Here's more confirmation of the increasing violence in Perth: The state government is launching a massive, coordinated anti-violence campaign:

The plan, backed by more than 30 agencies across health, education, corrective services and police sectors, calls for more health nurses to help troubled children, compulsory alcohol and drug education in schools and more public transport after midnight to stop loitering.

It singles out alcohol as a major cause of violence and calls for tighter controls ...
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Huge, out of control parties are not isolated to Perth, of course. However, this city does seem to have far more than its fair share of them. When I was living in Sydney there were reports of such events, but not nearly as many as I've been reading about in the papers over here lately.

Last weekend several such events occurred. In one of them held in Balga a policeman was knocked unconscious. It's alarming that anyone would be so out of control, but it's worse that the kick was delivered by a ...
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There is now doubt about whether the Big Day Out and other big music festivals will return to Perth due to the Claremont council not wanting them to be hosted at the Claremont Showgrounds. Excessive noise is one of the main reasons, with several complaints being made in recent years.

I can certainly understand people in that suburb and neighbouring ones railing at the noise that such events produce. Back in 2007 I happened to be in Shenton Park at the time the Big Day Out was being held. That...
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One thing I have noticed since returning to Perth back in 2010 is how much more crowded the trains have become. This is really pronounced at peak hour. I haven't ridden on all the lines at this time but I've often caught Midland line trains around knock-off time and been amazed at just how chockas they were.

There must be a lot of frustration about this growing problem for Perth commuters. And Labor are trying to tap into that, encouraging people to express their feeling about the issue on soc...
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Still on the subject of state politicians making observations about big changes affecting Perth, former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett says the frenzy of construction going on in this city is reminiscent of Dubai.

While we certainly don't have as many huge and ornate skyscrapers over here, the skyline has definitely changed a lot in recent years.

The shot below is from North Perth. You can't see every major building in the CBD, of course. Some are concealing each other. But two of the tallest o...
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Having returned to Perth from Sydney close to two years ago, one thing I noticed was how many news reports of amazingly vicious and violent attacks there were in this city. There even seemed to be more than when I was last here in 2006-2007 (I was shocked at all the mayhem being reported at that time, too). But even that period was far worse than when I was growing up here in the 70s and 80s.

I wondered that perhaps this was a kind of illusion resulting from my greater interest in news and cur...
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