A SERVICE will be held for Aboriginal soldiers this week, with the local Aboriginal-language choir Madjitil Moorna choir composing a song in their honour. The choir started back in 2006 as a community arts project in Kalamunda, and soon proved pretty popular with people wanting to learn the language. Coordinator Jo Randell says there was…

AFTER decades of private ownership the old Trades Hall is back in union hands, with the CFMEU shifting its HQ to the restored 1911 building. The Beaufort Street hall was an early office for many trade unions and used to house the WA branch of the Labor party. In 1985 it was sold to Delaney…

NORTH PERTH photographer Brad Serls chronicles the death of his suburb’s houses, documenting character homes as they enter their final days and face the bulldozer. Having long carried a camera, he recently stumbled on a book about New York’s abandoned storefronts and it inspired him to start a record of his own area. Paradise “North…

THE majority of Perth’s homeless are in the most dire category of need, requiring permanent supportive housing to get off the streets. Community services group Ruah this week presented the findings of its homeless registry week to Vincent council. It found 204 people sleeping on the streets across the CBD, East Perth, Northbridge and Maylands…

THE WA housing department and Vincent council are in talks over the future of the infamous Stirling Towers block of units in Highgate. The fate of most tenants at the complex—dubbed Suicide Towers, Hell Towers and Psycho Towers—may well end up in limbo as a result. At a briefing to councillors this week Matt Negus,…

ABYSMAL living standards in cheap accommodation may explain why many country people visiting Perth for medical treatment prefer to sleep in Wellington Square. The WA government’s patient-assisted travel scheme gives patients $60 per night towards accommodation. The WA country health service recommends several “reasonably priced” options near the main Perth hospitals, but all cost more…

A GLUT of vacant shops in the Perth CBD is proving a boon for pop-up shops. Angelo Tancredi pays a cheap rent for his Basics and Beyond pop-up in Raine Square, but rules dictate he must vacate the space every six months for at least 24 hours before being able to re-sign for another six…

PLANS to open Bayswater’s first pop up food van have so flummoxed council staff they want six months to scratch their heads before agreeing to it. Catherine Ehrhardt understands the bureaucrats’ desire for a formal policy to be in place, but reckons she should be allowed to open in the interim, even if only for…

MARIE WYLIE is giving Bayswater Waves the third degree—over 1.5 degrees. The 65-year-old has submitted a 51-signature petition to Bayswater city council asking for the Waves’ 25-metre lap pool to be kept at 31.5 degrees all year round. The council currently keeps it at 31.5 in winter but drops it to 30 in summer. Ms…

LETTERS, medals, photos and memories of Perth during WWI are sought (for loan) for an upcoming exhibition Perth on the Verge of War. Richard Offen from Heritage Perth says “we’re trying to put together an exhibition by the people, for the people, as it were, and looking for those personal things that just tell us…