REPAIRING broken items used to be a necessity of life in more austere times, but now a lot of barely-damaged items end up in landfill. Thankfully, some Perth folk have got together and started a “Repair Cafe” in Mount Hawthorn, fixing items like clothes, bikes or toys that’d otherwise get binned. One of the organisers…

This weekend as part of Open House Perth, local skater Morgan Dyson will give a brief history of skateboarding in the city and show the different ways skateboarders see and use architecture and public space. He’ll tell some stories about the positive results that have come from accepting and integrating skateboarders into the cultural fabric…

IS there a baby killer on the loose in Hyde Park? A UWA study has revealed that the oblong turtle population at the park is large and healthy, but old, with very few juveniles found in the last 15 to 20 years. “Once they reach the limit of their natural life, the population may suddenly…

THE little-known Brookman and Moir Street precinct has been named a winner in the global 2017 UNESCO heritage awards. It earns the neighbourhood a distinguished place alongside other  2017 winners, like Shanghai’s 19th century Holy Trinity Cathedral and Hong Kong’s famous “Blue House Cluster,” a set of humble shophouses that survived the island’s heavy densification,…

A CROWDFUNDING campaign’s been launched to try and raise extra cash for the Light Up Leederville Carnival. City of Vincent kicks in most of the cash ($65,000 was put on this year’s budget) along with a bunch of businesses, and this year’s long table dinner to raise funds on Wednesday is the biggest one yet.…

THE young people living at Foyer Oxford have been busy crafting 350 flags to hang as bunting for the Light Up Leederville Carnival, diverting a huge load of old cloth from landfill. Foyer Oxford, which provides accommodation for young people who don’t have a stable place to live while they study or work, has had…

PERTH is the first city to trial an Australian-invented new technology that will alert an older person’s family if they have a mishap when alone. “AbiBird” is a sensor that can be put in a senior’s home to track their movement during the day. The sensors can be placed throughout the house and then paired…

PREMIER Mark McGowan has this week apologised to hundreds of people who were charged under old anti-homosexual laws, and introduced legislation to allow people to have their record wiped clean. Laws against homosexuality were officially on the books in WA until 1989, but the height of the police crackdown was during the 50s and 60s…

MOUNT HAWTHORN’S Rebecca Wheadon is back from the US after breaking a cycling world record at the Masters World Championships in Los Angeles. The masters games are for competitors over 30s and she returns home a world champion, and a world record holder, with a time of 37.299 seconds in the women’s team sprint track…

LEEDERVILLE’S pop-culture emporium Black Plastic has just about grown up and turned 30. Owner Paul FitzRoy opened the shop in 1987, and instead of doing extensive customer research, he just filled his shelves with items he liked, including quirky cards, movie figurines and odd gifts. Asked what the overall theme of Black Plastic is, FitzRoy…