AN empty house being used as a squat in Highgate is causing grief for neighbours, who’ve suffered six burglaries in three weeks. Police attended 124 Wright Street three times in three days this week, and it’s no secret that some inhabitants are behind the thieving: on one occasion neighbours wandered through the squat’s open door…

THE Swan Festival of Lights is soon to brighten up the Perth foreshore to mark the Indian festival Deepavali, which celebrates the the triumph of light over darkness. In its eighth year in Perth (but old beyond reckoning), the ancient Hindu festival commemorates Lord Rama and his wife Sita returning to Ayodhua after exhile. They…

THE internet is so slow at Michael’s Dianella house it takes hours just to load images into an email. Instead, mates send photos to him on a USB stick — via the post. Michael’s internet service provider Optus has sent him documents indicating AM radio waves are interfering with his connection. He says Optus technicians…

AFTER almost three years of nomadic hockey games in public schools and car parks, Perth’s Street Roller Hockey League has found a home, breathing new life into the Bayswater Bowls Club. A smooth concrete slab was laid over a bowls green that had been damaged in a freak storm five years ago. SRHL commissioner Eamonn…

A BAYSWATER ranger went above and beyond in helping out a homeless woman and her three kids sleeping in Bardon Park in Maylands. In this week’s “councillor’s column” published in the council newsletter, Michelle Sutherland tells the tale of security officer Radomir Petrovic who came across the mum and her kids aged 6, 9 and…

THE folk from walking tour group Two Feet and a Heartbeat are trading in their walking shoes for a treadly, for a bike history tour around Vincent. Two Feet’s gone great guns and won many an award for its walking tours around the city but Vincent council’s pulled it up north of the border to…

MICHELLE SUTHERLAND is trying to resurrect plans to turn Lightning Park into an educational and eco-tourism hotspot. The Bayswater councillor recently won support for a working committee to investigate the creation of a multi-million dollar sustainability centre at the A-class reserve in Noranda. “Aside from the education and cultural benefits that a centre would bring,…

IT is 1975 when Caroline Wood begins looking for work in Perth, just days after flying in from her birthplace, Singapore. The migrant, with Indian heritage, suspects her accent is working against her. “It felt like I wasn’t given much of a chance and that it had a lot to do with how I sounded,”…

DOZENS of Bayswater locals are fighting to save two century-old heritage buildings from demolition. Resident Jacquie Kelly has launched a petition asking councillors to block plans for a seven-storey apartment complex at 9–11 King William Street. The council approved demolition in February — requiring just the facade to be kept — but residents aren’t giving…

TWO local film-makers are seeking out anyone named Vincent for a Guinness World Record attempt at Dorrien Gardens. Commissioned by Vincent city council as part of its annual film project, director Ashleigh Nicolau and writer Thomas Baskerville are documenting an attempt to gather at least 1101 people named Vincent to break the record. The current…