What a year it has been!

From the Chair: Paige McNeil, Save Perth Hills

Twelve months on and 20 years in the making… we continue to fight to Save the Perth Hills from irresponsible housing developments like Satterley’s North Stoneville (SP34), which are dangerous to our lives and destructive to our environment.

Here’s a re-cap of our extraordinary year – and our plans ahead, which are all thanks to YOU, and your incredible support.

✅ COMMUNITY OPPOSITION: - Almost 1,000 public submissions – in just 3 weeks (unprecedented numbers) - Over 1,000 people rally - April 7, Mundaring Sculpture Park - 1,200 people attend the 27 August Council Meeting (unprecedented numbers) - 250 march on the Anglican Church’s Synod in October - Stoneville Parkerville Progress Association (Ratepayers’ and residents’ group) - Mundaring Residents and Ratepayers Progress Association - Susannah Brook Catchment Group - Thousands of FaceBook supporters, and; - Hundreds of you have sent letters, emails and messages to express your personal opposition

✅ POLITICAL OPPOSITION – ALL SIDES:

- Matthew Hughes – MLA State Labor - Kalamunda - Hon. Ken Wyatt - Federal Liberal - Hasluck - Mike Nahan - Liberal MLA and Opposition Planning spokesman - Matthew Swinburn - Labor MLC East Metro - Charles Smith - Independent MLC - Tim Clifford - Greens WA MLC - Donna Faragher - Liberal MLC and former State Planning Minister - Terry Redman - WA Nationals leader - Alyssa Hayden - MLA State Liberal - Darling Range

✅ LOCAL GOVERNMENT OPPOSITION:

- City of Swan - Unanimous Mundaring Shire Council vote that the WA Planning Commission (WAPC) refuse SP34 because of (but not limited to): • Inadequate road infrastructure to safely evacuate potentially 11,000 residents during an emergency such as fire: 4,000+ from proposed North Stoneville, 2,000 from proposed North Parkerville, plus existing communities of Stoneville and Parkerville comprising 5,000 people (2016 ABS Census) • Non-compliance with State Planning Bush Fire Policy 3.7 • Inadequate road infrastructure to ensure general road safety • Unproven privately-owned sewerage plant and potential ground-water contamination risks and our pristine water catchments • Zero public transport • Hills’ environmental destruction to a recognised International Biodiversity Hotspot • Financial impacts for existing ratepayers to fund roads and infrastructure (Mundaring and Swan) • Misalignment with long-established Hills’ culture, social fabric and amenity • Poor (to zero) community consultation

☞ Land-owner, the Anglican Diocese of Perth , refuses to meet us despite our continued requests. We’ll keep trying. Premier Mark McGowan has been ‘unavailable’ to meet us. WAPC has advised that SP34 is so complex that a decision will be delayed until ‘sometime’ in 2020. Planning Minister Rita Saffioti says she has no role in the WAPC process. But we have uncovered potential and perceived conflicts with some WAPC members, and the Anglican Church and Satterley.

☞ We are asking the WA Ombudsman for judgement and advice. If the Planning Minister can’t stop what’s considered to be a dangerous and destructive Structure Plan, by politicians on all sides, (State and Federal) by almost 1000 community members who put in writing their concerns, and 1200+ at the August 27th Special Council meeting, (possibly the largest ever held in Australia), THEN WHO CAN?

☞ We have asked Ms Saffioti (Dec 7) to tell us, as a matter of urgency.

As you can see, our fight is far from over.

On behalf of the Save Perth Hills committee I thank you for your continued support and I wish you all a safe and Merry Christmas.

In 2020 I promise our voices will continue to be heard - very loudly indeed. Keep Saving Perth Hills!

Pub Test #5

After 4 pub tests, we were feeling sort of confused and groggy… but this heatwave has got us back to the bar with Pub Test #5. This evening, we ask you good punters… does Mr Peter Ciemitis, Principal at RobertsDay and member of the Government’s State Design Review Panel pass the pub test?

This is what we know about Peter...

RobertsDay is engaged by Satterley Property Group on North Stoneville. In fact, Peter is credited with doing the URBAN DESIGN for Structure Plan 34 (AKA North Stoneville)… BUT THEN… what does the State Design Review Panel do, you may ask?

Excerpt from www.dplh.wa.gov.au/sdrp 👇 “The State Design Review Panel is a multi-disciplinary panel of highly-experienced built environment professionals from industry and government that provides ☞INDEPENDENT☜ advice on the design quality of major development proposals. Chaired by Government Architect Geoff Warn, the newly-appointed design review panel provides advice to government agencies, decision-makers and proponents, including the WA Planning Commission.”

A few of you might recognise Peter… He popped up the hill on July 7 to attend the Satterley ‘drop in day’. He also attended the 27th August *Special Council meeting* when our Councillors - and locals, delivered a unanimous NO to North Stoneville AND, earlier this year, Peter took an active role during a high level Save Perth Hills committee meeting with Satterley’s most senior execs regarding North Stoneville.

Does this ☝️ PASS the Pub Test?

References: https://www.dplh.wa.gov.au/sdrp https://www.robertsday.com.au/people/peter-ciemitis/ https://satterley.com.au/documents-and-media/documents/wa/north-stoneville/north-stoneville-sp34-applicants-report.pdf

Hundreds of Hills’ residents power-less in record heatwave

Western Power had advised it was unable to restore power, possibly, until Monday, for residents in Gidge, Mahogany Creek and other areas. Mundaring Town Centre was off grid today.

We appreciate and accept the reasons - we just can’t afford to risk igniting a fire in these conditions.

HOWEVER...

This demonstrates - yet again - the madness of

proposed developments, like North Stoneville, to introduce thousands more people, into challenging, bushfire prone regions like the Perth Hills.

The environment simply can’t support developments of this scale which would put thousands more at risk of fire... not to mention the impact on the proposed ‘electric’ wastewater sewerage solution...

Local Swan Hills MP Jessica Shaw has released this statement. We remind Ms. Shaw, (who has chosen to disassociate herself on the North Stoneville issue), that these ‘un-expected consequences’ are just part of why this community - and Mundaring Council, says this development - and others like it, must not proceed - until our leaders, politicians, planners and community are very clear on safe and appropriate development in our volatile and challenging regions.

LENGTHY POWER OUTAGES FOR GIDGEGANNUP: Jessica Shaw MLA

Western Power has contacted me to advise that there is a power outage currently affecting 223 residents in Gidgegannup. It is expected to last for a prolonged period, on account of the extreme weather conditions and fire risk.

Western Power have a helicopter up patrolling the hundreds of kilometers of lines, to attempt to locate the fault, but due to the "catastrophic" fire conditions and vehicle movement ban, it is not currently safe to send line crews out into hazardous farm and bushland areas, to search for the fault on the ground.

The power cannot be 're-routed' until the fault has been found - any spark could ignite a fire, so they MUST find the cause of the outage.

People have suggested that fire trucks could accompany line crews. Whilst this might sound like an easy solution, vehicle movement bans are imposed for good reasons and are not taken lightly.

The crew and fire vehicles themselves could cause a fire. Even if a VBFB truck accompanied a crew, there remains a very real risk, in these weather conditions, that any fire could get away.

This would risk the lives of the line crews and our fireys, in addition local residents and homes.

As I'm sure we're all also aware, a lot of our crews are also out at the moment responding to fires in Yanchep and Bullsbrook.

Western Power and the BoM are constantly monitoring weather conditions, to determine when it is safer to dispatch ground crews.

Western power have advised me that the outage may be lengthy - it could be days, given the prevailing weather conditions over the weekend.

Western Power will continue to assess whether it is possible to send crews out - they fully understand what a significant impact this has on our homes and businesses, are doing all they can and looking at all options to restore power.

I know this can be very frustrating, but if you live on a country property or in a semi-rural area (and as part of your normal fire planning) you need to prepare for power outages - particularly in fire and extreme weather conditions.

Protection settings on power lines are stricter in high danger weather periods, to guard against sparks causing fires. This means they are more sensitive and prone to outage - a simple spark could start a fire, so Western Power is understandably cautious about line operations and does all it can to guard against this risk.

Power lines are often also lost in fire events, irrespective of the ignition source.

If you live in a rural or bush area, and require 100% power supply reliability, it is prudent to ensure that you have standby generation - particularly if you are not on scheme water and rely on electric pumps for water supply.

I will continue to post any information that is provided to me by Western Power with respect to this outage, and have been in regular contact with them to convey resident's concerns. I will also request information about the cause of this outage and will make it available as soon as possible. As a Hills resident myself for over 13 years, I do appreciate how frustrating this can be.

For more information on fire readiness, visit:

https://www.dfes.wa.gov.au/firechat/Pages/default.htm

Compensation is also available for prolonged outages:

https://westernpower.com.au/faults-outages/make-a-claim/customer-damage/

Visit the link below to keep up to date on outage information:

https://westernpower.com.au/faults-outages/power-outages-map/