Category Archives: Perth

Weather tracker: Cyclone Jude causes chaos in Mozambique

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More than 200mm of rain fell in 24 hours, destroying 900 homes and leaving 40,000 people without power

Cyclone Jude was the third cyclone to hit Mozambique this season. First spotted as a depression last Friday to the south-west of the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, it intensified over the next few days to a moderate tropical storm, affecting northern Madagascar on Saturday and killing at least one person.

Jude strengthened into a tropical cyclone as it tracked westwards over the Mozambique Channel, where sea surface temperatures of close to 30C provided the heat and moisture necessary to fuel the cyclone.

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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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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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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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Driver in Perth crash that killed four was speeding on wrong side of highway

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A taxi driver, 58, a mother and daughter, aged 56 and 81, and an unidentified driver of another car died at the scene

A mother and daughter are among four people dead in a fiery crash after an SUV was driven at high speed on the wrong side of a highway.

A grey Toyota RAV4 and a silver Camry taxi collided about 3.40am on Monday on Leach Highway in Perth near the intersection of Abernethy Road, police said.

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Foreign tourists among three dead after Rottnest Island seaplane crash

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Privately owned Cessna 208 Caravan 675 plane was carrying seven people when it crashed off Western Australia coast

Three people have died after a seaplane crashed near Western Australia’s popular tourist destination Rottnest Island with seven people on board.

The privately owned Cessna 208 Caravan 675 seaplane is believed to have struck a small limestone outcrop called Phillip Rock while taking off from Rottnest Island, off the coast of Perth, at about 4pm local time on Tuesday.

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New Year’s Eve fireworks 2024: the best places to watch NYE celebrations around Australia

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Night skies will light up on New Year’s Eve to welcome in 2025. Here’s your guide to child-friendly shows plus what time and where to see the fireworks in Sydney, Melbourne and across the country

Night skies across Australia will light up on New Year’s Eve to herald the beginning of 2025.

Whether you are in a capital city or regional town, there are fireworks displays scheduled early in the night – for children, and those wishing to hit the hay early – and at midnight, for people counting down to the new year.

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Alleged WA cocaine importing ring used small plane, remote airstrip and night-vision goggles

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Two men from Victoria and South Africa are charged with trafficking the drug into Australia

Two men are accused of trafficking 200kg of cocaine into Australia in a clandestine plot involving a small aircraft, a remote airstrip and night-vision goggles.

Australian federal police arrested a Victorian man, 48, and a South African national, 44, in Perth’s central business district at 6pm on Saturday after an investigation that began in October.

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Mineral Resources boss Chris Ellison tells shareholders ‘I hate what I’ve done’ after scandals rock company

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Perth businessman tells AGM he made ‘error in judgment’ as company’s executive pay plans are voted down

Embattled mining billionaire Chris Ellison has told shareholders he can’t stress enough “how much I hate what I’ve done” after a series of scandals engulfed the company he leads, Mineral Resources.

The Perth businessman has previously acknowledged he failed to disclose revenue generated by overseas entities to tax authorities earlier in his career. A company investigation later found he had also used business resources for his personal benefit.

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Australian goldminer to pay Mali $160m to free detained CEO and executives

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Group were held after a meeting about what mining firm referred to as unsubstantiated claims regarding taxes and levies

An Australian goldmining company has agreed to pay $160m ($A247m, £126m) to Mali’s government after the west African country’s junta detained its chief executive and two other employees.

Resolute Mining’s chief executive, Terence Holohan, and the other two employees were detained on 8 November in Mali’s capital, Bamako, at the end of a meeting with government officials over tax and other state claims that the miner had previously said were “unsubstantiated”.

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Perth airport runway undergoes emergency repairs after Qantas plane takeoff

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Video of QF71 taking off on Sunday shows parts of airport’s damaged main runway lifting up as plane accelerates

An accelerating Qantas plane has caused extensive damage to a Perth runway, forcing its closure and emergency repairs.

Video of Singapore-bound QF71’s takeoff at about midday on Sunday shows the plane increasing speed as a large part of Perth airport’s main runway lifts up behind the plane.

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Sky News’ Peta Credlin helped draft Brittany Higgins’ 2021 media statement, court told

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Lawyer for Linda Reynolds tells defamation trial Credlin was told ‘completely rework wherever you see fit’

The Sky News columnist and former chief of staff to Tony Abbott Peta Credlin helped draft Brittany Higgins’ statement given to media in 2021, after her rape allegations were made public, a court has been told.

In closing arguments to Western Australia’s supreme court, where Linda Reynolds is suing Higgins for defamation, Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett on Tuesday said Higgins had a “visceral hatred” towards her former employer and exaggerated how long she had to wait for counselling support following her rape allegations to “suit” her narrative.

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WA premier Roger Cook says murder of mother and daughter in Perth home ‘senseless’ and ‘chilling’

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Gunman shot Jennifer and Gretl Petelczyc, aged 59 and 18, at Floreat home where it’s believed his ex-wife was staying, before taking his own life

Western Australia’s premier says more needs to be done to combat domestic violence after the “chilling and horrific” murder of a mother and daughter by a gunman searching for his ex-wife, though police say they cannot classify it as a family violence matter.

Cook also said he would consider strengthening WA’s tough gun laws, which were recently updated and are in the process of passing through the parliament.

The gunman, 63, shot Jennifer Petelczyc, 59, and her 18-year-old daughter, Gretl, on Friday at their Floreat home, where his ex-wife was believed to have been staying, before taking his own life.

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Threats to school of Perth student who was shot by police dismissed as ‘hacking’

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Police have no concerns for safety, Rossmoyne senior high school principal says, after messages on an internal service threatening to ‘shoot up the school’ were investigated

Fresh threats to “shoot up the school” attended by the teenager who was shot dead by police in Perth on the weekend have been dismissed as a hacking incident, with the school insisting there was no threat to students.

The 16-year-old was fatally shot by police in a car park in Willetton on Saturday night after he stabbed a stranger in the back. The teenager, a white convert to Islam, was known to police and had been in a deredicalisation program for two years.

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Albanese heckled at Canberra rally to end violence against women – as it happened

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Dai Le says funding for domestic violence prevention more important than a royal commission

Asked about social media platform Twitter and Elon Musk’s claims that efforts to ensure a video of a stabbing of an Assyrian priest be taken down globally would constitute a threat to “free speech”, Dai Le says supports the government’s effort but has concerns about potential overreach:

Honestly, how can we not stop images of violence?

What I think government needs to do is to get the funding and target that to communities. Communities are experiencing high domestic violence. Getting it implemented … ,making sure that we don’t alienate one group from another [is important].

It’s just not something people can take. It is very emotional for people and me as a person who escaped Vietnam and being a child who ran from the war, it’s very traumatic for me and very traumatic for people in my community.

I think that everybody, from my understanding, would like a two-state solution.

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Cars submerged and shopping centre roof collapses as severe storm hits Perth

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About 50 calls to SES for assistance as ‘very localised’ storm reportedly dumped up to 130mm of rain in less than an hour

Parts of Perth broke a six-month-long dry spell on Friday with a fierce storm and flash flooding that left people stranded in submerged cars and caused part of a shopping centre roof to collapse.

A spokesperson for WA’s emergency services said SES volunteers had been going “flat out” to help fire crews with rescues. There had been about 50 calls for assistance over the course of the afternoon.

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Mediation talks between Linda Reynolds, Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz postponed

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Reynolds said she proposed a fortnight’s pause in the defamation case after ‘a tiring and difficult day’ of discussions on Tuesday

Mediation between Linda Reynolds, Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz is due to resume in coming weeks after initial talks failed, the supreme court of Western Australia has said.

Reynolds said she had proposed a fortnight’s pause in her defamation case after what she called a “a tiring and difficult day” of discussions on Tuesday. Higgins reportedly attended hospital after Tuesday’s proceedings, which lasted more than nine hours. A further conference scheduled for Wednesday was abandoned.

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War crime accused seeks bail change to fly across Australia

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Oliver Jordan Schulz, who is accused of murder over the shooting of a young Afghan, applied for his bail conditions to be loosened

A former SAS soldier and accused war criminal requires assessment by police checking in on him while on bail because his military training presents a physical danger, a court has heard.

Oliver Jordan Schulz, 42, is expected to be able to fly to Perth to visit his lawyers after a bail variation hearing at Sydney’s Downing Centre local court on Monday.

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Perth bushfires: lives and homes under threat as heatwave worsens blazes near Chittering

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Fire breaks out at RAAF base as firefighters battle four significant blazes in the Wanneroo and Chittering areas

A potentially dangerous fire has broken out at an RAAF base as soaring temperatures and windy conditions cause havoc for firefighters north of Perth.

The blaze broke out on Saturday afternoon near the entrance to RAAF base Gingin, a facility primarily used for pilot training, as large parts of the state faced heatwave warnings.

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Australian capital city rents up 13% over year as further hikes predicted for 2024 amid housing shortage

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Housing advocates call for urgent reform to address growing crisis as capital rents hit average of $600 a week

Australia’s record shortage of rental properties will continue to drive prices up for tenants, analysts say, with a new report revealing combined capital city rents rose 13.2% year-on-year.

Data from PropTrack, the property analytics division of REA Group, has revealed national rental prices rose 11.5% over the past year, with combined capital city rents up 13.2% to an average of $600 a week, driven by large increases in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

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