Posted by Matt Hayden on Saturday, April 5, 2014,
Being in the Curtin Electorate, and living in Mosman Park, I nipped down to the charming art deco
Memorial Hall to place my vote. Mossie Park is a real Liberal Party stronghold, given that it's generally a pretty well off and established suburb with lots of oldsters. (That said, there are chunks of it that are demographically the opposite of this, making it quite an intriguing locality.)
The atmosphere at the polling place was certainly very different to King St Newtown, where I voted a couple...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Friday, March 21, 2014,
I live in Mosman Park, and often head down to the Subway not far from the train station there. Along that stretch of the Stirling Highway the road is too narrow. So is the footpath, especially right
near the station itself. Walking along it always feels a bit fraught, particularly at rush hour. There's a hell of a lot of traffic thundering through there on the way to Fremantle and back.
About a hundred metres form the station there's a busy petrol station where people enter at speed from the h...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, July 15, 2013,
If you drive over the causeway from Vic Park into the Perth CBD you have probably noticed a tram sculpture in McCallum Park, just near the Swan River. I was curious about this and had a closer look recently.
It appears to have been built in a location that was part of Perth's original
tram network. The placard on the work itself says it's part of the Tram Stop Trail Project along Albany Highway and was installed in 2001. I think that other intended stages of this project haven't materialized ...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, July 3, 2013,
Stirling Highway narrows considerably as it goes through the suburb of Mosman Park, making that stretch quite
dangerous for motorists. It's also risky for pedestrians because not only is there a high concentration of vehicles whizzing past but the footpaths are very narrow as well.
There's a very real reminder of the severity of this danger in the form of a makeshift cross on the corner of Glyde St, presumably left to mark the site of a roadside fatality.
About a week ago a dead possum appeared...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, June 25, 2013,
Mayor of the City of Vincent Alannah MacTiernan is angered by WA's new residential housing codes. The
changes are minor:
WA's new residential housing codes, to come into effect on August 2, reduce the minimum open space requirement for multi-dwelling R50 and R60 developments from 45 per cent to 40 per cent.But of course this is all too much for Ms MacTiernan. She says the change will contribute to a heat island effect. Wouldn't be surprised if she
invokes climate change as well ...
I think mos...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, May 21, 2013,
One thing I really like about Perth is how spread out it is. Even though it's much more densely populated than in years gone by, there's still a lot of empty space. And pretty much every suburb contains a nice big park or three. There are quite a few
lakes and swamps around the place, too. You can even find patches of land that are reminiscent of the country between suburbs that are quite close to the CBD and Fremantle.
The area near Dixon Park in Hamilton Hill is an example of this. It's just...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, January 16, 2013,
It's around 1 a.m. on Thursday morning. Close to midnight I was watching TV in my Mosman Park flat and I heard this loud screeching sound followed by a bang that came from the direction of Stirling Highway. Clearly a car had lost contol near the train station and hit an oncoming car or a wall.
I thought it best to have a look because if it was a serious crash and someone was hurt I may have been able to help somehow. It turned out not to be serious, thankfully. But it easily could have been.
B...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, October 24, 2012,
A few weeks ago I was wandering down towards the Swan River in Mosman Park when I came across a sculpture of a dragonfly. It was quite a striking creation in a picturesque setting.
From the plaque at its base I learned that it was comparatively new. Created by
Ben Juniper, it was erected there in 2011.
But it seems that there's has been some controversy about it -- at least soon after
it was placed there.
Some residents complained that Dragonfly, with an installed height of 5.7m and a wingspan... Continue reading ...
Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, October 8, 2012,
There are several pleasant little lakes in the Perth suburbs. One of these is Lake Jualbup in Shenton Park.
I have fond memories of it from my childhood. Friends of the family lived just nearby, in Onslow Road. And we would wander down there sometimes. It doesn't seem to have changed much since then.
Its future does seem in doubt, however, due to hugely varying
water levels. There is a local campaign to ensure that it is permanently
full of water.
I do recall seeing tortoises there. And they ar...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, September 23, 2012,
As I've mentioned previously on this blog there are many locations around Perth that have been so completely transformed in recent years that they bear little or no resemblance to what I remember from my childhood. But there are a few places and buildings that have hardly changed at all.
One of these is the little deli situated on William St, just opposite Hyde Park.
I used to wait at the stop on the edge of the park for the school bus out to Kingsley Montessori every morning for years, after ...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, March 26, 2012,
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 ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, December 20, 2011,
About ten years ago I lived in a unit in Subiaco Road. That block, one of many, is in a great position -- just a couple of minutes' walk to the West Leederville train station, and only bit further to City West Station. It's also very close to the cafe strips of both Subiaco and Leederville.
Subiaco Oval is also just nearby. Whenever there was a game being played there the trains would be chockas with families, all proudly wearing their team colours. On those days and nights you could clearly h...
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