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29 AUGUST 2026 | VOL .53 NO.35
• SUBIACO • NEDL ANDS • CRAWLEY • CL AREMONT • COT TESLOE • PEPPERMINT GROVE • MOSMAN PARK • CAMBRIDGE
Carey’s edict to trash our history By BRET CHRISTIAN
The state government is forcing Peppermint Grove to lose many streets of its 100-year-old heritage homes, when 42ha of vacant state land is available for high density just down the road.
Into the light … Ruby Petrie, 12, left, Emma Boranga, 11, Lucy Bray, 9, Abby Petrie, 14, and Bea Bea Bucher, 15, have seen an explosion in the number of teammates this season helped by new light towers. Photo: Ross Swanborough
Lights attract Magpies By BONNIE CHRISTIAN
So many girls are racing to join Cottesloe Junior Football Club this season the club had to double the number of teams and cap their lists for the first time. “We knew that it was going crazy,” club secretary Lara Bucher said at the club’s Cottesloe Oval playing grounds
ahead of the girls’ final game of the season this month. “We had this groundswell; it was just insane. We were fielding all these phone calls, and we had to shut the list in just a week.” Ms Bucher said Cottesloe’s success could also be attributed to new $300,000 lights installed at the club’s expense that meant the girls had played their
first home games this season. WA Football figures show Cottesloe Magpies have increased their player numbers since 2025 by 114.3%, with 90 girls signed up. This is the highest growth in female participation in any football club in the state. • Please turn to page 72 ■ Glaring issue over footy lights – page 11
Subi minds change after FOI demands
“All of that heritage is going to be lost, and all of that amenity is going to be lost,” councillor Peter Macintosh told a Peppermint Grove council meeting this week. He said the council had approved a plan for 480 new dwellings in the Shire as mandated by the government, which was now demanding 1200 additional dwellings in the historic precinct. “I find it difficult to understand why we are being asked to squeeze all these additional new residences into the area around this particular train station,” Mr Macintosh said. “Just a short distance down the road, there’s 42 hectares of vacant land owned by the state, that would yield far more residences than by destroying the amenity in the localities. “So I would be hopeful that the state would be more understanding than what they have appeared to be so far.” The shire is just 1.06sq.km in area, but has the highest concentration of preserved historic homes built by the state’s pioneers. Council power over train station precincts has been removed, replaced by Planning Minister John Carey’s sole power. A radical revamp forced by the state government would see at least half of the Shire developed with more than six storeys, with some towers of 16 storeys. After a vote this week, the council will encourage locals to back its least-worst scenario, that most believe would still devastate the Shire’s character. This Option B would see forced rezoning for the half of the shire closest to Stirling Highway, in exchange for preserving the heritage areas in the half closest to Freshwater Bay (On the chopping block, POST, August 15). • Please turn to page 73
By LLOYD GORMAN
Eight Subiaco councillors who voted against an extension on an historic 1915 Heytesbury Road home were roped in by an FOI demand to reveal all their private correspondence on the matter.
Tom and Emily Betlehem, who bought 129 Heytesbury Road for $2.8million in 2023, used an FOI application to scrutinise the councillors who voted against their plans. The unprecedented move required councillors to produce correspondence with Subiaco staff, fellow councillors and neighbours. Five of those councillors have since changed their minds and on
How 129 Heytesbury Road will look after the extension is finished. Tuesday approved new plans for the house that were nearly identical to the initial application. Councillor Rosemarie de Vries denied there was any pressure to change her vote. “I wasn’t coerced,” she said. “I’m not feeling fearful of making [a decision].”
The Betlehems appealed to the State Administrative Tribunal after Subiaco rejected the initial plans in February. After two mediation sessions SAT ordered Subiaco council to reconsider slightly amended plans. • Please turn to page 73
Redefining the Standard
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