VINCENT council hopes to fix its communication issues with a new engagement framework. Following some notable recent instances where locals felt projects were roaring ahead without them, the council has decided on a review. From the Beatty Park toilet block being demolished without a word, to unannounced works replacing Hyde Park’s grass with gravel, meagre…

COVID has made for a tough year for charities and has also seen a surge in domestic violence, so charity Friends with Dignity is calling for donations to raise critical funds to assist people affected by family or domestic violence. They’re holding a high tea fundraiser and writer Constance Hall has volunteered as keynote speaker,…

THE WA education department is under pressure to ban the Commonwealth Bank’s Dollarmites program from schools following a damning national report which found it had no educational value. Consumer group Choice has come out swinging after Queensland education minister Grace Grace banned Dollarmites late April. Choice banking expert Patrick Veyret says: “West Australian kids deserve…

SLOW points may be on the way for North Perth under a new Vincent council traffic-calming plan. However long-term traffic petitioners have already panned the initiative as making little sense.  Cars snaking through every little residential street has been a long-time concern in the inner-city suburb.  Back in 2017 residents called on Vincent council to…

AS fast as Bayswater council can plant new trees, state government projects and private development just keeps tearing down older growth. Last planting season the council put in 50,000 tubestock native plants and 1,500 new street trees, in an effort to the goal of 20 per cent tree canopy coverage by 2025.  The canopy plan’s…

SIMON DOYLE recently published, along with co-author Jenny Mills, a biography of his great-grandfather George Barber, a doctor who served with the Fremantle Garrison before sailing off to run a venereal disease hospital for unfortunate Anzacs who’d camped right next to an Egyptian brothel district. During his research, he also uncovered a hand-written poem by…

THIS week’s story from the Vincent Local History Centre looks at the now-demolished Brisbane Street Synagogue that was once the centre of Jewish life in WA. The LHC is also hoping to find photographs and any information about another demolished synagogue on Palmerston Street run by the Perth Jewish Association.  THE Brisbane Street Synagogue stood…

MURDOCH UNIVERSITY’S Antimicrobial and Infectious Diseases Laboratory has made a breakthrough in monitoring bacteria using robotics that promises to slash medical costs and hospitals stays. Sam Abraham from the AMRID-Abraham laboratory at the uni said using robotics could speed up testing for bacterial infections by 700 per cent.  “Looking for emerging resistance, currently humans are…