Category Archives: Western Australia

Stinging deaths, back yard poisons and billions spent: model predicts Australia’s fire ants future

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Exclusive: Cost blow-out has experts worried people will use ‘huge’ volumes of pesticides to protect themselves from ‘tiny killers’

Australian households will spend $1.03bn every year to suppress fire ants and cover related medical and veterinary costs, with about 570,800 people needing medical attention and 30 likely deaths from the invasive pest’s stings, new modelling shows.

The Australia Institute research breaks down the impact of red imported fire ants (Rifa) by electorate, with the seats of Durack and O’Connor in Western Australia, Mayo in South Australia and Blair in Queensland the hardest hit if the ants become endemic.

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Blair: $1.7m in medical costs, $1.5m in vet costs and $5.1m in household pesticide costs.

Dickson: $1.4m in medical costs, $1.2m in vet costs and $4m in household pesticide costs.

Ryan: $1.5m in medical costs, $1.3m in vet costs and $3.4m in household pesticide costs.

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Aboriginal women are scared to seek help for fear their children will be taken, report finds

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Human Rights Watch spoke to 33 Aboriginal parents who between them have had 114 children removed and placed in out-of-home care

Warning: this story contains distressing descriptions of violence

Briana* was just starting to get a handle on the unpredictability of feeding, bottles and all that comes with a newborn when she received an email informing her she had lost custody of her three-month-old son.

Days later, child protection authorities took her child. With him, they took many of the milestones the 36-year-old first-time mother was looking forward to. “I’m going to miss those first words, the first rollover, everything,” she says.

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Perth mayor and former journalist Basil Zempilas’s bid to lead Liberals to power in Labor-faithful WA

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Zempilas admitted he would continue to write unpaid for his former employer Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media and appear on Channel 7’s Sunrise program

Basil Zempilas’ punt for leadership has sailed straight through the goalposts, in a gameplay by Western Australia’s Liberals that surprised nobody.

As the nation waited for the federal budget to drop, Zempilas took centre stage on the steps of the state parliament to announce his unopposed appointment as opposition leader.

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Ningaloo and Great Barrier Reef hit by ‘profoundly distressing’ simultaneous coral bleaching events

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Scientists say widespread damage to both world heritage-listed reefs is ‘heartbreaking’ as WA reef accumulates highest amount of heat stress on record

Australia’s two world heritage-listed reefs – Ningaloo on the west coast and the Great Barrier Reef on the east – have been hit simultaneously by coral bleaching that reef experts have called “heartbreaking” and “a profoundly distressing moment”.

Teams of scientists on both coasts have been monitoring and tracking the heat stress and bleaching extending across thousands of kilometres of marine habitat, which is likely to have been driven by global heating.

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Fatberg weighing 30,000kg is pulled from a sewer in Western Australia

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The blockage – thought to be the state’s biggest ever – was discovered at a wastewater facility during routine maintenance

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The biggest ever fatberg found in Western Australia has been pulled from a sewer, weighing in at 30,000kg.

Fatbergs are made up of material that cannot dissolve in water – such as oil, grease and wet wipes flushed down sinks and toilets – which then pile up and stick together.

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Western Australia election: Liberals fail to attract swing required as Labor secures third-term victory

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WA Labor will hold a third term in office, with the early vote count showing the Liberals failing to gain traction with any significant swing

• Western Australia has one story about the gas industry. It won’t accept dissent from ‘over east’

Labor will govern for a third term in Western Australia, with the Liberal Party failing to attract the swing required to threaten Roger Cook’s majority.

Polls predicted a 12-13% swing could put up to 11 seats in reach of the Liberal party.

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WA teenager charged over alleged ‘Christchurch 2.0’ online threat to Sydney mosque

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Sixteen-year-old arrested on Tuesday in south-west Western Australia over alleged Instagram comment

A 16-year-old boy has been charged in Western Australia over an alleged online threat, which police claim alluded to a terrorist massacre, against a recently opened Sydney mosque.

The comment on the place of worship’s Instagram page allegedly threatened to “Christchurch 2.0” the mosque at Edmondson Park in the city’s west, an apparent reference to the New Zealand city where an Australian man killed 51 worshippers in 2019.

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Premier claims WA a ‘renewable energy powerhouse’ but leaked document shows wind and solar projects have ‘stalled’

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Exclusive: Government document confirms electricity from large-scale renewables has flatlined, with one campaigner saying pipeline has ‘little sign of life’

Officials have warned the Western Australian Labor government that work to build wind and solar farms for the state’s main electricity grid has stalled under its leadership, a leaked document shows.

A confidential state government document reveals state bureaucrats advised the government that the “decarbonisation work program” in Perth’s electricity grid had “stalled to date”. It said there were “few new wind developments” advanced enough to be added to the grid before the promised closure of a coal power station in 2027.

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Cassius Turvey seen holding his bloody head after chase in bushland, court told

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A witness describes how she saw three men arm themselves before seeing a 15-year-old boy covered in blood

An Indigenous teenager was spotted holding his bloody head after being chased into bushland by two men with metal poles, a murder trial has been told.

Cassius Turvey, a 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after prosecutors say he was chased, knocked to the ground and “deliberately struck to the head” in Perth’s eastern suburbs on 13 October 2022.

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One of Cassius Turvey’s alleged murderers sent concerned messages after another boy allegedly beaten up by her co-accused, court hears

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Sister of another boy allegedly attacked in days before 15-year-old was killed tells jury about Facebook messages checking up on his welfare

A woman accused of murdering an Indigenous teen sent messages inquiring about the welfare of another boy allegedly beaten up by two of her co-accused, a court has been told.

Cassius Turvey, a 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after prosecutors say he was chased, knocked to the ground and “deliberately struck to the head with a metal pole” in Perth’s eastern suburbs on 13 October 2022.

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Pilbara community evacuated by helicopter over Cyclone Zelia flooding risk

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Storm quickly weakened after making landfall east of Port Hedland with strongest parts hitting remote areas

Properties have been damaged and large trees uprooted by an ex-tropical cyclone still wreaking havoc in Western Australia, with record rainfall triggering significant flooding from which people are being evacuated by helicopter.

Tropical Cyclone Zelia made landfall in the north-west of Western Australia on Friday and was quickly weakened as it crossed the coast east of Port Hedland.

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‘Going to be a big one’: category five Tropical Cyclone Zelia and 320km/h winds headed for Western Australia coast

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‘Top of the scale’ winds strong enough to take out complete houses, destroy power lines and cause widespread damage and disruption

Schools, ports and roads have been closed as northern Australia braces for a tropical cyclone that has developed into a destructive category five system bringing ferocious wind gusts up to 320km/h.

Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia has rapidly intensified since developing off the Western Australian coast and is forecast to be at its most dangerous and powerful when it hits land.

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Group was ‘drunk, rowdy’ before WA teenager Cassius Turvey allegedly murdered, court hears

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Witness tells trial the group accused of murdering WA boy was ‘a little bit drunk’ and armed themselves with weapons before the incident

An Indigenous teenager’s alleged killers were drunk, rowdy and packing weapons, a witness has said, before admitting he lied under oath at a murder trial.

Cassius Turvey, a 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after prosecutors say he was chased down, knocked to the ground and “deliberately struck to the head with a metal pole” in Perth’s eastern suburbs on 13 October 2022.

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Gang violence sparked by ‘love triangle’ led to Cassius Turvey killing, court told

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Four adults accused of murdering the 15-year-old in Perth after becoming involved in a dispute between two teenage boys over a girl

The girl at the centre of the “love triangle” that allegedly led to the death of Cassius Turvey in a Perth suburb has taken the stand at his murder trial.

The 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy died in hospital 10 days after he was “caught, knocked to the ground and deliberately struck to the head with a metal pole” in Perth’s eastern suburbs on October 13, 2022.

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Indigenous teen Cassius Turvey’s alleged murder ‘not racially motivated’, court hears

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Prosecutor tells jury ‘it is not the state’s case’ the alleged murder was racially motivated

A man accused of swinging the weapon that killed an Indigenous teenager says the dead boy stabbed him before a friend allegedly struck the fatal blows, with a court told the attack wasn’t racially motivated.

Cassius Turvey, a 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after he was allegedly struck in the head with a metal pole in Perth’s eastern suburbs on 13 October, 2022.

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Sewer fatberg of ‘grease and rags’ forces Bryan Adams to postpone Perth concert

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Singer was due to perform Sunday night but authorities worried large blockage could cause sewage to back up in venue toilets

An enormous fatberg in central Perth has forced a Bryan Adams concert to be postponed after authorities raised concerns that sewage may back up at the venue’s toilets.

Adams was due to perform at the Western Australian capital’s RAC Arena on Sunday night, but the city’s water corporation said a “large blockage of fat, grease and rags” was causing wastewater overflows at nearby properties, prompting authorities to intervene.

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‘Intensely hot’ weather continues in south-eastern states as Victoria battles bushfires

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Heatwave not expected to end until Tuesday or Wednesday as fires burn in multiple national parks

South-eastern states sweltering in a heatwave may be waiting until late Tuesday or Wednesday for a cool change to bring some relief.

On Monday, temperatures in Melbourne peaked at 37.8C just before 4pm, after a high of 38C on Sunday.

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Police missed red flags before WA man killed a mother and daughter on hunt for ex-wife, report finds

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After Ariel Bombara claimed WA police ignored repeated warnings her father was dangerous and had guns, eight officers now face disciplinary action

Police officers missed red flags and should have seized the guns of a man who went on to kill a mother and daughter in a search for his ex-wife, an internal investigation has found.

Mark Bombara killed Jenny Petelczyc and her 18-year-old daughter, Gretl Petelczyc, in their suburban Perth home, before taking his own life.

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In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732.

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Rain causes power outage for tens of thousands of Perth homes as long weekend brings hot weather

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Heat moving east with temperatures over 40C expected in South Australia and Victoria

Light drizzle after a long dry spell is to blame for a series of fires that have cut power to tens of thousands of homes in Western Australia, while extreme heat is set to dominate the remainder of the long weekend in Victoria and South Australia.

A spokesperson from Western Power said dozens of pole top fires had left 38,000 homes in the Perth and midwest regions of WA without power on Saturday morning.

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Western Australia bushfires: homes reportedly lost and thousands told it is too late to leave

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Three properties lost near Arthur River, about 200km southeast of Perth, while another property near Yellanup destroyed and many homes without power

At least four homes have been burnt down as large bushfires sweep Australia’s west, with thousands of residents told it is too late to leave their properties

Hot weather and strong winds have fuelled several bushfires in Western Australia, including one in the Wheatbelt region that has burnt about 11,000ha.

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