What's happening in Perth

The northern corridor is one of Perth’s most significant growth areas, according to Housing Minister John Carey. But other areas are also drawing focus.

One local driver said he had seen “at least” 20 illegal operators working out of Margaret River, offering to drive tourists between wineries for fees that would undercut others by up to 50 per cent.

The 116-year-old pub served its final drinks last year, but developers hope a new two-level microbrewery will pay homage to its rock-and-roll past.

Two riders have been injured after being bucked from a camel during a popular tour on Broome’s Cable Beach.

Bishop of Geraldton Michael Morrissey appeared in WA District Court today as his former colleague Christopher Saunders stood trial over allegedly sexually abusing three young Aboriginal men while he was the Bishop of Broome.

The crash happened about 11.30am, when two cars collided on the North West Coastal Highway in Hamelin Pool, near Shark Bay on WA’s north coast.

When asked at a mining forum in Kalgoorlie what was behind the conflict in the Middle East, Hockey said everything comes back to Russia.

Follow our live coverage of news from around Perth and across WA here.

Meanwhile, the Dockers were able to secure a crucial piece of the premiership puzzle. Read more about how WA’s teams fared over the weekend here.

Could your cat soon be confined to your home? Here’s where councils across WA currently stand on cat containment.

The Cook Government has committed $10 million to finalise the planning, design, and approvals for a METRONET station at Karnup, to be built on the corner of Paganoni Road and Mandurah Road. Works are expected to start in 2028.

The finished station is costed at $156 million. Once it opens, the trip from Karnup into Perth will take about 46 minutes, and residents will be able to travel anywhere on the network for as little as $2.80 under the Go Anywhere Fare.

Karnup will sit between Warnbro and Lakelands on the Mandurah Line, in what is currently the longest gap between two stations anywhere on Perth’s metropolitan rail network. The Liberal Party, which made its own commitment to the station a week before this announcement, puts that gap at about 14 kilometres, with residents in Karnup, Golden Bay, Singleton, and Secret Harbour facing a bus trip of roughly 20 to 25 minutes to reach either station.

The station will also have a bus interchange with at least eight stands, a dedicated pick-up and drop-off area, and more than 400 parking bays.

How it’s being paid for

The $10 million is spread across 2026-27 and 2027-28, and covers the Public Transport Authority completing final planning, designs, and approvals. The rest of the $156 million isn’t locked in. The State Government intends to fund half the project through land sales in the region, and will ask the Commonwealth for the balance through future Budget processes.

“With new housing developments in the process of being finalised, we will continue to see local public transport patronage grow and so the time is right to deliver Karnup Station,” Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said.

Increased housing, increased demand

Planning has been finalised for a 39-hectare housing precinct next to the station site, expected to deliver more than 800 homes. The Government plans to sell that precinct in the final quarter of this year, with the proceeds going towards the station itself.

Around it, DevelopmentWA has partnered with Mirvac on the first 1,500 homes of a 4,000-home joint venture across a 484-hectare master-planned community, and Golden Group has released 1,235 lots on Redwood Avenue off Mandurah Road. All of it sits inside a wider Karnup District Structure Plan, due to go to government later this year, that could eventually deliver up to 20,000 homes.

Karnup has been flagged as a priority growth corridor for years, largely because of what’s being built nearby. The defence precinct at Henderson and the Westport container terminal at Kwinana are both expected to generate thousands of jobs within reach of it.

Karnup and the Secret Harbour by-election

Karnup was a Labor commitment at the 2017 state election, then shelved when the federal Coalition government put its money into Lakelands instead, covering 80% of that station’s cost. Lakelands was completed and opened in 2023. 

Last Monday, WA Liberal leader Basil Zempilas committed a future Liberal government to building it.

“Labor promised Karnup Station in 2013, again in 2017 and again in 2021,” Zempilas said. “Nearly a decade after Labor came to government, there is still no money in the State Budget, no construction timetable and no delivery date.”

That was said a week before the Cook Government put $10 million on the table, and there is now a construction start date attached. There still isn’t a projected completion date, or a confirmed source for roughly half the money.

Karnup sits in the electorate of Secret Harbour, where a by-election will be held on August 29th following the resignation of Paul Papalia in July. A record 16 candidates are set to contest the seat. The Liberal candidate is Rockingham councillor Ryan Robertson.

“People in Secret Harbour and surrounding suburbs are tired of being told Karnup Station is coming,” Robertson said. “They have watched Labor make the same promise election after election while the station has remained unfunded and undelivered.”

The post Karnup Is Finally Getting A METRONET Station, With Works To Start In 2028 appeared first on So Perth

Teams will race to gather and sort as much rubbish as they can at Koombana Bay in Bunbury tomorrow, in the Western Australian debut of SpoGomi, a competitive litter-picking sport invented in Japan. A second event follows at City Beach the next day.

It’s part of Keep Australia Beautiful Week, which runs from Monday to Sunday this week, and brings community clean-ups, school activities, and litter-prevention initiatives to towns across the state. This year’s theme is Beautiful Spaces, Happy Places.

SpoGomi splices the Japanese words for sport and rubbish, and works on a simple premise that teams collect litter within a set area with a time limit, then earn points based on the weight and type of what they gather. It was invented in 2008 and has grown into an international competition with its own World Cup. The Bunbury and Perth events are the first to be held in Western Australia.

“Western Australians care deeply about our environment and Keep Australia Beautiful Week is a fantastic opportunity for everyone to get involved in protecting the places we love,” Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn said.

“Whether it’s joining a community clean-up, taking part in the new SpoGomi litter pickup competition or simply putting your rubbish in the right bin, every action helps create cleaner, healthier communities.”

On the eve of Keep Australia Beautiful Week, the Cook Government has pointed to a 38% drop in litter across Western Australia since 2022, which it credits to community action and state programs including Containers for Change, the container deposit scheme that pays a refund on eligible drink containers.

“The significant reduction in litter across our State shows what can be achieved when governments, schools, businesses, volunteers and local communities work together,” Swinbourn said.

The post Keep Australia Beautiful Week Starts Tomorrow To Create Beautiful Spaces, Happy Places appeared first on So Perth

The two teenagers faces are visible in the video, which has been widely shared across social media, and appeared to show the bird pinned to the floor.

The state government made the announcement just five days after opposition leader Basil Zempilas said locals were tired of waiting for the station to begin construction. The station will be built in the electorate of Secret Harbour.

Police say St John Ambulance were called about an unresponsive man found at a bus stop on the Boulevard in Australind just after 1 o’clock Sunday morning.

In a separate incident, Joondalup Detectives have charged a 15-year-old male after a ride-share driver was the alleged victim of a spray attack.

Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn said there have been more than 2400 reports to the WA Emergency Animal Disease Hotline since June 19.

The Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 scored 97 out of 100, carries a 25-year cellaring window, and sells for $36.99. It took Best of the Best in Ray Jordan’s Top 100 Reds 2026, ahead of the Evans & Tate Redbrook Estate Shiraz 2023 on 96.

This year’s tasting to find the best wine selling for less than $50.00 a bottle was “a real shootout between the 2023 West Australian vintage and the 2024 vintage from other states”, Jordan wrote. The four wines that made the final taste-off all came from Western Australia, showing the state’s depth when it comes to Australia’s best red wines.

When someone like Ray Jordan gives us a list of wines that he thinks are the best drops, we listen and take a lot of notes. But who is Ray Jordan?

Four decades of tasting notes

Jordan has been writing about wine for more than 40 years. His first articles ran in early issues of the national wine magazine Winestate in the late 1970s, while he was working in Sydney as a newspaper correspondent. Between 1989 and 2023 he wrote more than 3,000 columns as a regular newspaper wine columnist. He is the author of the WA Wine Review, and of its earlier title, the WA Wine Guide, which he wrote from 2000 to 2022. 

He authored (and co-authored) multiple books about wine, and in 2011, the WA Wine Press Club awarded him the Jack Mann Memorial Medal for his contribution to the state’s wine industry. He currently writes a regular column for Business News and contributes to the wine platform Wine Pilot.

To say he knows wine is an understatement. It’s like saying the other Jordan knows how to play basketball. 

How does he judge the Top 100?

Every wine in the tasting sells for less than $50.00, and the list is split across four price brackets to make it easy to navigate your own wine journey: 

• under $15.00
• $15.00 to $25.00
• $25.00 to $35.00
• $35.00 to $50.00

Each wine carries a score out of 100, and Jordan judges each bracket on its own terms. And he shows that you don’t always have to spend a lot to get a great bottle of wine. “Quite simply, you can get highly drinkable wines selling at less than $15.00 in Australia,” Jordan says. 

Cabernet came through strongly across every bracket. “We should be drinking a lot more of this great grape variety,” Jordan says. That, of course, is no secret to anyone who’s made a trip to Margaret River, where the cabernets are part of the region’s soul.

Our picks from Ray Jordan’s Top 100

We’ve pulled a few wines from each price bracket based on what we like the most, and what we think you will enjoy. They are obviously all from WA, and we’ve added some notes so you know what to put on the table alongside them. 

$15.00 to $25.00 WinePairs withNikola Estate Grenache Shiraz Mourvèdre 2025Roast lamb, charcuterie, or spiced slow-cooked dishesForest Hill Highbury Fields Cabernet Sauvignon 2024Roast beef, grilled steak, or hard aged cheesesWills Domain Mystic Spring Cabernet Sauvignon 2023Slow-cooked beef, winter casseroles, or grilled red meatFerngrove Estate Shiraz 2023Roast lamb, grilled meats, or mushroom dishes $25.00 to $35.00 WinePairs withAmelia Park Shiraz 2023Braised beef, rich stews, or venisonLeeuwin Estate Prelude Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2023Roast duck, game birds, or herb-crusted lambVasse Felix Filius Cabernet Sauvignon 2023Rack of lamb, roast beef, or mushroom dishesFrankland Estate Shiraz 2023Roast lamb, beef ragù, or mushroom dishesFervor No Royalty Syrah 2023Mushroom risotto, roast pork, or charcuterieLenton Brae Cabernet Merlot 2023Cheeseboards, roast chicken, or lighter red meatsForest Hill Vineyard Malbec 2025Barbecued lamb, grilled meats, or anything with chimichurri $35.00 to $50.00 WinePairs withXanadu Cabernet Sauvignon 2023Standing rib roast, aged steak, or slow-roasted lambEvans & Tate Redbrook Estate Shiraz 2023Roast lamb, duck, or mushroom dishesCherubino Laissez Faire Syrah 2023Duck, charcuterie, or roasted vegetablesWills Domain Eightfold Shiraz 2022Kangaroo, game meats, or peppered steak Download the Top 100 Catalogue Now

The Ray Jordan Top 100 Red Wines 2026 catalogue is available here and at most Liquor Barons stores, with specials running from August 1st to 16th. Many of the wines are limited releases and stock varies by store, so availability won’t be the same everywhere. 

After you pick up a bottle from the list, we’d love to know what you thought about it.

The post Who Is Ray Jordan, And Why His Top 100 Reds Is The Shortcut To A Good Bottle appeared first on So Perth

Amy Nicholls runs sunrise yoga sessions at Mosman Beach. Over the past year, her classes have grown from around 20, to as large as 200 people.

The interest in a British YouTuber on trial in Perth for rape has raised questions about the role of social media and the legal complications of court reporting.