christmas is coming and many of us in Arundel Court fear that it will be noisy, nasty and violent, because that is what the noise is. We are under siege! The man needs urgent management of his mental health, because his condition could escalate into self harm or harming residents of the building.

The status quo is not acceptable. We have the right to the quiet comfort of our home, and the wait a while attitude of the Communities Department is not good enough. We demand action, Simone McGurk. NOW!

Roel Loopers

ELLEN STREET RESIDENTS NOT HAPPY WITH FREMANTLE PARK CLUBS

Ellen Street residents have contacted me and told me the complaints by the Fremantle Park clubs that they can’t play live music because the 83 decibel permitted is too low, is incorrect. The residents are quite outraged that what they predicted before the building was constructed is now reality. Here is what they wrote to me:

It is not correct, however, to suggest the existing noise restrictions (which were very sensibly imposed on the Club’s liquor licence by the Licensing Authority when it was granted in early 2020) “prevents them from engaging wedding bands and live music”.  There is live music playing at the venue all the time – like every single week!  This includes 5-piece and 6-piece rock bands etc – just see the Workers Club’s own website.  

So the reality is the current noise restrictions are working precisely as they were intended, because:

(a) It provides some restriction on the Club from hosting very large concerts and raucous parties (eg hiring it out for 21^st birthdays with DJs etc), especially late in the night on Fri, Sat, Sun (it is not a tavern or hotel!)

(b) But still absolutely allows it to host live music (including bands) which has been happening under the current conditions every single week, particularly the Workers Club

(c) And yet also provides at least some noise and disturbance mitigation for the row of residences that are directly across the road (due to very close proximity this new facility was nonsensically built right across from the residents).

So for the very clear reasons in (a)-(c) above, in answer to the question you posed in your post: the status quo noise restrictions are the solution!

The Ellen St residents will not stand by and be ignored again this time around (the lesson has been learned).  They have banded together and engaged expert liquor licensing and litigation solicitors and will be fighting this hard if required.  We are sick of the ‘little man’ (and ratepayers!) being ignored.

(1) Functions are not properly managed.  This is no doubt because you don’t have the money to employ the appropriate staff.  For example, now people are always smoking right in front of our residences (‘outside’ the Community Centre).  Some ‘No Smoking’ signs have been placed on the walls, but routinely ignored (by Club Members, let alone Visitors).  Patrons are never ‘policed’.

(2) The facility now draws significantly more traffic (cars and pedestrian) right in front of our residences.  This is particularly disturbing in the evenings, early mornings, and on weekends.  Fortunately, the liquor licensing authority had the good sense to impose noise restriction conditions at the time the Club’s license was granted, to help mitigate the significant adverse impact on the neighbouring residents’ quiet enjoyment of their homes (any suggestion that the Club may seek to have these subsequently removed is unacceptable).

(3) Serving alcohol (especially if large gatherings or functions) leads to unruly, loud, and other anti-social behaviour spilling out right in front of our residences when patrons come and go.  This is particularly disturbing in the evenings, as the noise of people ‘loitering’ out the front (e.g., chatting with each other, waiting for taxis/Ubers, or just hanging around) travels straight into our residences.  This is unwelcome and affects our quiet enjoyment.  We have families trying to sleep.

(4) Bands regularly perform at the facility.  This is currently permitted but subject to certain noise levels set by Liquor Licensing to be mindful of neighbouring residents.  We have no appetite for those noise levels to be allowed to be raised or change.

We even told the Council the following in clear correspondence well before ground was ever broken:

“The problem we have is that just having the 3 clubs highlight their preferred position, does not take into account the neighbouring residents. The new building doesn’t have to be on the corner.  It could easily be built in the location of the current tennis club and this would meet all of the objectives of the 3 clubs whilst also being sensitive to the neighbouring residents. A very simple resolution like that would go a long way to setting up relations the right way from the start.  Instead, the Council have just gone on “the preferred position of the clubs” without any sensible engagement with us along the lines we have described.  This will no doubt cause problems down the track, and of course it looks like we’ll have to wait for that fall out (and the horse has bolted) because there isn’t enough sensible engagement or foresight exercised at the start.”

I well remember architect Murray Slavin suggesting the building should be on the corner of Ellen and Parry streets and others suggesting to put in further north of the tennis courts, but now the residents are the victims, as they feared and predicted.

Roel Loopers