THE little Brookman and Moir Street precinct in inner Perth is the last of its kind, a surviving couple of rows of 58 workers’ houses built back in 1897-98 during the gold rush. The federation Queen Anne-style houses remain in remarkable nick, though as the Voice reported in recent years one nearly fell into ruin,…

FIVE of the seven Perth city councillors who were signatories to a letter supporting lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi when the corruption and crime commission released a report into her travel troubles have run into gift issues of their own. Councillors aren’t allowed to accept gifts of more than $300 if the donor is undertaking (or…

STRANGE, rare and antiquarian tomes will be sold to help buy books for the kids of South Sudan for UNESCO’s World Book Day. Perth bookseller Robert Muir is opening his shop Muir Books to host nine other rare booksellers like Diabolik, Mainly Books and Penny Bannister who’ll be bringing unusual items to sell off on…

PERTH city councillor Jemma Green has followed Reece Harley’s example in releasing to ratepayers all information about the expenses she claims. Councillors can claim up to $13,360 a year on expenses like suits, shoes, haircuts and phones but the public can only obtain the records via an expensive and laborious freedom of information process. Last…

THE Angove Street Festival has been cancelled for this year. Organiser North Perth Local says it will return next year, with smaller pop-up events like car boot sales and park concerts filling the void. The decision’s similar to Beaufort Street Festival being dropped as a big one-day event and the street playing host to smaller…

“THE council did not want to see the Aborigines living in the camp harassed… The [lord mayor] said ‘if we were to step in and try to clear them from the area it would be most inhumane and only add to the tragedy’.” Twenty-nine years ago Perth city council faced a situation that closely mirrors…

PERTH city council gave $24,547 of ratepayers’ money to a kids’ science exhibition spruiking liquefied natural gas, held over the Easter school holidays and in the same week Perth is hosting the 18th LNG conference. Elected members voted unanimously in February to sponsor Scitech Does Gas, paying for the event’s marquee hire and security, and…

THE first of this year’s Transart temporary art projects has been put up, with Perth city council commissioning WA artist Richard Hammer’s kinetic sculpture MMM Energizer which is suspended from two trees in Stirling Gardens for 11 weeks. Allegedly it performs “a mesmerising dance for the viewer” but it was kinda lank when we had…

PERTH city council is trialling “female-friendly” car bays close to the entry/exit points so women don’t have to wander through dark carparks alone. There are 28 pink-painted bays in the Pier Street car park. Men won’t be fined if they park in the bay but they’re “encouraged to support” the trial. While the backlash from…

GOT a dirty secret in your back shed? Probably, says Tim Frodsham, who reckons most people would be unaware how much of a pollution-spewing villain their lawn mower is. Largely unregulated two-stroke motors get away with emissions that would make a Volkswagen executive blush. A joint university study published in Nature in 2014 found cancer-causing…