MAYLANDS MP LISA BAKER watched a close friend die from a terminal illness. She supports the proposed legislation, but says her experience made her realise on a practical level just how hard it would be for someone to make the call. “I had a very dear friend who was diagnosed with what they thought was…

WIDJIMORPHUP is in WA’s wheatbelt, but you won’t find it on any map. Instead the town is located in the vivid imagination of acclaimed local artist Leon Pericles. There’s plenty of Widji in Just Scratching the Surface, a sprawling retrospective of his career that includes 500 artworks from the last 50 years. Pericles arrived at…

EIGHTH AVENUE in Maylands has been transformed into a lush art space as part of the local council’s commitment to rejuvenating the town centre. The median strip has been lined with native plants and trees, and giant planter boxes will feature works by local artists. The first artist to be showcased is Eva Fernandez, who…

PERTH councillor Reece Harley says it’s bittersweet watching from the sidelines as many of the issues he’d pushed for come to fruition. He and the rest of the council are suspended while the state government carries out an inquiry into the “serious and long term failure by the elected council to ensure the city performed…

THIS treehouse in Mt Hawthorn is exactly what Vincent councillors had in mind when they scrapped their prohibitive verge rules. Like most local governments, Vincent had strict rules about what could be put on a verge, with tyre swings, little benches or cubby houses forbidden. The rarely-invoked rule was brought into the spotlight in November…

MARRIED trans people in WA could soon have their gender officially recognised. Last week Maylands MP Lisa Baker spoke in favour of the Gender Reassignment Bill 2018, which will scrap an old law that prevents a married person from being issued with a gender recognition certificate. The vestigial law, from the days when same-sex marriage…

THE best weekend of the year to be a nosey-parker is back. Open House Perth is giving tours of more than 100 prominent buildings across the city, including many usually closed to the public. The first Open House Perth was in 2012, but the global movement dates back to 1992 when it was founded by…

MAYLANDS library will hold a red poppies workshop today (Saturday November 10), the eve of Remembrance Day. At the free workshop artist Geraldine Pillinger will help locals make their own red poppy pins or badges. Bayswater mayor Dan Bull says this year’s Remembrance Day marks the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, which ended World War…

WHILE the major political parties (and One Nation) charge thousands of dollars to access pollies at swank nosh-ups, the Greens are letting supporters bend their ear for free. In October, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson charged lobbyists and business owners $5000 to join her for an exclusive dinner in Perth, while tucker with PM Scott…

VINCENT council may grab headlines for being progressive and green, but Bayswater has being quietly making strides in environmentalism for years. It was one of the first councils to introduce a three-bin collection in 1997, has recently stopped using single-use plastics like balloons and water bottles at city events, and is trialling compostable dog poo…