AUSTRALIA should look to the lessons of past pandemics and use purpose-built quarantine facilities for international travellers, says an expert in the country’s historic maritime quarantine system. Ruth Johnson, who will be giving a talk on the Spanish flu’s impact on Western Australia at the Vincent Local History Centre on May 26, says authorities can…

CAROLINE PERKS will have her third crack at winning the federal seat of Perth and her fifth getting into higher office after securing Greens preselection for the next election. A climate change policy expert, Ms Perks scored the Greens’ best-ever result in Perth during the 2019 federal election when she landed 19 per cent. It was…

EAST Metropolitan MLC Donna Faragher says the McGowan government has taken too long to establish a working group to develop a master plan for Edith Cowan University’s Mt Lawley campus. Last week Mrs Faragher asked planning minister Rita Saffioti in Parliament why it had taken so long, given the announcement the McGowan government was planning…

STIRLING council’s waste coordinator Keith Rickman has been crowned this year’s “waste champion”, just in time for his retirement later this year. Mr Rickman has been at Stirling for almost 50 years, all of it in waste management. Despite starting  when there was just one metal bin for everything and the garbos hauled them into the…

WHATLEY CRESCENT is to be permanently closed to traffic between Hamilton and King William streets from June 11. The area, which was blocked for a while in January, will be closed for more works on Bayswater’s new train station.  It will eventually be rerouted to link with Beechboro Road South. Whatley’s shared path will be…

AFTER almost six years of uncertainty, the North Dianella Guides and Scouts look set to get a strong hold on their Morley Drive headquarters. The guides and scouts’ previous lease on their clubhouse ran out in June 2015, and since then they’ve been on a monthly arrangement while the council undertook a “global review of…

THE Mount Lawley Golf Club has scored an extra 15 years on its lease – but might face almost a doubling of its rent as a result. The club has been based in the north-west corner of Inglewood between Alexander Drive, Central Avenue and Walter Road West, virtually since its inception in 1928. And while it’s…

PERTH council’s next meeting will be held at midday as part of an ongoing effort to get more people along. The public gallery has historically been deserted compared to other councils’ rowdy arenas, and until the past couple of years the public weren’t allowed to speak (the CEO just read out written questions). Lord mayor…

Diary find AN author researching the colourful life of his great-grandfather has unearthed a previously unpublished poem by famed Australian poet, journalist and author Banjo Paterson. Simon Doyle’s ancestral biography Soldier Sailor Surgeon: The Life of George Barber, includes Paterson’s poem The Wail of the Horse-Poet, in which Australia’s first unofficial poet laureate bemoans the…

“THERE’S not a lot for us in it,” was Perth federal Labor MP Patrick Gorman’s review of the latest Morrison budget. Mr Gorman said there was a notable lack of spending on social housing and no funding to get quarantine out of CBD hotels. “In terms of infrastructure, there’s ongoing funding for things that are…