NEXT year’s Australia Day celebrations will feature the first aerial show since the death of two people in a plane crash on the Swan River in 2017. Pilot Peter Lynch and partner Endah Cakrawati were killed when their seaplane crashed into the water, leading to the mothballing of the event. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s…

COUNCIL election signs on private property in Vincent have been stolen. Vincent south ward candidate Joshua O’Keefe said last Friday supporters were reporting his signs had been cut down from their fences. He reckons whoever’s taken them hasn’t just pulled them off; the stiff signs are attached via hardy zip ties that make them difficult…

by DAVID BELL LEEDERVILLE Tennis Club is five years away from notching up a century and is gearing up with an open day on October 13. Back in January 1924 keen tennis players approached Perth city council looking for land near Lake Monger. They were riding on the back of a tennis boom. A June…

HOLDEN SHEPPARD’S book Invisible Boys is an emotional tale of growing up gay in a small country town. Like the protagonists, the Perth author had to hide his homosexuality during his teenage years in Geraldton. Sheppard managed to stay under the radar at a huge emotional cost, but others were less fortunate. “You didn’t say…

A Perth environmental engineer says climate change requires collaboration on all levels to address a global problem. “The bottom line is that we can’t expect to live a prosperous, happy and healthy future on a degraded planet.” says Julia Ward, who works in carbon offset projects and has a passion for sustainable energy and women in leadership,. She is heading…

YOLK Property Group has applied to demolish two old buildings at 9 and 11 King William Street in Bayswater’s town centre, with the development-friendly state government lined up to decide the height of their replacement. A previous planning approval giving Yolk the go-ahead for a six-storey building, on the proviso the facade of number 11…

DOG rescue services would be fined if a re-homed animal attacked someone, under a recommendation from the City of Stirling. The McGowan government is currently poring over 66 submissions to its “Pause for Paws” consultation on changes to WA’s Dog and Cat acts, with a report due to be tabled in parliament in November. Stirling’s…

MORE Noongar culture is coming to Northbridge this weekend, at least virtually. Perth film production company Periscope Pictures has crafted a virtual reality experience “Virtual Whadjuk,” sending a viewer back in time to see the natural landscape along the Derbal Yerrigan (Swan River) and interact with the original people. It builds off a concept by…

A BAYSWATER councillor who booked a $3542 training course that starts just two weeks before council elections says she’ll repay the money if she’s not re-elected. Catherine Ehrhardt dipped into her $15,000 councillor training allowance to book into the Australian Institution of Company Directors’ three-day Foundations of Directorship Certificate, which is being held in Perth…

MOUNT LAWLEY MP Simon Millman has called for the WA Academy of Performing Arts to stay in Mt Lawley. Talk of WAAPA moving into Perth’s CBD has been building over the past six weeks, and on September 17 Edith Cowan University vice chancellor Steve Chapman acknowledged to staff in an email he was looking at…