URBAN planner David Doy has been brought in by Vincent council to spruce up town centres. A veteran of the Beaufort Street Network he has been taken on in the newly created role of “place manager” to work with groups like the Network, Leederville Connect, Mt Hawthorn Hub and the yet-to-be-named North Perth group. In…

A MILITARY radio found on a verge by a Mt Lawley schoolboy in 1981 is being donated to the WA army museum, after years of gathering dust in a garage. An eight-year-old Cameron Wilkie was cycling home from Mt Lawley primary school when he spotted the military radio, mess pan and green soldier’s jacket lying…

PERTH is Australia’s most expensive city for commuting by car says a planning thinktank. Committee for Perth’s latest research reveals that if you live 5km from the CBD and drive to work it costs you $9180 per year, while a 25km commute from Joondalup shoots it to $22,306. “The comparable average figures for the other…

THE empty corner shop that used to house part of Planet Video is to be occupied by Mexican chain Guzman y Gomez. Guzman y Gomez has 40 stores across Australia and the Beaufort Street branch is now applying for a liquor licence arguing it’s a “low risk restaurant operation”. It marks the same old story…

A ROGUE Irish wolfhound is stalking the streets of North Perth. The giant pooch keeps escaping from its Claverton Street yard and has been known to attack other dogs. Once it jumped from a moving car to go another dog walking on the footpath. One neighbour says he came home once to find the wolfhound…

THE 1899 Boer War was the first conflict where a WA soldier was awarded a Victoria Cross. It was also the first war fought by the Australian commonwealth: 20,000 Australians served in the southern African conflict and 1000 died (many from disease). Despite these arresting facts, the Boer War has become Australia’s “forgotten war”, its…

FORMER Vincent CEO John Giorgi says elected councillors need more training so they stop making decisions that are open to appeal to the unelected but powerful state administrative tribunal. Mr Giorgi told the West Australian newspaper that councillors don’t understand their roles, particularly on planning matters: “You can be [an ordinary person] on the street…

BAYSWATER city council is committed to its Mertome retirement village and has “no intention” of selling it, says mayor Sylvan Albert. Cr Terry Kenyon put the cat amongst the pigeons at last month’s council meeting when he asked that the “residents of Mertome be given an urgent meeting with council to be informed if they…

“HERITAGE listing” used to be a dirty term. Heritage Perth executive director Richard Offen recalls when he first arrived from Britain in the early 2000s people “viewed a heritage listing as an infringement on their civil liberties”. “They thought it meant you couldn’t do anything with it and it reduced your values, which wasn’t true…