Perth / Western Australia

After this year's Astrofest was skipped the next will be held in February 2026.

Also for those looking for a journey out of town here is a list of Astrotourism Towns, looks like they're mainly across the Wheatbelt, which figures.

Tonights the big night! Happy 50th Birthday Connies! I reckon it'll be a wild night.

Was going to go camp at bald hill to check out the meteor shower but given the weather I might pass and just try and drive somewhere for a quick squiz with the wife before heading home.

Any spot suggestions within a 45 ish min drive that have a good view north and not a ton of light pollution?

Pretty bloody bad fire out there today!!

A Manjimup fisherman says the State Government has ignored more than a decade of community warnings about declining fish stocks, amid fears the recent West Coast gillnet ban will create new pressures further south.

On December 3, the State Government announced a full closure of all commercial demersal gillnetting in the West Coast bioregion.

It includes a 50 per cent commercial catch reduction for zone two on the South Coast.The West Coast bioregion will become an exclusively recreational fishing zone for snapper and dhufish following a 21-month recovery closure for boat-based recreational fishing, remaining permanently closed to commercial fishing for demersal fish from January 1, with a compulsory buyback of commercial fishing licences.

The reforms aim to protect demersal fish like pink snapper, red emperor and dhufish from extinction and to help stocks recover for future generations, with scientific stock assessments of WA’s prized demersal fish showing species are under “severe threat”.Under the reforms, the West Coast fishing region from Kalbarri to Augusta will not reopen on December 16.

While many fishers are worried this will mark the end of their businesses, Manjimup man Wayne Pedretti, who has been campaigning to save the region’s fish stocks for years, believes it could just push the problem further south.

He remains concerned about the vulnerability of local species.

Having fished in the Broke Inlet, 25km west of Walpole, for nearly 50 years, Mr Pedretti said the well-known breeding ground for pink snapper and groper remained dangerously unprotected, despite years of warnings.

Mr Pedretti told the Times he had repeatedly voiced his fears to governing bodies as part of the group Save Our Fish Stocks, formed 13 years ago.

The group believes netting should be banned at Broke Inlet to protect the breeding grounds.“We were told over a decade ago that the commercial sector would reduce their catch by 50 per cent — we thought we finally had a win,” he said.

“But the very next day, they reneged. If they had stuck to that agreement, maybe we wouldn’t be going through this now.”

Mr Pedretti is increasingly frustrated at the lack of action, and said he had offered to take decision-makers to the inlet to show them the problem first-hand

“I offered to set a small 60m net overnight and show them the hundreds of dead pink snapper and groper we would get in that net in the morning,” he said.

“I could explain that the pros use kilometres of net, then they might be able to see the damage, but they were never interested.”

He said the threat of gillnetting boats coming into South Coast waters to avoid the complete ban would devastate the region — and it was already happening.

“A mate called me and said they’re all down netting along Long Point, west of Walpole,” he said.

“They are going hammer and tongs before the reduction kicks in. If they are allowed to continue in this way, the breeding stocks will be pillaged and the inlet and the region will never recover.”Premier Roger Cook said the changes had been “difficult decisions to make” but it was “the right thing to do”.

“We want our kids and grandkids to be able to enjoy fishing in our beautiful State into the future,” he said.

“Our iconic demersal fish species like dhufish and snapper are on the verge of extinction in some parts of WA, so we need to take urgent action to save them for the future generations of fishers.

“We know that these reforms will have a large impact on the fishing industry and sectors, and we have been working with them closely throughout this decision-making process.

“We will be providing a $29.2 million Fisheries Support Package to help them to adapt to the incoming reforms and establishing an advisory council to provide guidance as the reforms are implemented.”

There will also be a 21-month ban on people recreationally fishing for demersal species from boats until September 2027, after which Ms Jarvis said some key breeding grounds would remain closed for up to 10 years

Opinion Piece: Trevor Whittington is the WA Farmers chief executive officer and a former staffer to former Fisheries minister Norman Moore

Under the Minister’s new regime, that three million kilograms is being carved up in a way that defies logic: around two million kg for the 10,000 “hunter-killer” high-intensity rec fishers and the remaining one million kg shared between 700,000 beach, dinghy and occasional fishers – plus the two million non-fishers who also own the resource

The rational options were obvious: (1) shut the West Coast demersal fishery for 10 years – for everyone – keeping all licences intact and rebooting only once stocks recovered, or (2) cut the total allowable catch proportionally across all sectors, even if that meant reducing today’s catch by a third.

Instead, the Minister chose the worst possible outcome: remove the commercial sector permanently and gift their share to the recreational side – a small minority of whom vastly out-fish the 700,000 ordinary, low-impact occasional fishers they claim to represent

Dr Andrew Rowland is the chief executive officer of Recfishwest - opinion piece

Pay walled but interesting

One more seat has been left empty in the Shire of Donnybrook-Balingup council chambers following a second resignation. Effective from November 26, the shire announced Cr Alexis Davy had resigned, with her term not set to expire until October 2027 after being elected in 2023. She is the second councillor to quit since October’s election, with former councillor Lisa Glover resigning on October 24.

In an online statement, Ms Davy said she respected those in the shire who serve the community, but a decision was backed that she so strongly disagreed with that she has left the table. “Over the last two years I’ve learnt that working in local government is a choice to put yourself in a challenging environment day after day - financial constraints, aggrieved community members and constantly evolving complexity,” she said. “As a councillor, you are required to represent your community on issues that affect them. You debate, sometimes you disagree, you vote, and then you are required to stand behind every decision of council. A decision was made by council I feel strongly about, and in the interests of a united council, I’ve decided to step down from my role.”

Chief executive Nicholas O’Connor said having fewer councillors could present challenges such as reduced community representation, but acknowledged some community members would see the situation differently. “The previous term of council decided to seek community views on the pros and cons of reducing the seats on council from nine to seven, which is a conversation we were contemplating having with the community,” he said.

Is this really the answer? Competition and fuel watch leads to a tight turn around. I don't think the writer really explained why its a seven day cycle adequately.

I can see the argument Kate Holmes (writer) is making but failed to draw the causal connection with her domino analogy.

Why 7 day cycle and not 5 day, or 10 day?

If smaller retailers know its a seven day cycle why not pick a mid-low price point and hiver there all week? Become known for always having predictable low-ish prices?

What a cool building! Surely theres something that can be done with it.

Heres some other pics,

^https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/news/collie-project-manager/^

^https://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/editorial/industry-news/heritage-listing-unique-wa-roundhouse^

^https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/news/collie-roundhouse-remediation/^

^google maps screenshot^

Found this data trove today.

Recommend to check one dataset, and it's associated paper. Maybe post anything interesting that you find.

Not recommended to go full rabbit-hole and read a days worth of papers. (or go for it)

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From a paper in the Science section,

Monitoring of Humpback Whales in the Pender Bay, Kimberley, 2009 to 2012

"it was observed that the number of whale sightings decreased around midday as well as a shift in the whales’ behaviours from more visible displays like blowing to less visible activities such as surface travelling."