THE restoration of Walters Brook in Mt Lawley will be celebrated with a community planting day. The Swan River tributary—effectively a Water Corporation drain—had been heavily eroded by fast-running water and contained little of its original vegetation. In 2013 Vincent city council started a $173,360 facelift by re-contouring banks, installing gabion baskets (wire frames filled…

THE DE RUYTER family is planning to open a multi-million dollar wine bar-cafe and live music venue in Maylands. Three-storey “Lyric Lane” would have a licensed function room in the basement— earmarked for live music and comedy—and a cafe-bar on the ground floor. The top two floors would be used for office space and limited…

NO, Michael Sutherland isn’t ordering NASA furniture for his speaker’s chamber, nor launching a burger chain in space, he’s chatting with busker Claude Woodward. The Perth-born “Sonic Manipulator” has been touring the world for years with his bastardised synths and homemade instruments, bamboozling crowds with bleeps and blips. After a successful stint in England where…

EVERY doll has a story, Noongar dollmaker Geri Hayden says. “I grew up on a reserve in Brookton,” she says. “All my old nanas used to make dolls out of materials. “What they did was any cloth, clothes or a little baby rug or whatever, they’d get that and wrap it up, tie it up.”…

WA transport minister Dean Nalder has opened the door to a ride-share service setting up in Perth, in direct competition to traditional taxi operators. Last month he met with Uber, the Google-backed company behind the ride-share service, and is receptive to changing regulations to ensure the service can operate legally. “There are three broad concerns…

AS the rest of us count our coppers following the federal Budget, Stirling city council is spending $25,000 to send two councillors to California for a three-day conference on sustainable infrastructure. While there, councillors Joe Ferrante and David Lagan—both of them former Liberal candidates—will meet with LA mayor Eric Garcetti (or his representative) to talk…

BEDFORD residents want Beaufort Street made safer for children and elderly pedestrians. Alana Culverhouse is lobbying Bayswater city council to install a central median island at the Bedford end of the street and a dedicated pedestrian phase at the Grand Promenade lights. She also wants speed reduced to either 50 or 40kph. “As a parent,…

BAYSWATER Soccer Club wants the council to invest in Frank Drago Reserve so it becomes the home of WA football. Football West has for the past few years been kicking around for a site where it can build a state-of-the-art $25 million HQ, including a 5000-seat stadium, three pitches, offices and an accommodation block. It…

STIRLING mayor Giovanni Italiano says he “very disappointed” the WA government has backtracked on its commitment to relocate the WA commerce department in Stirling. The department will instead be relocated to existing offices in Cannington: “The city is very disappointed with the decision as an investment of this scale would greatly stimulate the economic and…

WITH three-quarters of Perth’s GP services bulk-billed, Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan says locals will be hit hard by the Abbott government’s $7 GP fee. “Particularly with the elderly, the management that the GPs engage in really keeps people out of hospital,” she says. A “tsunami of babies” in the electorate may also see young families…