AFTER two years in the making Bayswater’s men’s shed opened its doors Tuesday July 5. It’s had about $130,000 from Bayswater council to get up and running and it’s still in the early stages and will be populated with tools once the folk there figure out what they need most. Once it’s humming along there’ll…

PERTH city council ratepayers will see a modest increase in the average rate of 1.6 per cent. The council’s boasting it’s managed to keep the increase within CPI after “an exhaustive review, including new and streamlined business practices”. However rubbish fees are up 5.5 per cent for residents and 5 per cent for commercial. The…

BAYSWATER council is having too many secret discussions, says councillor Dan Bull who wants the number of confidential items minimised. Under the local government act there’s a slew of reasons an item can be discussed behind closed doors. They include privacy if the council is discussing an employee or someone’s personal affairs, legal advice, or…

VOTE counting continues across the country but in Perth Labor’s Tim Hammond declared victory early Saturday evening. After preferences his vote sits at 53.9 per cent, and he mostly held retiring MP Alannah MacTiernan’s grip on the seat ceding only 0.11 per cent of the primary vote. Liberal contender Jeremy Quinn managed 42 per cent…

ARTIST Sioux Tempestt brings an unorthodox eye to Perth’s heritage buildings in her new exhibition Chronicle at the Museum of Perth Most heritage photography is utterly and proudly straight forward; front-on shots of buildings with every sill and drain pipe captured. Instead of this painstaking style of documentation, Tempestt prefers to distort, twist and mash…

CENTURY-old sewerage vents will be granted the highest heritage protection by Vincent city council. The vents at Hyde Park are a small sample of the surviving sewerage infrastructure that’s mostly been moved, built over or forgotten. Perth council’s already protected some within its borders, and heritage buffs consider them an important part of the state’s…

MEMBERS of the Buddha’s Light International Association of WA spread a little of the divine one’s love at the Lightning Park bushland late last month. About 25 volunteers planted 880 plants to the mantra “environmental and spiritual preservation”. The group follows the teachings of Chinese monk Hsing Yun who promotes “humanistic” Buddhism which focuses on…

MAYLANDS MP Lisa Baker has called for WA’s parliament to expunge historic homosexuality convictions and offer an apology. Laws against gays lingered until 1989 but to this day hundreds of men still have convictions on their record. The 1913 law said guilty people could be “imprisoned for hard labour for 14 years, with or without…

BAYSWATER council has sent the Barnett government a 10-point wishlist from ratepayers wanting the aging Baysy train station tarted up. But despite sinking the station being punters’ top priority, it’s off the table for now. The station will soon become a gateway to the city for passengers coming from the airport along the new Forrestfield-Airport…

HISTORIC Horry’s Tree on Melrose Street, Leederville — the only tree saved when the Mitchell Freeway came bowling through — is to get stronger heritage protection. The Moreton Bay fig was planted by dairyman Horace Thompson next to his family home in October 1815. He left for the Great War three months later, hoping to…