The Parish of Beaconsfield
Wins Electric Vehicle Charger Grant!

Peter Newman AO, Parish of Beaconsfield

Great news for the Parish of Beaconsfield as they have won a grant from the State Government to install an Electric Vehicle Recharge Unit in their car park.

The Electric Vehicle (EV) Charger will be positioned in the small car park in front of the Rectory and will also be available for members of the public to use, at a reasonable cost. This has the potential to be a good source of revenue for the parish as well as providing a service in Fremantle for the many tourists, visitors and locals who will increasingly need access to a reasonably fast charging system.

For a few years, the parish group ‘Beacon’ has been meeting and hosting events on sustainability and especially climate change. They applied for the funds as part of a campaign to ‘Electrify Fremantle’. There are about six ‘Electrify’ groups in Fremantle, all showing practical ways of ‘getting off gas’ - in their homes and businesses. EV’s are growing in the area and will soon have a recharge point.

Peter Newman AO, a Beaconsfield parishioner for 50 years, and a professor at Curtin, says ‘The EV charger was a great boost for The Parish. He believes that ‘the electric vehicle recharger is a symbol of the next stage in our journey to lead in the transition away from fossil fuels’.

A decade ago, a former Beaconsfield regular, Eddie Vagg, gifted the parish in his will, the money to put Solar PV on the roof of the Hall and Rectory to demonstrate one of the first steps in the transition to move away from fossil fuels. Eddie had been a tram driver in Fremantle most of his adult life. The ‘Beacon Group’ has been pushing the case for a new tram service in Fremantle as a way forward in the difficult area of removing oil from transport.

Peter is helping raise money to pay the Parish of Beaconsfield’s part of the grant. A mystery donor has provided the up-front money for the $1,200 needed from the parish. As Peter says ‘We have some work to do to repay our mystery donor. But for now, let’s just bathe in the delightful idea that we won a grant that shows we are doing our job as a leader in sustainability, during this critical time in the world’s need to transition away from fossil fuels’.