FORMER Perth councillor Keith Yong has been charged with giving false evidence to a royal commission over his testimony during the 2019 City of Perth inquiry. WA Police charged Mr Yong (also known as Yit Kee Yong) over his evidence at hearings on August 5 and 6 when the inquiry was looking into vote manipulation…

Many offices are still empty as big businesses and even some government departments continue remote work arrangements, despite premier Mark McGowan last week saying “people should keep going to the office, going to work, and keep taking basic precautions to stay COVID-safe”. Hospitality businesses are especially struggling from a lack of coffee-chugging and sandwich-snaffling city…

A WAR graves researcher has called for an inquiry into the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board after finding out more than 100 Anzac graves, including a handful of Voicelanders, have lost their headstones to “renewal” at Karrakatta Cemetery. Gavin Wilkinson discovered the missing headstones while searching for the grave of his great uncle, Pte James Burrows, who’d fought…

AS the rainy season approaches, residents living around Beatty Park Reserve fear their houses will again be flooded if Vincent council doesn’t fix drainage problems pronto.  Homes just north of the park were badly inundated in the 2010 storms. An overwhelmed drainage network, leaves and mulch from Beatty Park clogging the stormwater grates, and the…

AFTER a wave of verge trees keeled over in Perth’s recent heatwave, an audit will be carried out across Bayswater to assess the toll and find out how to keep the survivors alive. Bayswater has some of the highest levels of hard “grey” surfaces such as pavement in the country, ripe to capture sunlight and…

AN on-call cleaning cart scooting around the CBD has proved so popular it’ll have its patrol extended. Perth council brought in the solar-powered ‘Clean Machine’ (a repurposed golf cart) last September for a trial that coincided with AFL grand final week. It was immediately popular and during the trial 120 businesses or visitors called the…

WOMEN will get their own tool library and workshop in Bayswater, the first dedicated women’s shed in the state. The Bayswater Women’s Hub has fixed a five-year lease with Bayswater council to move into the long-vacant building kiosk, changerooms and bunker at Shearn Memorial Park in Maylands.  The not-for-profit group ran some trial tool skills…

THE Caledonian Avenue crossing in Maylands will close this coming Easter weekend, with hopes for a pedestrian underpass now dashed. The state government says closing the crossing is “necessary for the Forrestfield-Airport Link” track upgrades which will see more trains along that line. Closing it to cars isn’t too controversial since it’s already constantly clogged…

A NEW street art festival’s coming to cover the Mount Lawley’s cafe strip in murals next month. The inaugural No More Blank Walls festival’s bringing a bunch of local artists together for live mural painting, street art tours, a gallery exhibition and artist talks. It’s been organised by local street art company Blank Walls, and…

Rider goes flying over dodgy pothole repair A MT HAWTHORN resident has been left with a $1000 ambulance bill, lost work, a potential permanent disability and a broken scooter after coming a cropper on some pretty ordinary-looking road repairs in Vincent. Courtney Langer was on his way to visit his brother in Bourke Street, Leederville…