Press - 17 - 20 July 2009
The AUSTRALIAN 20 July 2009
Stuck in Triffids
BY GRAHAM LEECH (Strewth)
THE stink over West Australian Premier Colin Barnett's role in the stoush over the jarrah mansion where post-punk band the Triffids composed and recorded many of their songs might have been too much for him to bear. Barnett has strenuously rejected the allegation he helped The Cliffe's owner, Mark Creasy, get a demolition licence. "The people who are making the complaints are former fans, or groupies or roadies of the Triffids," Barnett says. "It's not about Colin Barnett, it's not about my son Russell Barnett, it's not about the heritage value of the house, it's not about the parliament. It's about the Triffids ... Don't you get it? It's about the Triffids." Barnett was last seen boarding the red-eye special to China.
News.com.au 19 July 2009
West Australian Premier takes on
fans of The Triffids
BY WARRICK STANLEY (AAP)
• Premier referred to corruption watchdog
• Removed heritage listing of band house
• Says complainants are 'former groupies'
IT was the week when West Australian politics rocked to an unexpected and unlikely revival of eighties band The Triffids.
And the group didn't have to make a comeback or play a note to earn reviews.
Those unfamiliar with The Triffids might recognise them by their much played single Wide Open Road from the album Born Sandy Devotional, which was the subject of an episode of SBS's Great Australian Albums.
Last year they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Much more recently, they and all who sail with them found themselves in the bad books of West Australian Premier Colin Barnett.
Mr Barnett last week revealed he was the victim of a complaint to the state's Corruption and Crime Commission by a supporter of The Triffids.
The complaint objected to the removal of a heritage listing on the home where the band used to practise and compose their songs.
It bordered "somewhere between mischievous, malicious and even criminal", Mr Barnett said.
The complainant, later revealed to be Sydney public servant Brian Waldron, told the watchdog that Mr Barnett had a conflict of interest in recommending the lifting of a heritage listing on The Cliffe, the old Perth home of two of The Triffids, the late Dave McComb and his brother Robert.
Mr Barnett and former Labor heritage minister Michelle Roberts last year persuaded parliament to remove the property from the heritage register.
Mr Waldron said the conflict arose in the fact that Mr Barnett's son Russell chaired a company in which the owner of the The Cliffe, millionaire prospector Mark Creasy, was a shareholder.
Mr Barnett, while approving of a Triffids song he was played by the ABC, did not hold his powder when asked what he thought about the allegations of misconduct levelled against him.
He said it was a desperate attempt by Triffids hangers-on to save The Cliffe and had nothing to do with an investigation by the corruption watchdog into himself and Mrs Roberts.
"The people who are making the complaints are former fans, or groupies or roadies of The Triffids," Mr Barnett said.
"It's not about Colin Barnett, it's not about my son Russell Barnett, it's not about the heritage value of the house, it's not about the parliament.
"It's about The Triffids! It's about the Triffids! Don't you get it? It's about the Triffids!"
The AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW - 19 July 2009
Mining magnate calls it a day on
Triffids’ house
The Row over a rundown Perth house continues writes JULIE-ANNE SPRAGUE
Millionaire mining industry identity Mark Creasy has had enough. He’s selling the dilapidated mansion The Cliffe built in 1894 and overlooking the Swan Rover in Perth’s exclusive Peppermint Grove after a 14-year battle to bulldoze the rundown birthplace of 1980s rock band The Triffids.
Despite winning a demolition order after the home was removed from the state’s heritage register last year, a small yet vocal group of fans of The Triffids have soured Mr Creasy’s redevelopment plans.
The reclusive Mr Creasy – worth more than $200 million – issued a statement to the press this week, angry at suggestions that Premier Colin Barnett had acted inappropriately when he successfully moved a motion in state parliament to have The Cliffe removed from the heritage register.
The removal set a precedent but left fans of The Triffids fuming.
It emerged during the week that one of those fans, Sydney public servant Brian Waldron, had taken his grievances all the way to the state’s powerful Corruption and Crime Commission. He alleged to the CCC that Mr Barnett’s son, Russell might have benefited from the Premier’s success last year in removing The Cliffe from the state’s heritage register.
Russell Barnett chairs a pharmaceutical-turned-ophthalmology business, Freedom Eye, of which Mr Creasy is the single largest shareholder.
Mr Creasy came out firing, issuing a statement defending the Premier, denying he was an associate of Russell Barnett’s and questioning how the Premier’s son could possibly benefit from the de-listing. Both Russell Barnett and Mr Creasy say they don’t know each other and have never spoken to one another regarding Freedom Eye or The Cliffe.
A frustrated Premier labelled the complaint as mischievous, malicious, false and misleading. It had nothing to do with heritage and everything to do with groupies of The Triffids, he said.
Mr Creasy has been patiently trying to resolve the issue after buying the property for $2.7 million in 1995. A spokesman for Mr Creasy, Paul Armstrong, said he had wanted to do the “right thing by everyone” and had waited for various parties to find solution to save the property – which he himself was not interested in restoring.
After waiting for the outcome of an application to have The Cliffe emergency-listed on the national heritage register, which recently failed, Mr Armstrong said Mr Creasy would seek independent valuations and put the property up for sale to those interested in returning the property to its former glory.
“Obviously if it becomes clear that he is not going to get a buyer then he may as well push on [with plans to redevelop].” Mr Armstrong said. “But no one can complain about that because he will have given everyone plenty of opportunity.”
The mansion has sat vacant for more than a decade and is on almost 5000 square metres of prime land. Built by timber businessman Neil McNeil in 1894 as a showpiece of jarrah construction, it was later owned by the parents of The Triffids band members Robert and David McComb (the latter died in 1999).
The Triffids became an international success in the 1980s with hit songs such as Wide Open Road and were last year inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Whether the CCC complaint turns into a full-blown inquiry is unlikely to be resolved until parliament resumes mid-August, after the CCC referred it to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Grant Woodhams, who must decide if the matter will be dealt with by a parliamentary privileges committee.
But the saga will not end there. Ms Watson [Greens MLC – Giz Watson] has taken the rare step of moving to rescind parliament’s decision to remove The Cliffe from the heritage register.
The local government shire that is home to The Cliffe will consider options to save it, ranging from spending and estimated $7.5 million to buy it from Mr Creasy to relocating the house.
The AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW – The Prince - 19 July 2009
Some Cliffe-hanging action for Creasy
Perth rock kicker Mark Creasy is no party animal – he prefers prospecting in the bush instead.
But besides investing in scores of exploration companies, for years he’s also been a shareholder in a Perth pharmaceutical outfit called Freedom Eye that has the noble aim of curing cancer. (He says he worked underground at asbestos mine in the 1960s and is keen to see a treatment for mesothelioma).
That shareholding has given him grief because of a brouhaha over Premier Colin Barnett’s campaign last year, while in opposition, to remove Creasy’s 1890s-era Peppermint Grove mansion, The Cliffe, from the state’s heritage register. In allegations sent to the WA Corruption and Crime Commission, Barnett is alleged to have acted on Creasy’s behalf in an attempt to benefit his son, Russell Barnett, Freedom Eye’s chairman.
It’s a little unclear how Russell might have benefited, but Creasy hasn’t pocketed much from his Freedom Eye investments. The prospector has 12.5 million shared, or 4.4 percent of the company.
Back in 2003, his Yandal Investments held 6.5 million shares, worth about $1 million when the stock peaked at 17¢ that year amid much excitement over the company’s hopes to treat mesothelioma.The excitement has faded. Creasy’s shares are now worth just over $37,000 and the share price is hovering this past week at a record low of 0.3¢. The wave of publicity for Freedom Eye during the week was enough to drive up volumes and the shares soared 33 percent on Thursday… to 0.4¢
Fremantle Herald - 18 July 2009
Dowson blasts premier over
heritage claims
BY JENNY D’ANGER
Fremantle deputy mayor John Dowson has accused premier Colin Barnett of “making false statements” about the heritage value of an old home known as The Cliffe.
He says the premier made “false claims” that when Mark Creasy – a major investor in a company owned by Mr Barnett’s son – bought The Cliffe it wasn’t registered.
“The truth is when Mr Creasy bought the place in 1995 [it] had already been listed by the National Trust in 1984 and listed on the National Estate in 1992.
"More significantly, a Conservation Order, stop work in nature, and something rarely used, was issued by the heritage council on 3 July 1995 to provide protection… Mr Creasy did not become owner of the place until 17 July 1995.”
A 2001 state interim listing was made permanent in 2005 before the Peppermint Grove home’s removal from the WA heritage register by former Labor minister Michelle Roberts.
Mr Barnett, whose Cottesloe electorate includes North Frematle, has been embroiled in controversy all week over his alleged role in getting The Cliffe removed from the register, clearing a path for its demolition.
Cr Dowson says the premier is also peddling a line the home is falling apart when experts tell a different story.
Mr Barnett last week told ABC listeners, ‘it’s dilapidated, the place is a wreck”, “despite the latest assessment of the place done for the Shire of Peppermint Grove which concludes the place is of ‘exceptional significance’, “ Cr Dowson said.
“There is no higher level of significance available to heritage experts doing assessments.
“We have enough problems in this state protecting our history without the premier continuing to make false statements.”
Mr Barnet’s office declined to comments.
The West Australian 18 July 2009
Premier welcomes Cliffe inquiry
BY ROBERT TAYLOR
Premier Colin Barnett said yesterday he would welcome a privileges committee inquiry into The Cliffe affair because his accusers would have to give evidence under oath.
A claim that Mr Barnett had the 115-year-old Peppermint Grove house removed from the Sate Heritage register to benefit his son Russell’s business relationship with The Cliffe owner Mark Creasy has been referred by the Corruption and Crime Commission to Legislative Assembly Speaker Grant Woodhams.
The Speaker said this week he had the choice of taking the complaint directly to the powerful privileges committee for investigation or table it and let the House decide what to do with it.
Mr Barnett said either decision was OK by him.
“If it goes to a privileges committee… the interesting dimension of that is the people making the accusations will be required to give their evidence under oath and I look forward to that,” he said.
The Weekend AUSTRALIAN 18-19 July 2009
Property stays condemned
THIS week West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has been the focus of a fight over the rare jarrah mansion where post-punk band the Triffids rehearsed, composed and recorded more than 70 songs. Barnett has dismissed as baseless an allegation he did the wrong thing in helping The Cliffe's wealthy owner, Mark Creasy, get a demolition licence for the house. Out of curiosity on Tuesday the Premier ventured on to YouTube to have a look at the Triffids performing Wide Open Road, which he described as a nice song. We gather he didn't click on a clip for the band's lesser-known hit Property is Condemned
POST Newspapers 18 July 2009
Barnett hanging over The Cliffe edge
BY ROMY RANALLI
The long-running Cliffe drama is threatening to ensnare Premier and Cottesloe MP Colin Barnett in a drawn-out investigation.
Allegations of “serious misconduct”, two damning words used by Corruption and Crime commissioner Len Roberts-Smith QC about The Cliffe saga, are ticking like a time bomb for both sides of Parliament.
Mr Barnett went on the front foot this week, revealing he was the subject of a complaint to the CCC over his role in the de-listing of The Cliffe.
He attacked the people who have lodged the complaint as mischievous rock band groupies.
But this is the first time the corruption watchdog has referred a matter of serious misconduct to Parliament for investigation.
Mr Roberts-Smith says the CCC has assessed the allegations and made further enquiries.
“The commission ... has formed the view that the allegations raised against Mr Barnett and Ms Roberts (former Labor Heritage Minister Michelle Roberts) are of serious misconduct,” Mr Roberts-Smith said.
“It is alleged that Mr Barnett wanted to assist the owner of The Cliffe, Mr Mark Creasy, in order to benefit his son, Mr Russell Barnett, who is said to have business links to Mr Creasy,” he said.
Mr Barnett has vehemently denied the allegation, saying the complaints are spurious, fictitious, false and misleading.
He said he son did not even know about The Cliffe until the complaint was received.
The Premier said he was defending the private property rights of a constituent who had asked for his help.
The CCC had basically put no resources into investigating the complaint, instead simply referring it to Parliament, he said.
The complaint was lodged by Brian Waldron, a friend of the 1980’s rock band The Triffids who lived and recorded in the house.
Mr Barnett says the complainant wants to continue boyhood memories of the 80s rock band The Triffids.
A demolition licence for the pioneering Peppermint Grove jarrah homestead was issued after both sides of Parliament agreed to its removal from the Register of Heritage Places last year.
It is the only time a property has been removed from the register and followed 13 years of campaigning by Mr Creasy, a mining entrepreneur, to develop the site.
While in opposition and as MP for Cottesloe, Mr Barnett moved a motion to take the 115- year-old Cliffe in his electorate off the list, with the support of the Labor Party.
Former Heritage Minister Michelle Roberts has also been dragged into the inquiry. Mr Roberts-Smith says the complaint against Ms Roberts also alleges serious misconduct, which she denies.
“It is also alleged that the Heritage Council consistently advised the then minister, the Hon Michelle Roberts MLA, against removing the property from the Heritage Register, but Ms Roberts failed to pass on this advice or make it available to members of both the Legislative Assembly and Council,” Mr Roberts-Smith said.
“It is alleged that Ms Roberts instead provided her parliamentary colleagues with information she knew to be false.”
Mr Waldron, who now lives in Sydney, says there is a lack of transparency surrounding the handling of the de-listing.
He says he was astounded by Mr Barnett’s comment on radio that the complaints were fictitious, false, misleading, mischievous and worse.
“These are not words Mr Roberts-Smith used in his reply to me about the matters we’d raised with him,” Mr Waldron said.
“We provided him with information we had gathered from various public sources as we sought to understand the de-listing of The Cliffe.
“Had the CCC come back to us and said ‘the matters you have raised have no basis and we are not going to investigate’, we certainly would have accepted that.
“But they did not. They told us they had made some further preliminary inquiries, assessed the material and were treating our complaint as allegations of serious misconduct.
“Mr Barnett is trying to deflect the public from the real question: why did he stand up in parliament and push very hard for an action that would benefit not the community but just one man, Mr Creasy, with information that has turned out to be wrong?”
Mr Barnett has attacked the claims as false and trivial.
“This is trivia, this is not about Colin Barnett, it’s not about accountability, it’s not even about the architectural merits of The Cliffe,” Mr Barnett said.
“This is about a group of people from the 80s who were friends, fans, groupies, roadies with the Triffids who want to continue the memory, the boyhood memory of The Triffids.”
But Dr Quentin Beresford, professor of politics at Edith Cowan University and author of the book, The Godfather – the life of Brian Burke, says Mr Barnett, who lived as a politician through the WA Inc and the more recent Burke controversies, should have known better.
“Oh my God,” he said. “Politicians shouldn’t get involved in individual cases.
“If we’ve learnt anything in WA over the past 30 years about the relationship between wealthy entrepreneurs and politicians, it is that it is problematic.
“There are proper processes here to deal with the often vexed issues of heritage decisions. “If the law isn’t working, change the rules and be fair to everybody.
“Clearly heritage is a sensitive issue and there is much concern that WA didn’t come in early enough or hard enough to protect its heritage.
“We wouldn’t want the system undermined by political involvement in individual cases.”
Mr Creasy has made more than $70,000 in political donations to both major parties and invested in a company run by Mr Barnett’s son six weeks prior to The Cliffe’s removal from the Heritage Register last year.
But Mr Barnett said this week that this was news to him.
“Mr Mark Creasy, the owner of The Cliffe, is a shareholder of that company,” he said. “I have only become aware of this association since this complaint has been made and knew nothing of it at the time of taking action in relation to The Cliffe.”
In 2004, Mr Creasy challenged the interim heritage listing of The Cliffe in the Supreme Court.
This action was abandoned in 2006.
In that year Mr Creasy offered The Cliffe to the state government for $20 million.
Mr Barnett says the property today is worth between $10 million and $12 million.
The Save The Cliffe group told the POST that in April they received an email from a Triffids fan in the UK.
The fan said Mr Creasy was the major shareholder of a company chaired by Russell Barnett.
Mr Waldron said that six weeks before Mr Barnett raised his grievance motion arguing for the removal of The Cliffe, his son’s company, now known as Freedom Eye Limited, was trying to raise capital.
The company had been reincarnated several times since 2001, beginning as a gold explorer, then exploring for potash and alumina.
During the biotech boom the company changed its name from Britannia Gold NL to Solbec Pharmaceuticals in 2003 and moved into developing skin cancer treatments.
Mr Creasy’s company Yandal accumulated a 5.33% stake in Solbec worth $877,500 as the share price reached near all-time highs in 2003.
After a placement issue in April 2007 Yandal was Solbec’s largest shareholder holding 12.5 million shares but their value had dropped to $439,500.
Russell Barnett, a director, became Solbec’s chairman and the company’s name was changed to Freedom Eye Limited; its efforts moved into acquiring ophthalmology day surgery practices.
The company, worth $14 million in 2003, is now worth $1.15 million and its share price is wallowing around 0.004 cents.
Mr Creasy has denied any connection between The Cliffe and his shareholding in the company associated with Russell Barnett.
Mr Barnett, who is Minister for the CCC, gave a hint on radio that he was not happy with the fact that “wild accusation” complaints could be made to the commission.
He said one of the new jobs for Robert Cock would be to recommend changes.
“Robert Cock, the current Director of Public Prosecutions, will be Special Counsel to the government and to myself and he will be undertaking a number of roles, including looking at the CCC legislation,” he said.
Acting Opposition leader Roger Cook said that ordinary citizens should not be deterred from making complaints about public figures.
POST Newspapers 18 July 2009
Triffids came second
The Cliffe was acknowledged as a heritage property years before The Triffids made their mark.
It was classified by the National Trust in 1984, two years before the Triffids released their greatest hit, Wide Open Road.
Their other famous song, Bury Me Deep in Love, known around the world as Harold and Madge’s wedding song in Neighbours and covered by Kylie Minogue, was released in 1987, three years after it had been named a heritage place.
The Triffids connection was not one of the listing criteria when parliament placed The Cliffe on the Register of Heritage Places in 2005.
Harold and Athel McComb, parents of Triffids leader David McComb, say Mark Creasy and his wife Sharon knew about the house’s heritage status when they sold it to them.
In 1992 The Cliffe was included on the Register of the National Estate.
In 1995, shortly after the property was bought by the Creasys, The Cliffe was included as an interim entry on the State Register of Heritage Places.
And in 1999 the property was included on the Shire of Peppermint Grove’s Municipal Inventory.
But the Premier said he came to the conclusion The Cliffe had no heritage value after a walk through it last year.
Although another comprehensive report, just released, again disputes Mr Barnett’s assessment, the Premier this week reinforced his belief that the property had no heritage value.
On radio Mr Barnett said he was surprised he didn’t see a lavish home when he visited The Cliffe.
“When I walked inside it I expected to see beautiful ornate ceilings, fireplaces, there is nothing of that,” he said. “It is very rudimentary.”
The Heritage Council of WA says The Cliffe “demonstrates the domestic life of a wealthy society family at the turn of the century”.
In the words of David McComb’s brother Robert: “The stables, laundry and elaborate ringing bell intercom system are things you just don’t see in every Perth home.”
And those who lived in and visited the house just a few years before the Creasys bought it, like Brian Waldron, say that instead of being given help to tear it down, the government preservation laws should be enforced.
Local councils can fix neglected heritage properties at the owners’ expense, or the state can resume them, fix them, resell them and give the proceeds to the original owner, minus the cost of repairs.
The home was habitable and lived in until 2007.
The McCombs raised four boys there for 32 years between 1962 and 1994, and family photos over that period show that the house was in very good condition. Mr
Barnett says the ceilings have fallen down, and according to builders last week, that was not uncommon for a 115-year-old house and would cost about $19,035 to repair.
POST Newspapers 18 July 2009
Garrett says no to listing
Just as supporters learnt Premier Colin Barnett was outing himself as the subject of a CCC complaint over the handling of The Cliffe affair, their one time Midnight Oil muso mate was rejecting a lastditch attempt to save the house.
Peter Garrett, now the federal Heritage Minister, refused an emergency heritage listing which had been made by the Save The Cliffe group.
A spokesman for the minister said Mr Garrett had been asked to consider whether the place was of outstanding significance to the nation in considering the emergency listing.
“On the basis of the information available he advises that the department found The Cliffe had no national heritage value after being assessed against nine national heritage list criteria,” the spokesman said.
The West Australian 18 July 2009
The day of The Triffids
Devotees of the 1980s band The Triffids have dragged Premier Colin Barnett into their fight to save a riverside mansion
BY ROBERT TAYLOR – State Political Reporter
A croaky-voiced Colin Barnett appeared unusually nervous when he faced reporters on Monday, announcing he had a “statement of a personal nature to make”. It turned out to be a bizarre tale.
Mr Barnett’s version of the apocalyptic John Wyndham novel The Day of the Triffids is a story about a seminal 1980s rock band, the Premier’s businessman son Russell, mega-rich mining entrepreneur Mark Creasy and a dilapidated 115-year-old wooden house, The Cliffe occupying prime Peppermint Grove land.
The Corruption and Crime Commission, The Premier revealed, had received a claim that he had acted improperly by using his position as an MP to remove The Cliffe, owned by Mr Creasy, from the State’s heritage register at the same time as the mining millionaire was the largest shareholder in a little-known biotechnology company now chaired by Russell Barnett.
The inference was that Mr Barnett had launched his bid to have The Cliffe removed from the register to curry favour with Mr Creasy on behalf of Russell Barnett.
Far-fetched, sure, but Wyndham’s high school literary favourite, in which man-eating plants break free from their compound after a strange asteroid shower sends most of the world blind, is, after all, science fiction.
Mr Barnett and his staff probably decided to reveal the complaint themselves on Monday so that it would be out of the way by the tome he leaves for China on a crucial trade mission early tomorrow. But if they were hoping it would all go away after a day or two, they badly miscalculated.
Former Labor heritage minister Michelle Roberts was included in the complaint because she backed Mr Barnett’s push to remove the house from the register and both major parties were culpable because Mr Creasy had donated around $70,000 to them since 1999, although his last donation appears to have been in 2004-05.
The CCC took a preliminary look at the complaint and quickly handballed it to the Speaker of the House Grant Woodhams, citing parliamentary privilege as its excuse for dumping the whole issue in the Speaker’s lap.
Good old-fashioned arse-covering was the more likely reason.
Mr Woodhams was on parliamentary business in the small Pacific country Kiribati early this week but later said he expected to deal with the complaint through an investigation by the powerful privileges committee or by tabling it in the Assembly for deliberation when Parliament resumed next month.
On Monday, Mr Barnett described the complaint as spurious and without substance. By Thursday, he was labelling it “mischievous to malicious”.
By then he had caught up with the link to the 1980s ARIA Hall of Fame band The Triffids formed by Robert and David McComb who grew up at The Cliffe and went on to be indie rock darlings before David McComb succumbed to a heart condition brought on by serious drug problems.
The complainant was revealed as Sydney man Brian Waldron, a childhood friend of the McCombs who has led the push to save The Cliffe since Mr Creasy’s wife Sharon bought it from Dr Harold McComb for $2.7 million in 1995 with the intention of demolishing the old wooden house and building a family mansion on the 4800sqm site with commanding views over Freshwater Bay and beyond.
Mr Waldron did little to disavow the Premier’s claim that the whole issue had been cooked up by people who wanted to preserve their memories of the 1980s when the band got together.
“As a friend of the McComb boys I have visited The Cliffe since the early 1980s.” Mr Waldron said on Wednesday.
“When I first saw the house, I thought it the most beautiful home I had ever seen. I still believe that.”
Mr Waldron’s complaint seems to centre on the timing of Russell Barnett’s appointment to the board of Freedom Eye, a company that has had a few transformations but is now involved with a drug to treat mesothelioma from a plant known as the Devil’s Apple.
Another Triffids ran, Bleddyn Butcher, said: “Brian drew the commissioner’s attention to the amazing coincidence of the fact that Russell Barnett was appointed director of (Freedom Eye) on July 20 and six weeks later Colin got up on his feet and said their was a grievance about The Cliffe.”
Err… sort of. Russell Barnett was made director of Freedom Eye in July 2007, but his father, Ms Roberts and the Creasys had toured The Cliffe in 2006.
“I am aware that he (Mr Barnett) has been very determined in his pursuit of this matter in the interests of his constituents.
He made contact with me about this issue last year when I first became heritage minister,” Ms Roberts said during the debate in August 2007.
Mr Barnett says he many have discussed The Cliffe in passing with his son but didn’t know until the CCC came knocking about Mr Creasy’s involvement in Freedom Eye.
Russell Barnett says he hasn’t spoken to Mr Creasy in 20 years and Mr Creasy says he never discussed his shareholding in Freedom Eye – worth the princely sum of $37,000 – with his local MP.
Mr Waldron’s other concern is that Ms Roberts and Mr Barnett took a different view on the need to preserve The Cliffe from the WA Heritage Council whose positive report on conserving the building never saw the light of day during the parliamentary debate.
That might gain traction in the popular debate but, as Ms Roberts said this week, there is no obligation on the heritage minister top release or table reports from the Heritage Council.
Both Mr Barnett and Ms Roberts say if there was more money in the State’s heritage budget, there would be more deserving cases that The Cliffe, such as the magnificent Victorian-era Treasury Building in the city which still stands vacant.
Given that both sides of politics voted to remove The Cliffe from the heritage register and that Colin Barnett and Ms Roberts led the debate, it’s difficult to see the issue causing the Premier much grief when it comes back to Parliament – unless someone unearths a smoking gun that shows a greater link between the decision and Mr Creasy’s investments in Freedom Eye.
Although mud always sticks to some degree, and Mr Waldron and his friends certainly got their money’s worth this week, the Government’s core conservative constituency is not moved by this issue.
Indeed, a backlash against heritage restriction has been on for some time and probably contributed to The Cliffe delisting. “This precedent will demonstrate to the people of Western Australia that they have a Parliament, a Government and a Minister who hear and understand their fears and apprehensions about heritage listing and are also prepared to uphold their rights and prerogatives,” Ms Roberts told Parliament during the grievance debate on The Cliffe in 2007.
Nevertheless, Labor will probably want the complaint to go to the privileges committee for investigation.
Mr Barnett will be in two minds: either use the Government’s numbers to dismiss it on the floor of the Assembly or agree to the riskier committee route in the reasonable belief that it would produce a clean bill of health.
Either way, it’s a wide open road.
The West Australian 17 July 2009
MPs ‘not told’ of gifts from owner of Cliffe
BY BEATRICE THOMAS
MPs should have been told of millionaire prospector Mark Creasy’s $70,000 donations to major political parties before Parliament voted to remove his Peppermint Grove Homestead The Cliffe from the Heritage Register, Greens MLC Giz Watson said yesterday.
Ms Watson, one of three upper house MPs to oppose the removal, questioned what role the contributions played in the decision last year, which was supported by the Government and the Opposition.
She said Perth-born Sydney public servant Brian Waldron’s complaint about Premier Colin Barnett to the Corruption and Crime Commission was “legitimate” and she had concerns about the way then heritage minister Michelle Roberts first raised the issue.
Ms Watson, who is in regular contact with Mr Waldron, said the move in Parlaiment was at short notice and MPs did not get Heritage Council advice.
That advice – that the building should be preserved – was released later by Heritage Minister Joh Castrill in December.
“I think both the major parties listen to people who have money and influence in the State,” Ms Watson said.
Australian Electoral Commission records show Mr Creasy gave $53,400 to the WA Liberal Party in financial support since 1999 and $20,000 to the ALP in WA. The Most recent donations were in 2004-05.
Mr Barnett, who raised The Cliffe matter in Parliament, yesterday denied any link between donations and the decision. He said Ms Watson was wrong.
Mrs Roberts did not return calls yesterday but has dismissed complaints to the CCC about her role in the matter.Mr Creasy said he had answered “all the relevant questions” on the property. All his political donations were on the public record.
Ms Watson has tabled a notice of motion to rescind the vote to take The Cliffe off the heritage register. She said Legislative Assembly Speaker Grant Woodhams should refer the complaint to the privileges committee.
She wanted the Heritage Act changed so that MPs always had Heritage Council advice and so property owners could not demolish properties they neglected deliberately.
Mr Castrilli said he would consider requests to give MPs heritage advice but did not think the Act needed changes. Tougher penalties for heritage breaches were being considered.
The West Australian 17 July 2009
Dream of former glory in ruins
BY ALANA BUCKLEY-CARR
They may have sold all right to The Cliffe 14 years ago but Harold and Athel McComb would like to see the sprawling homestead remain standing.
Speaking about their former home yesterday, Dr McComb, 85, said he did not regret selling it but no family wanted to see the house where their children grew up demolished.
“Our family all left home and my wife and I were rattling around in this huge house,” he said. “We were pleased to sell it and I was very grateful to Mr Creasy for buying it. We more or less assumed it would be returned to its former glory.”
Mark Creasy has a demolition licence but is working with Peppermint Grove shire to see if the house can be kept.
Dr McComb did not want to been see as claiming and right to the property but said it did not cross his mind that The Cliffe might be demolished.
He said the Creasy family bought the adjoining house and he thought they would live there while they “did the old place up”. He said The Cliffe was strong and sound. Parts needed attention but he believed it could be restored for $1 million.
“It is structurally quite sound,” Dr McComb said. “We had it re-wired and a few other things. We simply covered the shingles with Colorbond but that could easily be removed.”
Historians say the Cliffe should remain because its heritage value is in the building’s bones more than any link to The Triffids, the famous WA band formed by the McComb’s sons.
While the social value of The Triffids’ association could not be forgotten, there were better reasons to save the home.
National Trust of Australia (WA) chief executive Tom Perrigo said the debate had become too emotional and people had to step back from the Triffids link. On its own, The Cliffe had significance back to 1894.
“If everyone would just back off and sit down with Mr Creasy and say let’s do a business deal, then perhaps something could be done,” Mr Perrigo said.
National Trust WA chairman Jenny Gregory said the home’s importance was as a masterpiece built for an important merchant.
Heritage Perth Director Richard Offen said the controversy raised questions about financial assistance for owners to maintain heritage properties.
The West Australian – editorial - 17 July 2009
Need for clarity and fairness in
heritage system
The continuing fuss about the future of The Cliffe homestead in Peppermint Grove points to shortcomings in WA’s heritage-preservation processes.
Mining millionaire Mark Creasy has been battling the local shire and the Heritage Council to redevelop the 115-year-old property since he bought it in 1995.
The future of the property is still uncertain, despite a lot of legal and political activity. That is unacceptable by any measure.
No one would dispute that WA needs strong protection for genuine heritage buildings. Perth has lost much of its built heritage and over the past two decades there has been increasing community support for heritage protection.
We should not repeat the mistakes of the oast in which little attention was paid to heritage in the rush and excitement of rapid development. The need to do what we can to preserve places of heritage significance is now a well-established principle, though it does not always translate smoothly into practice.
The present controversy underscores a need for heritage values to be clearly defined and publicly understood and preservation practices fair to private owners of properties. In cases of conflict over preservation proposals for privately held properties, there has often been confusions about precisely what characteristics are deemed to make them worth preserving.
In the case of the Cliffe, it has been suggested that an element in the campaign for its preservation is its association with the rock band, The Triffids. The homestead has been described as having been the band’s headquarters. Though that might be an interesting local snippet of rock history, it does not of itself amount to an adequate reason for heritage preservation and the constraints on the owner that go with it.
Views on whether The Cliffe should or could be preserved – and, if so, how – on the basis of architectural and other values vary. However, it is telling that Parliament supported its removal from the State’s heritage register.
Further, Federal Heritage Minister Peter Garrett has rejected an application to have the building emergency-listed on the national heritage register. He said it had no outstanding heritage values to the nation. Of course, some people would disagree with him but many more would be bemused at precisely what heritage values are and hoe they are assessed in such cases.
Last year, Mr Creasy got council permission to demolish The Cliffe but held back from doing so. He says he is happy to co-operate with people who say they would like to restore the house, but not at his expense.
He makes a reasonable point. The rights of owners of properties that are heritage-listed should be respected and they should not be expected to accept the financial burden of preservation of behalf of the community.
The West Australian 17 July 2009
Timber home a rarity in suburb
BY ALANA BUCKLEY-CARR
One of the first houses in Peppermint Grove, The Cliffe was built for timber merchant Neil McNeil.
Mr McNeil bought the land on what is now Bindaring Parade I 1892, a year after Peppermint Grove was surveyed into residential blocks.
He came to WA from Victoria in 1872 to work on the Jarradale to Bunbury railway line and later took over the Jarrahdale Timber Company with other men.
When he built The Cliffe, mainly in jarrah, he was affluent. The Heritage Council of WA said it was “a rare example in metropolitan Perth of a substantial weatherboard gentleman’s residence”.
It is one of the suburb’s only historic timber houses because after The Cliffe was built, the Peppermint Grove Road Board outlawed timber construction.
In 1898, after McNeil’s marriage, a billiard room, tennis court and croquet lawns were added to the 15 rooms on the 4.05ha block.
“Curving around the house were a long driveway, various flowerbeds, a tennis court, a summer home, stables and other outbuildings for the staff,” a 1995 Heritage Council report said.
“McNeil’s staff included two gardeners and a chauffeur, for McNeil owned one of the first cars in Western Australia.”
When Mr McNeil died in 1927, industrialist Lance Brisbane bought it and his brother David moved in later with his family until he died in 1960.
In 1962, plastic surgeon Harold McComb and his wife Athel, a prominent geneticist, bought the house and lived there until 1995.
