WELLINGTON SQUARE had a soft reopening this week after $17.5 million upgrade. The park’s received a dual name Moort-ak Waadiny (Searching for Family) in recognition of the area’s significance to Aboriginal people. “It’s very exciting to see so many people here,” lord mayor Basil Zempilas said on Saturday March 27.  “This wasn’t advertised; the doors…

  PLANS have been released for the WACA redevelopment, with a big ‘maybe’ hanging over the addition of pools until Perth city council’s agreement and funding has been secured. The WA Cricket Association says it will stay in discussions with PCC in the hope it will come round on pool funding, but the association will go…

THE plan to preserve parts of the fire-damaged Hostel Milligan and the venerable Pearl Villa will go ahead unchanged by last week’s blaze.  The building’s owner, Singapore-based Fragrance Group, got approval to build two towers on the site in April 2020. But they were required to keep the street-facing walls of the 1930s hostel, and…

A SIMPLE puff on an asthma inhaler can be a life-saver, but it also pumps out a greenhouse gas 1000 times more potent than carbon dioxide. And while one squeeze doesn’t seem much, when you add together all the little things that help to keep Aussies ticking along, out health system is contributing a very…

SEEDS from Bayswater’s isolated endemic trees are being collected to protect their genetic biodiversity into the future.  Some of the trees in remnant bushland date back hundreds of years, but to ensure they don’t disappear if something goes wrong, Bayswater council is replanting the seedlings in other reserves as a back-up. Bayswater contracted Apace Nursery…

A NEW round of heritage residencies will run following the success of the inaugural Inspire Writers in Residence program last year. The National Trust WA got funding from the WA culture department to run the residencies, putting writers in heritage buildings to let history act as muse.  “The National Trust works to connect Western Australians…

PARTICIPANTS are needed for free group depression treatments as part of a UWA study looking into whether additional enhancements to widely-used therapy methods can improve outcomes. Clinical psychologist Nick Ramondo has 40 years’ experience in the field and as part of a PhD study will provide the group therapy to people between 18 to 65…

THREE new short documentaries about Vincent are in the pipeline for the 2021 City of Vincent film project. Partnering up with Revelation Perth International Film Festival, the docos will be screened at the upcoming RPIFF at Luna Leederville in July. This year the funding’s increased from $5,000 for each project to $7,000. The filmmakers are…

ABOUT 200 Extinction Rebellion protestors held up traffic on St Georges Terrace for a couple  of hours on Monday morning as the group picked up the pace of their pre-Covid campaign to get the McGowan government to declare a climate emergency. Police arrested 27 people, including Mt Lawley neurologists Carolyn Orr, as they conducted a…

FIRE has ripped through the CBD’s abandoned Hostel Milligan, damaging the heritage-listed area supposed to be retained as part of a new development. Fireys responded to a call about 1.30am Monday March 22. People were seen leaving the building shortly before the fire and one woman was taken into custody who’s now “assisting with the…