THE inaugural Rainbow Picnic ran in Hyde Park on November 3 with 1500 people heading along for the family-friendly event to kick off PrideFest. Amid the rainbow maze, silent disco and other assorted multicoloured fun, the Rainbow Picnic aimed to connect the public with LGBT+-friendly service providers and clubs. Vincent council hosted the event, with…

URBAN mini-cinema The Backlot has marked 10 years, growing from a thought bubble to a hub for local filmmakers and film lovers. Before opening The Backlot, Ian Hale had worked for the big end of film town, handling Australian releases for international studios. “It was a startup business, and comin g from a background where…

STIRLING council’s attempt to get a trackless tram running through is steaming along, with councillors voting 11-1 to put the business case to the state and federal governments.  Traffic and parking congestion is a big issue in the area: It was one of the main issues brought up by residents in a recent city-wide survey,…

RECTIFICATION for the ageing Claisebrook Cove is in the works. Perth council is considering a $31 million plan to fix a range of issues from broken paving to the sometimes-smelly lake. The government-built cove was developed in the 1990s but now the walled lake is nearing the end of its lifespan, and the design that’s…

THE replacement of the long-empty Stirling Towers looks to finally be going ahead this year, with a development application now granted by the WA Planning Commission to replace the tired ex-Homeswest towers with 109 new apartments.  The towers on the corner of Smith and Stirling Streets in Perth were emptied out of residents almost 10…

THE life and times of Hu Che-Em (aka Hop Chong) are slowly being pieced together with new details about the Chinese market gardener being unearthed this week.  Hu Che-Em ran a market garden in Bayswater until the 1940s or 1950s.  Locals from the Bayswater Historical Society want his nickname “Hoppy” to be approved for use…

NEWSPAPERS of the day were mixed in their depiction of Hop Chong and other Chinese market gardeners, with some sympathetic while others were deeply xenophobic, referring to them as “vegetable Johns who coax callots and cabbagee from the fecund sand in the vicinity of Perth”.  The New Call’s December 31, 1931 edition was one of…

A “SAFER” exchange could be on the cards for Stirling to provide a spot for people to trade goods sold online with less risk of being ripped off. Deputy mayor Suzanne Migdale has proposed investigating “options to establish safer exchange sites within the City of Stirling, in public areas covered by city CCTV cameras to…

A DELEGATION led by a dancing Perth lord mayor Basil Zempilas has hit the streets of Kagoshima in Japan for the Ohara Matsuri Parade. He joined 20,000 other dancers in the tradition, as part of a trip marking a 50-year sister city relationship with Kagoshima. Mr Zempilas was invited by Kagoshima mayor Takao Shimozuru, who…

THE City of Perth has declared its Rod Evans Community Centre out of bounds for a public meeting about Palestine featuring Indian intellectual Vijay Prashad. This follows on the heels of the University of WA forcing the meeting off campus last week (“Students claim UWA tried to block speaker,” Voice, October 26, 2024). Australian-Palestinian UWA…