THE 90-year-old Michelides tobacco factory is likely to be demolished, with a divided Perth city council planning committee giving owner Graham Hardie the thumbs up to knock it down. It’s still to go before full council but committee members Rob Butler and Judy McEvoy say they support the demolition because the building is decrepit and…

A LOCAL technology company is hoping its new smartphone app will help visitors avoid a trampling this Australia Day. Inhouse Group’s Skyworks app, commissioned by Perth council, lists the day’s events from the citizenship ceremonies in the morning to the fireworks and laser display from 8pm. It also comes with: • a pop-up reminder when…

TAFE students are thinking about dropping out midway through courses as the reality of fee increases—some up to 400 per cent—hit home during enrolments this week. Eighteen-year-old Joondalup resident Kimberley Beisley travels to the Central Institute of Technology in Northbridge, but says she might drop out because she can’t afford the second year of her…

TIME’S up for Perth’s million-dollar sapphire atomic clock, with Perth city council planning to handball the project back to the increasingly parsimonious state government. At this week’s planning committee councillor Reece Harley said the clock saga, which has been floating around almost a decade, was “best described as a debacle.” The bumpy road began when…

LEEDERVILLE has lost one of its most diligent amateur historians, with Florence Lehmann (nee Venables) dying on January 8, aged 98. A church pianist and salvation army volunteer, she lived in Leederville her whole life and was the matriarch historian among the Venables clan, meticulously collecting documents and passing on old stories about the well-known…

THE public transport authority has been given the green light to push ahead with a railyard extension in East Perth over the objections of nearby Tully Road residents. Locals from the Tully Road Action Group fear the five dead-end tracks will lead to round-the-clock noise and vibrations might damage their homes. Peter Kroll submitted a…

ALANNAH MacTIERNAN says she misses being Vincent mayor and has mixed feelings about her new job as a federal backbench MP. The veteran pollie—formerly a WA planning minister—stood down as mayor in September after winning Perth for Labor at the federal election. “I knew when I took the job that it wouldn’t necessarily add to…

CONRAD LIVERIS is shedding his suit and tie and living for a week on Perth’s streets. He’s hoping sleeping rough will help him better understand homelessness and see where services are needed. “It gives us an insight into the struggles for homeless people at this time of year,” he says. “I’ll have a better understanding…

STEVE FLETCHER has been inundated with calls from bee lovers following the Voice’s story on his battle with pancreatic cancer (“Stung into life’s joy,” January 11, 2014). Steve used the therapeutic effects of bee-keeping to help him through a gruelling year of chemotherapy and surgery. He wants to find homes for more hives and received…

AFTER a 10-year struggle to try to keep them alive, Vincent council looks set to remove the ailing London Plane trees (right)in Birdwood Square. The trees along Bulwer and Beaufort Streets are suffering from honey fungus, which damages roots but doesn’t immediately show visible symptoms. It spreads by producing fungal roots that emerge from the…