TWENTY FIVE years of Pride festival history has been put on display at the Museum of Perth. The folks from the independent not-for-profit museum have dug through the Gay and Lesbian Archives of WA to unearth posters, photos videos and artifacts from a quarter-decade of Pride. The movement started back in the early days of…

SUICIDE claims a person a day in WA: it is the leading cause of death for Australians aged between 15 and 44. Over the festive period Lifeline estimates it will receive a call every 37 seconds, with one in four callers at imminent risk of taking their own life. “Christmas is usually a time of…

IT’S been 15 years since the belltower opened on Perth’s foreshore, its planning, expense and construction plagued with grumbles. A chief criticism these days—that the belltower is too short and unimpressive—must grate with former Liberal premier Richard Court, who’d wanted a much bigger tower. An editorial in the West Australian newspaper on October 20, 1998,…

MAYLANDS crafty sort Angela Loucaides is urging more people to take up the old time arts and crafts before they die out. Ms Loucaides learned needlepoint back in the ‘70s but has watched with sadness the number of Royal Show entries in her category, and many others, dwindle over the decades. “In 1997 [when she…

HIGHGATE primary school kids, staff and parents are campaigning for a better playspace to replace a sun-scorched square that’s “boring, crowded and heavy on the bitumen”. School board chair Tanya Sim says the school has capacity issues from its growing inner-city population, and it needs to better utilise the small space they have. Numbers are…

STAMPING out crime along Maylands’ Eighth Avenue shopping strip may be as simple as tweaking the street’s design, a Curtin University researcher says. Researcher Paul Cozens and colleague Courtney Babb, an urban planning expert, will soon talk to local traders and collect information on when, where and what kind of anti-social behaviour occurs on the…

JUST months ago WA councils — including the City of Perth — rejected transparency suggestions from Vincent mayor John Carey. Now, the Barnett government plans to write similar measures into the City of Perth Act. Mr Carey says “they’re being dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th century”. At this year’s WA local government association…

BAYSWATER councillor Alan Radford says ratepayers should chip in when it comes to beautifying local streets. Cr Radford told last week’s council meeting he remembered when it was common for residents to help with projects like community gardens. “People took ownership and if someone came along to ruin it, they’d be the first ones to…

FINAL preparations are under way for next weekend’s Light Up Leederville Carnival, with Leederville Connect chair David Galloway saying they’re aiming for “idiosyncratic, eccentric and fun”. He says they’re not looking to pack the streets with a massive rave party, but to keep it local, low-key, and a wee bit wacky. “What makes our carnival…

BAYSWATER train station looks like being a key plank in WA Labor’s campaign against the Barnett government. The station is the first stop on the new Forrestfield-Airport Link project, but is to be largely ignored during the $2 billion rollout. Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker says the plan to only upgrade disability access isn’t enough.…