AS local government elections draw near Perth council is scrambling to patch a number of “high risk” weaknesses in its vetting processes that could lead to election fraud. Many of the risks identified by a recent audit relate to the troubled roll of property owners and occupiers; people who claim a vote because they own…

ONGOING problems with vetting voters has been worsened by a lack of help from the WA Electoral Commission, a Perth council-commissioned audit declares. The 2021 audit was carried out by KPMG Legal and found “communication between the WAEC and the City of Perth has been largely ineffective”. At 2020’s election Perth council staff identified concerning…

AN ancient tradition dating back to the Roman republic plays out in the CBD this weekend as the crew of HMAS Perth (III) is granted Freedom of Entry into the City of Perth. It’s the highest accolade a local government can confer on a military unit. It stems from Rome’s strict rules against armed soldiers…

A ROOF is on the way to protect an exposed heritage cottage at 54 Cowle Street and will be installed “shortly”.  Last week we reported the 137-year-old home, one of the five oldest in the City of Vincent, which had gone topless during this rainy winter after owner Palazzo Homes removed the old iron-over-timber shingle…

Council fudges on deal to make ‘under-performing’ playground more attractive, then plans to sell it off VINCENT council is planning to sell off a Leederville playground it undertook to landscape and open up more to the public a year ago. Back in 2020 the council picked up a 539sqm lot at 26 Brentham Street in…

BY fire, flood, and wrecking ball, Cowle Street’s historic strip of cottages has been all but obliterated.  Now the oldest cottage on the street, number 54, has just endured a rainy winter without a roof after the new owners pried off the old tin and wooden shingles that had kept the inside dry since 1884. …

MAYLANDS foreshore regulars James Kozak and June Winsome-Smith usually remove garden-variety trash from the Swan River shoreline, but this weekend they stumbled across a safe carefully hidden on the bank.  The pair remove rubbish about three or four times a week for Keep Australia Beautiful, usually collecting “fishing line, fishing hooks/lures, drug paraphernalia, and other…

A FILM about a majestic albatross colony under threat from plastic in the Pacific Ocean will raise funds to help local birds. The documentary Albatross was filmed on a tiny atoll in the north Pacific Ocean, an area swamped by plastic pollution. During the filmmakers’ first trip in 2009 they found thousands of young albatrosses lying…

CLEARING native vegetation under the guise of Covid economic recovery has highlighted major gaps in WA’s regulatory systems, says the Wilderness Society. The society says projects funded by Covid grants are pushing Perth’s urban sprawl further and faster, while senior campaigner Jenita Enevoldsen warns the problem is sending the entire state towards “catastrophe”. “If transformative…

A YOUNG artist’s legacy of works are on display in a memorial exhibition that she hoped would shed the stigma and myths around Anorexia Nervosa.  Chloe Tupper died June 9 2020, aged 32.  For most of her life she experienced severe and enduring anorexia nervosa, a chronic form that affects about one in five people…