The appointment of Western Australia’s first minister for Asian engagement shows the new state government understands how deeply embedded the state’s interests are in the Asian neighbourhood.
Protesters gather against the Roe 8 highway extension in Perth.
AAP Image/Bohdan Warchomij
Murujuga, or the Burrup Peninsula, is home to over a million rock artworks. But as concern grows about the impact of industrial pollution on the art, the WA government continues to play down the area’s heritage value.
West Australian Labor leader Mark McGowan said West Australia has the “worst rate of methamphetamine usage in the country”.
AAP Image/Richard Wainwright
Madeleine De Gabriele, The Conversation e Lucinda Beaman, The Conversation
West Australian Labor leader Mark McGowan’s responded to The Conversation’s request for sources and comment regarding our FactCheck on methamphetamine usage rates in Western Australia.
Police seized 200kg of methamphetamine during a drug bust in Perth, Western Australia, in May 2016.
AAP Image/Department of Immigration and Border Protection
West Australian Labor leader Mark McGowan said his state has the “worst rate of methamphetamine usage in the country”. We asked the experts to check the evidence.
Rose Skinner opened her bespoke gallery in 1958.
Richard Woldendorp
Rose Skinner opened her Perth gallery in 1958. But her contribution to the art world has been skimmed in Christopher Heathcote’s recent look at Australia’s early art market.
A termite mound in Cape Range National Park: WA’s geography has helped shape its writers.
Susanna Dunkerley/AAP
With its dramatic landscape, relative isolation and vibrant counter culture, Western Australia has a thriving writing scene. But government funding cuts are biting.
Protesters holding signs next to North Lake Road at Bibra Lake in Perth last month.
Richard Wainwright/AAP
Protest poetry has an esteemed history, from the British war poets to writers behind the Iron Curtain. In Perth, poets are protesting against a contentious road extension and their words are charged.
A march in Perth on Australia Day this year in support of Indigenous people.
Angie Raphael/AAP
Changing the date of Australia Day celebrations – as the City of Fremantle has done – is a move towards a less racist future. And when it comes to challenging insularity, there are other positive signs in Western Australia.
A mining truck drives off in the Pilbara.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Western Australia posted enviable growth numbers for a long time. But the trend is now going the wrong way, and unless something is done soon there will be difficult times ahead.
Officer Woods’ competition entry shows how the wasted spaces of suburban road verges and front yards could be put to much better uses.
Officer Woods
How WA managed to emerge from the mining boom with an estimated debt burden of $40 billion is one of the West’s great mysteries. Or not, if you bother to look more closely.
Just what the doctor ordered - more cane toads.
AAP Image/DPAW
It sounds weird, but releasing small cane toads ahead of the main invasion front can help predators learn to avoid the biggest, most toxic ones. Here’s exactly how it works.
Cartier Island marine reserve is part of a network that covers one-third of Australian waters.
Australian Institute of Marine Science
Marine parks need to cover large swathes of ocean, but they also need to cover the right areas if they are to deliver the best conservation. New research off Australia’s northwest suggests how.
A living coucal from South Africa, whose huge prehistoric relatives lived on the Nullarbor.
Pascal Bernadin
The Nullarbor is an arid, treeless expanse today. But several hundred thousand years ago it was home to a menagerie of species, including two newly discovered giant cuckoo-like birds.
The 2011 heatwave hit kelp forests hard along a long stretch of WA coast.
J. Costa
A 10-week surge in ocean temperatures off the Western Australian coast has killed off large patches of kelp forest, the “biological engine” of Australia’s southern reefs.
Could better regulations have persuaded Woodside not to mothball its Browse gas project?
AAP Image/Richard Wainwright
Woodside’s decision to shelve its $40 billion Browse project off Western Australia’s north is not a disaster, but it does highlight some areas where the gas industry needs to get much smarter.
Stephen Smith’s bid to return to politics as Labor leader in Western Australia has ended in defeat.
AAP/Tony McDonough
A highly competent minister, Stephen Smith now appears to be suffering from relevance deprivation syndrome in his failed attempt to seize the Labor leadership in Western Australia.
Western Australia’s few remaining giant jarrahs are increasingly lonely monuments to the forest’s towering past.
Amanda Slater/Wikimedia Commons
When Europeans first arrived in Australia’s Southwest, they found vast tracts of huge jarrah trees. Now, after logging and dwindling rainfall, only a handful of these giants remain.