MANY Aussies are missing the pub right now, but few long for their local like Lego-smith Sonia Hills. The North Perth resident’s blocky recreation of the Rosemount Hotel has won first place in the grown-up category of a boredom-busting Lego competition run by state Perth MP John Carey. With the Rosie closed, Ms Hills recreated…

VINCENT’S public art reserve is being opened up to support artists suffering through the Covid-19 shutdown. The reserve’s been built up over years by contributions from developers, who have to set aside one per cent of their budget for public art, and the council’s now given the ok to use the entire $500,000 for an…

THE North Perth Post Office has closed again. On April 30 the doors were closed and a sign put up saying the store had “ceased trading” but expected parcels could be picked up from a temporary counter Australia Post had set up down the road. For other post office services, the sign directed people to Mt…

BOTTLENOSE dolphins could benefit from the reduced number of boats in the Swan River during the COVID-19 pandemic. Marine mammal scientist Chandra Salgado Kent has been studying bottlenose dolphins in the river for more than a decade, and says a noisy river full of boats can make it difficult for the animals to communicate with…

CORONAVIRUS has been blamed for another delay in the release of the City of Perth inquiry report. The WA government-initiated inquiry was meant to be out April 30 and the Voice heard even key witnesses only heard of the new delay through the media. Local government minister David Templeman, who’d already approved two earlier extensions,…

‘You have got to take this seriously’ AFTER a nightmare fortnight during which they could barely stand, former Voice cartoonist Jason Chatfield and wife Sophie have recovered from Covid-19. Chatfield says he’s had all sorts of viruses, bad reactions to medicine and gnarly surgeries, but none compared to the coronavirus. The former Perth lad moved to…

Illegally dumped, or maybe just a confused punter? NOT everyone got the memo that Vincent council wasn’t doing bulk rubbish pickups this year, with a couple of garbage piles starting to appear on verges about town. Verge collections were due to start April 20 but have been cancelled for now because the contractor had concerns about…

ARTIST Gareth Price (aka Scroller) has reimagined a classic 20th century photograph with a pandemic-safe rendering of the 1945 photo “V-J Day in Times Square”. Usually known for his metalwork back home in Somerset, Price was keen to paint a cheery mural. He got onto Vincent council about any empty wallspace, and was hooked up…

FAMILY day care services claim to have been left short-changed by the Morrison government. The federal government’s Business Continuity Payment package covers 50 per cent of all childcare fees and gets rid of gap charges for parents, and was meant to tide childcare services and educators over until parents return to work after the Covid-19…

A CONCRETE design is finally out to fix the Green Street/Main Street/Scarborough Beach Road intersection. The McGowan government has set aside $3 million to fix the spaghetti mess, which contributed to about 30 crashes a year between 2014-2018. Locals packed a brainstorming workshop in November last year, with a roundabout at Green and Main widely supported.…