LAST year’s Miss Italy Australia Dana Bechelli missed the opportunity to vie for an international title when the competition’s Italian leg was cancelled. And for the foreseeable future she’ll be the last Australian Miss Italy. The pageant is on hold following the death of founder Enzo Mirigliani, Italo-Australian Welfare and Cultural Centre president Enzo Sirna…

PINA NICOLETTI isn’t sure whether she has six or seven trophies for the torte she’s whipped up for the annual Italian Festival’s “la competizione dolciaria” (sweets competition). “I didn’t compete one year, and mum won,” she tells the Voice. There’s a tradition, and passion, for sweets-making handed down the family’s generations of women: “Mum was…

PERTH Voice photographer Matthew Dwyer snapped this happy gang of around 60 Italian seniors heading off for a day of exploration. The trip was organised by the Giovani di Una Certa Eta (it means “youth of a certain age” says Licia Stazzonelli, who was on the bus). The day ended with a visit to a…

A $72 MILLION development with 347 units, two offices and a restaurant will be built on Railway Parade in Maylands. The mammoth 17,259 sqm Finbar project, bounded by Kennedy Street and Tenth Avenue, includes a convenience store and car parking. The site is in a special planning zone near the line that allows higher density…

IT’S not the sort of thing you expect to see at 1pm on a Tuesday, not even on Charles Street: a man seemingly unconscious on the dirty paving of a bus-stop, a bottle of liquor at his feet, traffic zooming past. Voice photographer Matthew Dwyer stumbled across the scene while out taking photos: he tried…

A NEW bike library will let wannabe cyclists check out treadlies to give them a whirl. Vincent council’s new system will let anyone (with ID) to borrow bikes for a few hours to try them out for free. Residents can check them out for a few days for a nominal fee, while non-residents must shell…

BAYSWATER mayor Sylvan Albert says council mergers will cost ratepayers at least $1.5 million—and possibly more—with the Barnett government telling councils this week it will not pay the entire cost of its program. The WA government has budgeted just $15m over three years to pay for mergers and expects councils to take out low-interest loans…

MARK McGOWAN and Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker are hosting a community forum to protest the Barnett government’s treatment of the Swan River Trust. Last week the government introduced a bill to fold the Trust into the WA parks and wildlife department. Ms Baker claims the cost-cutting measure will strip the Trust of its powers:…

THE fences are coming down at Leederville’s HQ skate park, making it free and fully accessible. It currently costs $5 to use the park making it “cost prohibitive for some” says deputy mayor Ros Harley. The council had been considering building another skate park but decided it made more sense to make better use of…

STEAMPUNKS will invade Government House ballroom next weekend for the grand steampunk charity ball. The science fiction subgenre imagines a world where steam-powered machinery brings technology to a Victorian era, with gentry wearing sprocket-laden gear going on wild adventures. Medical researcher Ngaire Lowry and personal trainer Gavin Downes are two members of the Perth steampunk…