A showcase of the worst examples of architecture, design, culture and humanity in Perth Western Australia. Posts may contain adult concepts and occasional coarse language. Commenters and those submitting material should read the policy page first.
LA I must confess that I am a Worst Of Perth addict.
I have been leaving my children in the car outside the casino, while I sit at home completely consumed by the latest worst ofs.
Worst opening hours? Bottle-o’s open at 8.30 in the morning (why?) and closed by 8pm (no chance of fine wining and dining into the night then?). Truly amazing/ridiculous…
I know this kind of place. They cater for the seasoned day drinker. Two four litre casks of Buronga Ridge 8:45am everyday, no questions and no bullshit.
There’s one just like it in East Perth opposite the park and Silver City.
As a contender to Worst architecture, have you driven past the “flats” being built between the casino and the golf course? Reminiscent of Singapore in the 1970’s but with million dollar price tags. They dont improve from the river view either. Vic Parks’ Bromley(?) Towers are even better. To top it off they all face west to cop a blast from the setting sun. So not only UGLY, appalingly energy inefficient. I suppose that if you can afford one of these you can afford to run the air-conditioner full time too and you probably may not care what others think.
Do you mean Brownley Towers JE? They are in Bentley, but I know what you mean. Regarding the air conditioner stuff. Have a look at the appalling Subi redevelopment. All the places are roasted by the sun and have no shading eaves. You can’t open a window.
The dingiest and dirtiest shopping centre I have encountered in all Australia, KOONDOOLA PLAZA SHOPPING CENTRE, Koondoola Ave and Burbridge Ave, Koondoola, smashed up shops, bullet holes, needles and graffiti etc. bars on everything, no maintenance or security, right next to a tavern! Especially their XXX, where they like to repack damaged foodstuffs and do body searches on customers. XXX should keep some standards of health, they must know what is going on.
If you’re ever in the vicinity of Padbury, do pay a visit to Forrest Plaza Shopping Centre–surely a contender for one of Perth’s worst. While you’re there, you’ll notice a two-storey house across Forrest Rd which can only be summed up with two words: “The” and “Castle.” Between 4 to 6 cars on the front lawn, and there is a sliding door on the first floor which opens onto, well, nothing!
Actually, the Whitfords area (Rob Johnston’s stomping ground, incidentally) is a veritable gold mine of sins against good taste, where The Castle aesthetic abounds. Head about a mile north along Marmion Ave to see a circular monstrosity known as Our Lady of the Mission Church in Craigie (which is almost as bad as the A-frame Our Lady of Grace Church in North Beach). In fact, I heartily recommend the Camberwarra Drive walking tour. Be sure to bring your camera, but be discreet–or prepared to run very fast–as it’s Bogan city. Eddystone Avenue is another can’t-miss.
Or head east and then north via Whitfords Ave and Northshore Drive, until you reach Mullalloo Beach. Before you will stand one of the gaudiest mansions you ever did see–white with pillars encrusted in what look like silver diamontes.
Kallaroo is another story. Dampier Avenue separates the haves from the wish-they-hads. Bridgewater Drive (in the wish-they-had quarter) is pencil pine central, and I daresay contains the highest concentration of Aussie flags on flagpoles on the face of the planet.
I’ll have the car serviced so there’s no chance of a breakdown. Actually I’m more worried about getting the koondoola shopping centre. I’m going to have to take leave to get this. Will try to get out that way maybe saturday. I’ve photographed around the world but Koondoola..?
Yes there are mysteries about Perth. The lady in the river on the rubbish bin. Incidentally she wore a nice frock for Melbourne Cup day. A bigger mystery is the old power station in East Perth. The only thing that seems to happen to it are new signs like ” opening soon Your government at work blah blah blah”. We owe much to Alannah McT.
It was an interesting exercise finding that address via Google: all the BS drama that goes with those FHs. The most interesting one was the army person staggering down Raleigh Rd no doubt in hot pursuit of a rocket launcher.
I haven’t seen it mentioned yet (so forgive me if it has been), but there’s a church backing onto Guildford Rd somewhere around 1st or 2nd Avenues that has next to it a one-story, vaguely art deco, white, um, building that urges us to “Pray For Australia”.
I don’t have a USB connection for my phone, but I can text a pic I took while walking home a coupla weeks ago. Email me with your number if you like…
Worst voters:
The people of Stirling for thinking that six figures worth of billboards & bus stop ads mean they have a hard-working local member; and for choosing a baby-faced silvertailed real estate agent over a scar-faced right-on war hero…
Worst (Federal) MP:
Michael Keenan, for saying during the campaign that the day Workchoices was passed was the best day of his life (girls - guess what - he’s single!). Here’s hoping he enjoys the next few years as much as the low-paid workers of Australia have enjoyed the past few.
Great website. How about worst feature film with scenes in Perth? We’ve had some that Perth can be truly proud of - Japanese Story and Nickel Queen come straight to mind.
Ah, the nickel queen. Also Harlequin. There was a local movie that had Dave from Diffs in it. I actually worked on some bad Perth movies. Day of The Panther , The Strike of The Panther, and Zombie Brigade.
This site is great… been living in the UK for a while and it brings back so many memories, especially of Morley. The ‘Pray for Australia’ church is very close to my heart.
Could we have a category for “Public Spaces”. Has anyone had a look at the new landscaping arrangement at Point Fraser in East Perth? It is an absolute abomination. I recently had to rescue a bewildered and non-plussed young Irish backpacking couple who were totally confused and shell-shocked by this hugely expensive shadeless ugly triangulated maze that goes no-where despite having walkways wide enough to take a combine harvester.
We used to have a nicely treed and fairly natural parkland / bushland riverside walk, that just needed the river bank to be tidied up and repaired. Now we have an synthetic and unfriendly nightmare of stainless steel and concrete, that gives no access to the river shore - just frustration and anger at the desecration of nature.
Could the new Lord Mayor please visit this site and arrange for it to be sorted out.
Here I go again, still in East Perth, at another Public Space.
If I had a dream…..it would be to pull out all the palm trees from Queens Gardens.
Their horrid top-heavy verticality spoils the look of this garden.
In my mind’s eye I try to imagine how beautiful this park would be………….just with the soft random shapes of the deciduous and native trees….
If you want to see what I mean, just compare the gentle elegant look of the South shoreline of the river, with the tawdry and serried row of palms on the canalised North shoreline.
How about the perth state art gallery. Ugly brutalist architecture on the outside. Just as abysmal on the inside. Rarely ever any really interesting sculpture on display, or paintings for that matter. Perth needs a new and more visionary contemporary state art gallery with a more exciting collection and format.
Philanthropy. Perth multi-millionaires if they’ve ever heard of such a word.
Even try experimenting with giving unknown outside artists a go when it comes to putting on exhibitions and such. Not only all the little insiders [ and we know who they are dont we girls].
Well, LA, since you so bravely took up my suggestion and travelled to the John Curtin Memorial in the deep south of Fremantle, I give you the Eliza Crawley Baths Sculpture (actual huming beans not included):
Well LA, I think Tony Jones deserves a post all of his own.
How does he fit it all in? Apart from being one of the nation’s top journalists, presenting Lateline four nights a week, he’s also an ace Perth sculptor.
But recent efforts (Crawley, above) and the CY O’Connor memorial somewhere south of Freo here:
Tony Jones is part of the club that use the platform of ‘concerned politics’ as means to ensure they get all these commissions.
If you dont agree with them its because your mysoginist, anti-environment, racist, whatever.
They really suffer from the ‘too much competition is bad’ syndrome.
Tony Jones is part of the club that use the platform of ‘concerned politics’ as means to ensure they get all these commissions.
If you dont agree with them its because your mysoginist, anti-environment, racist, whatever.
They really suffer from the ‘too much competition is bad’ syndrome.-greg hoey
Couple of suggestions :
1) Telstra Phone Exchange building on Wellington St - how could anyone have ever thought it was a good idea to plonk a windowless beige monlith in the CBD.
2) Telstra Phone Exchange on Pier St - it took over 3 years to renovate the facade of this piece of shite and we still ended up with a piece of shite
3) Barrack St between Wellington and Hay, Murray St between Barrack and Pier, William St between Wellington and Hay. $2 shops for cheapskate cretins, gaming arcades for Asian drug dealers, internet cafes for unemployable turds this whole precinct deserves nothing more than a cluster bombing
4) The entire suburb of Hillarys. No amount of neo-classical columns will disguise the fact that you are a tit and you have more money than taste
These are all good suggestions sniglet. I am wondering wether the big Telstra on Wellington is more a curiosity thanbad, now it has been up for so long.
“I definitely second the suggestion for worst Christmas Lights in Perth. There are certainly some shockers!”
Indeed Amy. And as we have entered the six-week news-free zone, The Waste will inevitably be featuring every godawful neon calamity celebrating Happy Birthday Jesus in the early news section.
One question, though. As we’ve just had a change of government based, at least in part, on climate change, how much extra power per house do these monstrosities consume?
Can we not have a name and shame campaign? Peace and goodwill be buggered.
QV1 building - I know, I know its a Harry Seidler creation but he also created the universally hated Blues Point Tower in Sydney. It’s OK when you’re right up close but from a distance it is abhorrent, it just doesn’t fit no matter where you are viewing it from. It always reminds me of a big piece of chalky dog crap.
Esp,, people in SUV’s. Uncreative, arrogant, lazy, obstructive, dangerous, nasty, short tempered.
on December 13, 2007 at 4:56 pm71 La Plaza Bentley
Surf wear. Perth is awash with the crap. In fact, my impression is Perth wardrobes are influenced by surf leisure wear more than any other Australian city. Bad wrap around shades, older people in flouro with terrible extreme sports slogans.
Look, I know WOP can’t be everywhere, but haven’t we missed something?
“PAGEANT LIGHTS UP PERTH CITY
Carmel Sander and Michael Washbourne
December 07, 2007 10:00pm
THE spirit of Christmas swept through Perth last night as a glittering procession of 40 floats made its way through city streets in the 35th annual RAC Channel Seven Pageant:
Yes, I should have been there. We did consider taking the boy, but decided it would have been too horrible. I am going to try and get all the decorations in the city this weekend though.
on December 16, 2007 at 12:59 pm80 Anonymous Perthon
I must confess, I love the tacky christmas lights although the english imagery, as in snow et al could be improved upon - Where are the six white boomers?
(did I really see Bart Simpson in amongst that lot, I can’t bear to look again in case it’s true)
Worst library:
The new library at ECU Joondalup. Seriously, it’s hideous. It’s all bent and log-cabinny, and has a hideous mix of aubergine and some awful green coloured shutter things covering the front.
And apparently, for all the money it cost to build, it only has slightly more shelf-space than the old one did.
lovely coloured walls, attractive metal shelves and I particularly like the idea of having every shelf an inch higher or lower than the adjacent one.
I nominate the whole of Port / Leighton Beaches - no improvement in facilities for the last 30 years and easily the most neglected bit of coastline in the metro area. At Port the disgusting changerooms/toilets are locked at 7.00 pm - this hasn’t changed with the Daylight Saving trial so it can be hot and sunny (real time 6.00pm) with hundreds of people at the beach and the toilets and changerooms locked.
Leighton Shores(”A Place for Everyone” says the billboard - but not if you have less than a million $$ for a dogbox) has been enhanced by planting 6 mature palm trees into the sand and the installation of street lights; they didn’t bother to put in street lights on the section of road between Cottesloe and Leighton Shores - this is actually West Coast Highway, which becomes a single lane, unlit hazard of roaring trucks, cyclists and cars turning into/off the road into parking areas. A disaster.
I nominate Geraldton as the home of the worst interior design taste in WA (the exteriors aren’t much either) - enjoy the smorgasbord of lace, vomit curtains, exposed interior brick and stuffed animals by searching the real estate listings - some of my favourites:
This is more of a mystery than a ” Worst of “. Why is the centre of Indian worship in Perth in Canning Vale ? We have the Sikh temple in Nicholson Rd and the Hindu temple in Warton Rd.
Now that I’ve put on dry pants (as a result of this admirable listing) I’d like to say thanks to LA and all the rest of you for this brilliantly illuminated reflection of what makes Perth - Perth.
No Bill, sorry I actually meant Bayswater. there’s an old christian church that’s been converted to some kind of subcontinental establishment. Just behind shops on King william. The buddhist is a converted squash courts I think
Talking of bad sculptors and their sculptures, Robert Hitchcock (who I HATE to admit may be a relation of mine) created the Yagan statue, infamous for continuously losing his head. I have an odd feeling that Uncle Robert may have been chopping the head off himself just so he could receive the exorbitant commission to make the replacements. Alas, if only I had proof!
Nettie I was wondering how one gets to see Yagan these days as he is fenced off with savage kangaroos to guard him. I liked how the head looked more and more like Ridge Forrester from The Bold and the Beautiful every time.
Can you get permission to go into his compound?
Across from yagan is the burswood sculpture park. Oh my god! some of those pieces just so crass. Esp., the one of herb elliot and margaret [surname eludes] holding torch I think.
I doubt it LA. I don’t even talk to my Uncle if I can help it. He’s a complete asshat to be honest. I haven’t see the statue in years and years - well before the whole lost heads thing. I didn’t even know they had it all fenced off now, although it doesn’t surprise me. But one has to wonder what the point of having a sculpture is if the public can’t even view it?
The giant baby painting on the wall of Baby Goodie, 320 Great Eastern Highway, Midland. But be warned - I was never afraid of the dark until the moment I clapped eyes on that thing. Now I sleep with the lights on.
Err, the ‘Ling and Rang-er are pretty well outside the Independent Republic of Fremantle I’m afraid LA.
For Teh Worst Southside I’d recommend the Davilak Tavern at the Satan’s Arsehole end of South Terrace.
The bottleshop staff in particular are really customer friendly.
As in “I just love waiting for 11.00 to roll around and seeing that last desperate group of Aboriginals stumbling up the street to nick all the grog and then shutting the rollerdoor…”
on January 19, 2008 at 10:32 pm125 Frank Calabrese
This ain’t my pic, but this pic of our Newest Opposition Leader deserves a post of it’s own :-)
I notice he’s polished off a couple of tins of that execrable middleweight cat’s piss known and reviled as The Red Death. That’s disappointing. Should’ve been two cans of Kenny at the very least. What sacrifices he must make to avoid the Droop.
Can I suggest a new category: “WORST PERTHONALITY”
I think the term “Perthonality’ encapsulates everything that is worst about this town - especially the kind of Z-list microcelebs that it is used to describe - and the pathetic way they mug up to the cameras assuming somebody knows who the f**k they are.
unfortunately the queen bee of this annoying swarm has left us, and I kinda miss Rose now that we are forced to look at the also-ran wannabees.
I will start the ball rolling by nominating Basil Zempilas, whose relentless self-promotion is only matched by his incompetence. I recall him commentating of an Olympic basketball match involving the Czech Republic, and spending the entire broadcast referring to them as Czechoslovakia, despite being corrected repeatedly by his co-host.
Other contenders:
1. that Ugly-iti woman (already mentioned on this site)
2. Troy Barbagallo (can I be the first to point out that his name, in Italian, means “hairy c*ck” ?)
3. Susannah Carr (why is she still on the telly?)
4. that annoying blonde with the whiny nasal voice off the travel show
5. John Hughes (you’re not a philanthropist John, you’re a bald second hand car dealer, and we don’t care about your overdressed trophy wife)
I wouldn’t class Ledger as a “Perthonality”. he was a genuine international star of real talent. Once you get an Oscar nomination, I think you move onto the A-list, and get the hell out of this town.
to class as a Perthonality, one must be famous only in Perth, unknown outside, and yet must act as if getting your picture in Holly Wood’s column is equal to an Oscar nomination.
I went to see “Hey Hey it’s Saturday” when they recorded it at Burswood in ‘92 or thereabouts. Gary Shannon was a guest on the show as a ‘local Perth radio personality’, but was struck dumb with stage fright. he blew his big opportunity with a national audience, poor lamb, and his star has receded along with his hairline
I nominate Subiaco for pure ineptutide and beauracratic idiocy,
led by a Mayor and a CEO who with all the vision of Mr Magoo.
I won’t even go into the extensive list of suspect decisions made by these incompetents’, but at the top has to be preventing small bars from opening within 200m of the existing hotel.
Maybe the CEO’s holiday house is on the CCC radar, maybe not?
This holiday home. If it’s ugly, tell me where to find it. Yes, this small bar thing is crap. They have finally resolved it in Sydney. Melbourne has so many interesting small bars around. It really does make a big difference to the city.
on January 31, 2008 at 3:04 pm137 Anonymous Perthon
I hate to give these guys any extra publicity but did anyone see those two idiots caught for a years worth of graffiti vandalism - one got prison and one got off. Weren’t they a little OLD to be tagging around town? In the picture (in the West Australian) one has his own surname tattooed on his arm! I don’t think you can get any WOP stupider or more pathetic than that.
Nomination for most stupid story ever in worst newspaper (well this week anyway)…. isn’t it typically intellectually backward not to be able to synthesise competing concepts…. it’s harmless fun AND embarrassing yobboism, where’s the controversy?
How about the worst nightclub of the eighties?
I suggest Pinnochios of Murray Street, What a Dump!, but well patronised since late night clubs were few and far between in those halycon days, SNORT!
Damn it all. I spotted Julie Bishop’s powered roller-skate - a contender for worst graphic design/worst car - outside a worst graphic design shop in West Perth this arvo.
Sadly, the mobile phone-cam had been left at work, and really I couldn’t be fucked. Bugger, bugger, bugger.
Yes architecture is fascinating ‘n all, but your site ‘motto’ says it features the worst “Humanity” - yet I haven’t seen you post any of the youtube video’s floating around of the Aust.Day “Mullalloo Riot” or “Cott Girls Gone Wild”… ?
This movie, currently being shot on campus at UWA, looks like a worthy successor to the Panther films. Is it possible to nominate a ‘worst of future Perth’?
A rather optimistic view of LA. Every time you read “Los Angeles”, replace it with Perth. It’s scary how familiar it sounds.
My point is, if you complain about Perth not being enough like Melbourne, f*&k off and live in Melbourne. If you want European planning models to enrich the urban fabric, go and live in Europe.
Perth is great, warts and all.
I do have my rather good photos of perth via flickr on the sidebar, but 1000 to 1 prefer to see bad. That’s people. There is also another blogger linked with best of Perth architecture on there too. A best of Perth blog would have cobwebs, the occasional sound of a dog barking in the distance and no hits. Talking worst gets people in, but there is much discussion on why people do like some of the things posted there.
Oh Lordy, it would read like some sort of chip-on-the-shoulder weekend supplement to the local newspaper.
I have been trying to find a terrific feature article in Perth from *Wallpaper magazine in London. It highlighted Perth’s good points, i.e quality of life and climate, whilst making fun of how quiet and timid the place is.
it had a brilliant photo of a woman holding a baby standing proudly on her new housing block by a “Sold” sign, but all you could see was a rectangle of sand bounded by a super six fence.
the only quotes I can recall were:
“like the Swan River, Perth is very clean but also rather shallow”
“why have a revolving restaurant on top of one of the tallest buildings, when all you can see is 50,000 bungalows in every direction?”
I don’t doubt that nearly all of the contributors to this blog love Perth and would not want to live anywhere else. If they did not love it, no doubt they would have indeed bugg*red off and lived somewhere else. Plenty of contributors have lived elsewhere, and are hoping to bring the best elements of their experience to benefit Perth.
I think for most of these contibutors here their love of Perth is forever clouded by the distinct possibility that their city is going to be thoughly f*cked up by parochial politicians, dodgy developers, ignorant journalists, opinionated myopic commentators and reactionary NIMBY residents, who conspire to prevent this city from realizing its potential.
The wonderful tasteless cr*ap that graces this site acts as a constant reminder of what can happen without vision, planning and a desire to have this city measured against world standards.
Is it just me or are there way too many people driving around cars with personalised plates? And some of them are truly shocking - VANILLAICE, 4U2CMEFLY and YAHBABY to name a few. A nice little category I think
Hi Skink,
Cheers for your reply. Please elaborate on the world standards though. World standards in planning, density, aesthetic? Please list the world standards and their attributes you’d like to see taken on in Perth.
I don’t believe that anyone of these parochial politicians and Laissez Faire developers you refer to are conspiring at all. I am of the opinion that it is exactly these people that have already brought these “world standards” to this city, only to be interpreted poorly or accepted without question by uneducated planning authorities and the more complacent general public. Did someone say Public space?
We also come from the mentality of the quarter-acre. With that comes Suburbia. Ask any member of the general public if they are willing to give up their backyard, or their quiet, or their 1.5m side boundary setback. I will be the first one to support anything that enlivens the city, and I am also a huge advocate for density. I love it, it is the most environmentally sustainable solution for cities hands down. But the majority don’t.
We’ve had too much space for too long. And to every action (everyone getting their space) come a reaction (the endless decentralised city. the lifeless freeways, the noise restrictions). You can’t have it all, and Perth has chosen. We are democratic aren’t we? If it was to be another way, I’m sure it would.
Perth has taken on an organic nature of its own, an endless abyss of suburban nests spreading north and south for hundreds of kilometres, geographically confined by the ocean and the hills. If you can’t handle this huge landscape made entirely from concrete and quarter-acre lots, interspersed with fuel stops stocked with mrs macs pies and expensive soft drinks you don’t need, then stay away as I don’t think there is any likely hood its going to change without petrol prices trebling. But you can already see a reaction to this, more fuel efficient cars that can still push you all the way out to your nest in the suburbs.
I also have lived in Europe, and America and the people I stayed with would give their right leg to have the open space that we enjoy, and the lifestyle. And the quarter-acre.
Perth is how it is. It could be better. Such as a train to the airport perhaps? Anyway, the more I read this site the more I love it, just as TWOP does.
Look forward to hearing from you Skink. Keep up the posts, this site is fantastic.
An excellent and thoughtful comment DJ. A comment like this every now and then raises TWOP above just slagging off. Don’t do it to often DJ, I have to keep my 80% slagging, 20% thoughtful quota!
The other week I saw an electric blue Subaru WRX with the plates ‘Oedipus’. My mind truly boggled. I wished i could see the driver.
I did bugger off and live somewhere else for 6 years and it really sucked (Canberra). I visited Sydney and Melbourne a lot to get away from Canberra, and despite being big exciting cities they pretty much sucked too. They’re big, the people are stuck up and bogged down, and they’re too far away from here.
I missed Perth SO much, even and especially the bad things like the not very bright public debate, the hoons, the demolition, the ugly cars and buildings and eavelessness….
I check out this site and ‘Perth’s best architecture’ every day and they both make me look around with new appreciation of it all. (and they cover some of the same things sometimes like Midland Train Station).
yes, Perth has a wonderful lifestyle, climate, standard of living etc, and we all love our quarter acre blocks (if only I had one)
you didn’t read my last posting carefully - we all love Perth and I agree that I’d much rather be here just now than in my old flat in London, but this city has taken its good luck for granted for a long time, and needs vision for the future
but since you want some areas that can be improved, and that Perth does badly, here we go:
1. Planning - I agree with you that Perth needs higher density, or should we say mixed density. The sprawl is becoming too great and the infrastructure does not keep up. Personally I live close to the city so don’t give a sh*t about how far the city sprawls and how long the poor commuters spend trapped on the freeway in their single-occupant SUV’s, but I would like to see more life in the city centre.
Alannah made a great comment last year about Perth people building McMansions on big blocks in the middle of nowhere, then complaining that the roads/schools/services were not good enough. But why are they allowed to build out there? and why are they allowed to build such bloody awful starter castles?
My favourite recent example of the idiocy of Perth planning is that they are finally going to build the Mandurah bypass, and before it is even started they are planning a new town on the route to clog it up with local traffic, which is exactly what happened to he last bypass.
I don’t believe any of the rubbish about ‘organic growth’. Organic growth like an oak tree or like a cancer?
2. quality - there seems to be virtually no planning controls on the quality of new buildings, both public and private. Developers are allowed to build down to a price, rather than build up to a quality. Just look at all those Indonesian-quality condos, ‘warehouse’ developments that are just tilt-up sheds, and the convention centre as examples.
3. yes, a rail link to the airport, and a three-lane road. Last week I got stuck on Gt Eastern Highway trying to get to the airport at 5pm - the airport traffic had a lower priority than the drive-in KFC.
4. the waterfront. endless argument - no good ideas - and every time they do make a change, it is for the worst. they should look at other waterfront cities, study carefully, invest public money, get the best architects, and then leave it just as it is. Do not let developers anywhere near it because we’ll just get another Claisebrook Disneyfication, and it’s not like anone enjoys the ‘riverfront cafe lifestyle’ there, apart from the kids sliding down the hill on cardboard boxes, and a few tossers in Lamonts.
finally - please stop that tiresome “if you don’t like it, move somewhere else”. you sound like some grunter on talkback radio.
We are all allowed to live here and criticize our fair city, just as we are allowed to support the cricket team and yet yell abuse at Punter every time he fails to pick the doosra
I don’t know if this has already been suggested or even dealt with, but there is a house in Tuart Hill alongside Wanneroo Road that looks like something out of Bram Stoker. I can’t recall the exact location, but it’s on your left hand side as you drive north along Wanneroo Road–either just before you get to Cape Street, or just after (overlooking Acapulco Annies). The house is massive and has been there for as long as I can remember.
I think I know the one AV. I have slowed the Camry, but haven’t stopped yet. A big square thing? Near the place that should get a mention for worst name, The Mighty Quinn Tavern, formerly something like El-Dorado Tavern, or was it San Miguel? I’ve made you think about Wanneroo Rd all the way from japan?
How about a worst of perth teeshirt comp that can be voted on by readers, the winners could have their shirt made up.
Hey L.A this is meccano new and improved, meccano101. keep up the bad fight.
Hey Meccano. Like the av. I pictured you bulkier.
I’m just big boned.
LA I must confess that I am a Worst Of Perth addict.
I have been leaving my children in the car outside the casino, while I sit at home completely consumed by the latest worst ofs.
speaking of casino’s, remember the public outcry when that went up. How do we feel about it these days?
It’s still a craphole with Asians in polyester pants wandering about looking for somewhere to smoke. Supposedly to be demolished.
Demolished, wow. It only seems like yesterday it went up.
Ah the giant fly zapper - such memories. Crap memories.
You’ve gotta add a category of airport to your list of the worst. It’s asking for it.
It’s on my list, which is nearly 100 topics long. I’m having to post twice a day to keep up. The Maracoonda motel nearby also.
Worst opening hours? Bottle-o’s open at 8.30 in the morning (why?) and closed by 8pm (no chance of fine wining and dining into the night then?). Truly amazing/ridiculous…
Yes. Shopping hours ridiculous. Will get a picture of closed shop to illustrate your point. Great suggestion.
I know this kind of place. They cater for the seasoned day drinker. Two four litre casks of Buronga Ridge 8:45am everyday, no questions and no bullshit.
There’s one just like it in East Perth opposite the park and Silver City.
As a contender to Worst architecture, have you driven past the “flats” being built between the casino and the golf course? Reminiscent of Singapore in the 1970’s but with million dollar price tags. They dont improve from the river view either. Vic Parks’ Bromley(?) Towers are even better. To top it off they all face west to cop a blast from the setting sun. So not only UGLY, appalingly energy inefficient. I suppose that if you can afford one of these you can afford to run the air-conditioner full time too and you probably may not care what others think.
Do you mean Brownley Towers JE? They are in Bentley, but I know what you mean. Regarding the air conditioner stuff. Have a look at the appalling Subi redevelopment. All the places are roasted by the sun and have no shading eaves. You can’t open a window.
The dingiest and dirtiest shopping centre I have encountered in all Australia, KOONDOOLA PLAZA SHOPPING CENTRE, Koondoola Ave and Burbridge Ave, Koondoola, smashed up shops, bullet holes, needles and graffiti etc. bars on everything, no maintenance or security, right next to a tavern! Especially their XXX, where they like to repack damaged foodstuffs and do body searches on customers. XXX should keep some standards of health, they must know what is going on.
Thanks baily. Haven’t been out that way for a long time, Had a similar suggestion for Nollamara. Thought I might need to obscure name of rogue trader.
If you’re ever in the vicinity of Padbury, do pay a visit to Forrest Plaza Shopping Centre–surely a contender for one of Perth’s worst. While you’re there, you’ll notice a two-storey house across Forrest Rd which can only be summed up with two words: “The” and “Castle.” Between 4 to 6 cars on the front lawn, and there is a sliding door on the first floor which opens onto, well, nothing!
Worst church: St Lawrence’s, Balcatta. Almost as tacky in design as the houses in the area.
Worst name for a nightclub: The G Spot, Joondalup (not sure if it’s still open)
I’ll make it my business to be in Padbury
You won’t be disappointed.
Actually, the Whitfords area (Rob Johnston’s stomping ground, incidentally) is a veritable gold mine of sins against good taste, where The Castle aesthetic abounds. Head about a mile north along Marmion Ave to see a circular monstrosity known as Our Lady of the Mission Church in Craigie (which is almost as bad as the A-frame Our Lady of Grace Church in North Beach). In fact, I heartily recommend the Camberwarra Drive walking tour. Be sure to bring your camera, but be discreet–or prepared to run very fast–as it’s Bogan city. Eddystone Avenue is another can’t-miss.
Or head east and then north via Whitfords Ave and Northshore Drive, until you reach Mullalloo Beach. Before you will stand one of the gaudiest mansions you ever did see–white with pillars encrusted in what look like silver diamontes.
Kallaroo is another story. Dampier Avenue separates the haves from the wish-they-hads. Bridgewater Drive (in the wish-they-had quarter) is pencil pine central, and I daresay contains the highest concentration of Aussie flags on flagpoles on the face of the planet.
I’ll have the car serviced so there’s no chance of a breakdown. Actually I’m more worried about getting the koondoola shopping centre. I’m going to have to take leave to get this. Will try to get out that way maybe saturday. I’ve photographed around the world but Koondoola..?
The lady in the river who has appeared along Mounts Bay Rd. WTF ?
She appears to be standing on a rubbish bin.
Who is this moistened bint of whom you speak BillO?
there’s a new sculpture I think in crawley.
Yes there are mysteries about Perth. The lady in the river on the rubbish bin. Incidentally she wore a nice frock for Melbourne Cup day. A bigger mystery is the old power station in East Perth. The only thing that seems to happen to it are new signs like ” opening soon Your government at work blah blah blah”. We owe much to Alannah McT.
Also has any body got any shots of the Coffin Cheaters headquarter after the arson attempt ?
what street is it on? Do you know Bill?
It’s in Raleigh Rd in Bayswater.
It was an interesting exercise finding that address via Google: all the BS drama that goes with those FHs. The most interesting one was the army person staggering down Raleigh Rd no doubt in hot pursuit of a rocket launcher.
I haven’t seen it mentioned yet (so forgive me if it has been), but there’s a church backing onto Guildford Rd somewhere around 1st or 2nd Avenues that has next to it a one-story, vaguely art deco, white, um, building that urges us to “Pray For Australia”.
I don’t have a USB connection for my phone, but I can text a pic I took while walking home a coupla weeks ago. Email me with your number if you like…
i’m real close. I’ll go have a look.
worst christmas lights of perth!
35 ally. I have a shot of them already. will be up soon
Oops, my Pray for Australia place can actually be found around 7th Ave, not 1st. What can I say - I’m new in the area and can’t count or read… ;)
POLITICS!
Worst voters:
The people of Stirling for thinking that six figures worth of billboards & bus stop ads mean they have a hard-working local member; and for choosing a baby-faced silvertailed real estate agent over a scar-faced right-on war hero…
Worst (Federal) MP:
Michael Keenan, for saying during the campaign that the day Workchoices was passed was the best day of his life (girls - guess what - he’s single!). Here’s hoping he enjoys the next few years as much as the low-paid workers of Australia have enjoyed the past few.
Appropriate graphics can be found on his website
http://www.keenan.net.au/
Is he the hoon man?
Not sure… you mean tough on hoons?
yes, I think he was anti hoon.
Great website. How about worst feature film with scenes in Perth? We’ve had some that Perth can be truly proud of - Japanese Story and Nickel Queen come straight to mind.
Ah, the nickel queen. Also Harlequin. There was a local movie that had Dave from Diffs in it. I actually worked on some bad Perth movies. Day of The Panther , The Strike of The Panther, and Zombie Brigade.
Like the av Lazy. Takes me back to the days of the 150th celebrations and G’day from WA t-shirts.
I got one, not physical, but unique to Perth.
The Transperth website.
It is absolute shit.
Following up on the anonymous poster’s comment about the Transperth web site - how’s about Transperth Smart Rider for Perth’s worst concept.
Do I need to go into detail? I’d be here all night if you need me to…
This site is great… been living in the UK for a while and it brings back so many memories, especially of Morley. The ‘Pray for Australia’ church is very close to my heart.
A few of my Perth favourites:
1) There’s an absolute hideous house on Wanneroo Road near the ABC transmitter that is walled by a metal grille fence and stuffed full of old cars and radio antennas. It’s roughly here:
http://maps.google.com.au/?ie=UTF8&ll=-31.853238,115.825145&spn=0.004001,0.010042&t=h&z=17&om=1
2) It’s a little advertised fact, but the CSIRO Arctic division has built some igloo houses in Kewdale on Rual Place:
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&hl=en&time=&date=&ttype=&q=Leach+Hwy,+WA,+Australia&sll=-31.981434,115.921812&sspn=0.031961,0.080338&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=0,-32.033391,115.885299&ll=-31.9713,115.924119&spn=0.001998,0.005021&t=h&z=18&om=1
… you just have to see it.
Thanks mate will have a look.
Could we have a category for “Public Spaces”. Has anyone had a look at the new landscaping arrangement at Point Fraser in East Perth? It is an absolute abomination. I recently had to rescue a bewildered and non-plussed young Irish backpacking couple who were totally confused and shell-shocked by this hugely expensive shadeless ugly triangulated maze that goes no-where despite having walkways wide enough to take a combine harvester.
We used to have a nicely treed and fairly natural parkland / bushland riverside walk, that just needed the river bank to be tidied up and repaired. Now we have an synthetic and unfriendly nightmare of stainless steel and concrete, that gives no access to the river shore - just frustration and anger at the desecration of nature.
Could the new Lord Mayor please visit this site and arrange for it to be sorted out.
Here I go again, still in East Perth, at another Public Space.
If I had a dream…..it would be to pull out all the palm trees from Queens Gardens.
Their horrid top-heavy verticality spoils the look of this garden.
In my mind’s eye I try to imagine how beautiful this park would be………….just with the soft random shapes of the deciduous and native trees….
If you want to see what I mean, just compare the gentle elegant look of the South shoreline of the river, with the tawdry and serried row of palms on the canalised North shoreline.
How about the perth state art gallery. Ugly brutalist architecture on the outside. Just as abysmal on the inside. Rarely ever any really interesting sculpture on display, or paintings for that matter. Perth needs a new and more visionary contemporary state art gallery with a more exciting collection and format.
Philanthropy. Perth multi-millionaires if they’ve ever heard of such a word.
Even try experimenting with giving unknown outside artists a go when it comes to putting on exhibitions and such. Not only all the little insiders [ and we know who they are dont we girls].
But god that building for an art gallery!!
Well, LA, since you so bravely took up my suggestion and travelled to the John Curtin Memorial in the deep south of Fremantle, I give you the Eliza Crawley Baths Sculpture (actual huming beans not included):
http://www.cityofperth.wa.gov.au/imagedb/275.jpg
Now, I’ve done a bit of swimming in my time, and I have never attempted to:
a) overwhelm fellow swimmers with my amazing powers of hypnotism, just to get a spot in the lane,
b) dived from a fruit-crate, or
c) turn into some sort of Mussolini Super-Swimmer.
All in all a quite magnificent effort.
Press release here:
http://www.cityofperth.wa.gov.au/web/Media-Centre/?article=64
It looks like she’s standing on a rubbish bin. I had a shot of a bin to go with a pic of this, but you beat me to it. CK
I don’t live that far from the bathing lady ‘mussolini’ sculpture and often walk past it on the way to perth.
It is typical of a tony jones public sculpture. Has to be seen from afar otherwise it makes you cringe.
Perth does not have any really accomplished sculptors of the figure. At least any that get commissioned to make sculpture.
And arses are notoriously hard to do, as we have seen from the Station job.
Well LA, I think Tony Jones deserves a post all of his own.
How does he fit it all in? Apart from being one of the nation’s top journalists, presenting Lateline four nights a week, he’s also an ace Perth sculptor.
But recent efforts (Crawley, above) and the CY O’Connor memorial somewhere south of Freo here:
http://www.abc.net.au/perth/stories/s1884836.htm
suggest he should be kept well away from attempting to replicate anything that may have once been living or breathing.
I have never been to Stirling, bit this looks like an early attempt at replicating the human form:
http://www.stirling.wa.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/98091C3A-651A-435B-BC3E-A1A6804CD514/0/CoS_lena.jpg
This, apparently, has something to do with the City of Stirling “enhancing the built environment.”
http://www.stirling.wa.gov.au/home/community/Culture+Arts+and+Events/The+Arts.htm
Earth to Tony: Please, stop it.
The CY O’connor is pretty interesting don’t you think? Don’t like crawley. Can’t really tell about the big figure.
Tony Jones is part of the club that use the platform of ‘concerned politics’ as means to ensure they get all these commissions.
If you dont agree with them its because your mysoginist, anti-environment, racist, whatever.
They really suffer from the ‘too much competition is bad’ syndrome.
I have never seen the CYO’ sculpture before. it is pretty amazing.
I am not sure what else Tony has done but I love this.
Tony Jones is part of the club that use the platform of ‘concerned politics’ as means to ensure they get all these commissions.
If you dont agree with them its because your mysoginist, anti-environment, racist, whatever.
They really suffer from the ‘too much competition is bad’ syndrome.-greg hoey
I definitely second the suggestion for worst Christmas Lights in Perth. There are certainly some shockers!
Couple of suggestions :
1) Telstra Phone Exchange building on Wellington St - how could anyone have ever thought it was a good idea to plonk a windowless beige monlith in the CBD.
2) Telstra Phone Exchange on Pier St - it took over 3 years to renovate the facade of this piece of shite and we still ended up with a piece of shite
3) Barrack St between Wellington and Hay, Murray St between Barrack and Pier, William St between Wellington and Hay. $2 shops for cheapskate cretins, gaming arcades for Asian drug dealers, internet cafes for unemployable turds this whole precinct deserves nothing more than a cluster bombing
4) The entire suburb of Hillarys. No amount of neo-classical columns will disguise the fact that you are a tit and you have more money than taste
These are all good suggestions sniglet. I am wondering wether the big Telstra on Wellington is more a curiosity thanbad, now it has been up for so long.
“I definitely second the suggestion for worst Christmas Lights in Perth. There are certainly some shockers!”
Indeed Amy. And as we have entered the six-week news-free zone, The Waste will inevitably be featuring every godawful neon calamity celebrating Happy Birthday Jesus in the early news section.
One question, though. As we’ve just had a change of government based, at least in part, on climate change, how much extra power per house do these monstrosities consume?
Can we not have a name and shame campaign? Peace and goodwill be buggered.
QV1 building - I know, I know its a Harry Seidler creation but he also created the universally hated Blues Point Tower in Sydney. It’s OK when you’re right up close but from a distance it is abhorrent, it just doesn’t fit no matter where you are viewing it from. It always reminds me of a big piece of chalky dog crap.
Being Christmas, is it not time for a WOP grogblog?
I would actually prefer somewhere quiet and not worst.
Yes we should, though having a 3 yo limits my options a little.
Has anyone nominated Mr Fist the Optometrist, yet? (318 Murray St. Perth)
Sort of. I saw a pic of his sign on another site, and asked if I could use it, but no response. I’ll go and get it myself sometime.
Perth drivers.
Esp,, people in SUV’s. Uncreative, arrogant, lazy, obstructive, dangerous, nasty, short tempered.
Surf wear. Perth is awash with the crap. In fact, my impression is Perth wardrobes are influenced by surf leisure wear more than any other Australian city. Bad wrap around shades, older people in flouro with terrible extreme sports slogans.
I want to know why blokes are wearing women’s sunnnies these days.
They think they look they’re in the SAS. It’s the zeitgeist.
Sadly, however, not too many thongs and boardies in southern Afghanistan.
Look, I know WOP can’t be everywhere, but haven’t we missed something?
“PAGEANT LIGHTS UP PERTH CITY
Carmel Sander and Michael Washbourne
December 07, 2007 10:00pm
THE spirit of Christmas swept through Perth last night as a glittering procession of 40 floats made its way through city streets in the 35th annual RAC Channel Seven Pageant:
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,22894068-2761,00.html
How bad was this homage to Santa Clause?
Exclusive footage here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skcgl3ax9X4&feature=related
Yes, I should have been there. We did consider taking the boy, but decided it would have been too horrible. I am going to try and get all the decorations in the city this weekend though.
Worst newspaper/worst sub-editor:-
(Ahem) I give unto you the breakout box from p18 of today’s Worst Weekend Magazine, featuring a profile on Billy Bragg :
“Billy Bragg, the angry leftie whose 1977 punk version of God Save the Queen outraged a nation turns 50 next week…”
Er, hello? Sex Pistols anyone? Sounds like someone needs to sharpen their Google skills.
Oh, and reading, as the first par of the actual story states pretty clearly that Bragg:
“… bought Sex Pistols’ anarchic punk version in the Queen’s Jubilee year of 1977…”
Actually not a bad piece by Simon Collins, and this egregious piece of crap masquerading as an intro is definitely not his fault.
Why is there no law in this state against fuckwits?
Saw Billy play the Perth Concert Hall in 1987ish [/irrelevant]
Saw him at (I think) Canterbury court somewhat later.
Here it is - The Sunday Times Christmas lights shame file:
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/large-gallery/0,25537,5028276-5013959,00.html
The horror. The horror.
I must confess, I love the tacky christmas lights although the english imagery, as in snow et al could be improved upon - Where are the six white boomers?
(did I really see Bart Simpson in amongst that lot, I can’t bear to look again in case it’s true)
Please do a story on the millions of 78 records stickers you see while walking down Hay Street. I counted about 80.
It has become part of the landscape hasn’t it? with Blind Someone something on it.
LA, I think it’s Blind Willie, or Blind Cootie, or or Blind Someone Or Other.
He’s a black dude who likes venetians. What’s wrong with that?
One for Worst of the World: Ladies, Gentlmen, Esteemed Children, I give you the NORAD Santa Tracker (do not attempt with dial-up):
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.htm
Sorry, but I have Christmas Rage…
Christmas rage already CK? it’s only 10 am!
As long as Santa doesn’t disappear from radar screens.
Worst library:
The new library at ECU Joondalup. Seriously, it’s hideous. It’s all bent and log-cabinny, and has a hideous mix of aubergine and some awful green coloured shutter things covering the front.
And apparently, for all the money it cost to build, it only has slightly more shelf-space than the old one did.
Alex,
You mean it’s worse than Freo public library:
http://www.freofocus.com/facilities/html/library.cfm
lovely coloured walls, attractive metal shelves and I particularly like the idea of having every shelf an inch higher or lower than the adjacent one.
I nominate the whole of Port / Leighton Beaches - no improvement in facilities for the last 30 years and easily the most neglected bit of coastline in the metro area. At Port the disgusting changerooms/toilets are locked at 7.00 pm - this hasn’t changed with the Daylight Saving trial so it can be hot and sunny (real time 6.00pm) with hundreds of people at the beach and the toilets and changerooms locked.
Leighton Shores(”A Place for Everyone” says the billboard - but not if you have less than a million $$ for a dogbox) has been enhanced by planting 6 mature palm trees into the sand and the installation of street lights; they didn’t bother to put in street lights on the section of road between Cottesloe and Leighton Shores - this is actually West Coast Highway, which becomes a single lane, unlit hazard of roaring trucks, cyclists and cars turning into/off the road into parking areas. A disaster.
Leighton Hores : another Alannah McTiernan triumph.
East Perth Police HQ
I nominate Geraldton as the home of the worst interior design taste in WA (the exteriors aren’t much either) - enjoy the smorgasbord of lace, vomit curtains, exposed interior brick and stuffed animals by searching the real estate listings - some of my favourites:
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=103859899&f=0&p=10&t=res&ty=&fmt=&header=&c=45282468&s=wa&tm=1199340761
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=104387067&f=0&p=10&t=res&ty=&fmt=&header=&c=45282468&s=wa&tm=1199340761
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?fslm=1&a=o&id=103763699&c=19078572&p=10&s=wa&t=res&tm=1199340548
All that’s missing is a bronze sculpture of Mainy on the main drag and the place will be complete!
This is more of a mystery than a ” Worst of “. Why is the centre of Indian worship in Perth in Canning Vale ? We have the Sikh temple in Nicholson Rd and the Hindu temple in Warton Rd.
I think there’s a version in Maylands.
Now that I’ve put on dry pants (as a result of this admirable listing) I’d like to say thanks to LA and all the rest of you for this brilliantly illuminated reflection of what makes Perth - Perth.
LA that’s the Buddhist temple in Guildford Rd , Maylands. I always think of it as the squash court it previously was.
No Bill, sorry I actually meant Bayswater. there’s an old christian church that’s been converted to some kind of subcontinental establishment. Just behind shops on King william. The buddhist is a converted squash courts I think
Hare Krishna Temple
144 Railway Pde Bayswater ?
Talking of bad sculptors and their sculptures, Robert Hitchcock (who I HATE to admit may be a relation of mine) created the Yagan statue, infamous for continuously losing his head. I have an odd feeling that Uncle Robert may have been chopping the head off himself just so he could receive the exorbitant commission to make the replacements. Alas, if only I had proof!
Nettie I was wondering how one gets to see Yagan these days as he is fenced off with savage kangaroos to guard him. I liked how the head looked more and more like Ridge Forrester from The Bold and the Beautiful every time.
Can you get permission to go into his compound?
Across from yagan is the burswood sculpture park. Oh my god! some of those pieces just so crass. Esp., the one of herb elliot and margaret [surname eludes] holding torch I think.
Where is that exactly greg? Next to the casino, or on heirisson island?
I doubt it LA. I don’t even talk to my Uncle if I can help it. He’s a complete asshat to be honest. I haven’t see the statue in years and years - well before the whole lost heads thing. I didn’t even know they had it all fenced off now, although it doesn’t surprise me. But one has to wonder what the point of having a sculpture is if the public can’t even view it?
Let’s forget crappy Burswood sculpture parks for the moment.
Nomination for Best of Perth: Bullcreek aircraft museum. They have a Lancaster, but sadly not a Tupolev-34.
Probably also a nomination for Worst Web Page http://www.raafawa.org.au/wa/museum/ but, hey, at least they’re trying.
I would like to suggest The Worst of Switzerland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwCE4fbX5ys&feature=related
Apparently they REALLY hate those mountains…
worst music and/or entertainment at a 20/20 cricket game?
its killing me
Charge those batteries and free up some memory on that camera flashcard, LA! Lotterywest Skyworks is coming soon!!!!!!!!!
You want Worst of Perth????!!!!!!
Gee, do you think they’ll play Phil Collins “In the air tonight”
Great southern Land.
Seal… Crazy….
The giant baby painting on the wall of Baby Goodie, 320 Great Eastern Highway, Midland. But be warned - I was never afraid of the dark until the moment I clapped eyes on that thing. Now I sleep with the lights on.
I took a shot the other day Del, but I missed the giant baby. the sign on the roof was bad enough. might put it up tomorrow.
It’s on the western wall of the building, on your left as you drive into Midland from Guildford… *Shudder*
Has a fish too.
It’s a ruse. That baby’s from the third circle of Hades.
Is it just me or is that new statue on riverside drive near the causeway a bloody eyesore that should never have been allowed by the CoP or what?
Which DG?
this one LA:
http://www.cityofperth.wa.gov.au/web/Media-Centre/?article=85
it was launched last sunday, i particularly love the handrail.
I would like to suggest Worst Avatar.
In particular, Tomthrett.
I find it really creepy and weird.
What about you CK? Where’s yours? Apparently you can get a universal one without having to open a blog account here?
http://site.gravatar.com/
No, LA, I won’t post the avatar, at least not yet.
But tonight I have been reminded of my disgraceful behaviour last Friday evening whilst drinking on the company account.
Some complete fairytale re falling over people while drunk, apparently.
I don’t believe it for a second.
Pics Monday.
If you have an avatar does that make you avatistic?
Not at the ‘Ling or The Rang-er I hope CK. You’re the mining man right? Sounds like the sort of event you’d see My Ning at.
Err, the ‘Ling and Rang-er are pretty well outside the Independent Republic of Fremantle I’m afraid LA.
For Teh Worst Southside I’d recommend the Davilak Tavern at the Satan’s Arsehole end of South Terrace.
The bottleshop staff in particular are really customer friendly.
As in “I just love waiting for 11.00 to roll around and seeing that last desperate group of Aboriginals stumbling up the street to nick all the grog and then shutting the rollerdoor…”
This ain’t my pic, but this pic of our Newest Opposition Leader deserves a post of it’s own :-)
http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=525079
Oh Frank, that’s so unfair. I understand that Troyboy has promised to give up raping and pillaging…
I notice he’s polished off a couple of tins of that execrable middleweight cat’s piss known and reviled as The Red Death. That’s disappointing. Should’ve been two cans of Kenny at the very least. What sacrifices he must make to avoid the Droop.
Perth Airport - I caught a flight out last week and the check-in line stretched all the way to the exit near the baggage carousels http://trs80.ucc.asn.au/imgp1155.jpg http://trs80.ucc.asn.au/imgp1156.jpg
The pilot even apologised for the lateness and called the terminal in need of demolition.
Can I suggest a new category: “WORST PERTHONALITY”
I think the term “Perthonality’ encapsulates everything that is worst about this town - especially the kind of Z-list microcelebs that it is used to describe - and the pathetic way they mug up to the cameras assuming somebody knows who the f**k they are.
unfortunately the queen bee of this annoying swarm has left us, and I kinda miss Rose now that we are forced to look at the also-ran wannabees.
I will start the ball rolling by nominating Basil Zempilas, whose relentless self-promotion is only matched by his incompetence. I recall him commentating of an Olympic basketball match involving the Czech Republic, and spending the entire broadcast referring to them as Czechoslovakia, despite being corrected repeatedly by his co-host.
Other contenders:
1. that Ugly-iti woman (already mentioned on this site)
2. Troy Barbagallo (can I be the first to point out that his name, in Italian, means “hairy c*ck” ?)
3. Susannah Carr (why is she still on the telly?)
4. that annoying blonde with the whiny nasal voice off the travel show
5. John Hughes (you’re not a philanthropist John, you’re a bald second hand car dealer, and we don’t care about your overdressed trophy wife)
and over to you…
I thought you were going to say Perth’s Heath Ledger. No one’s got me a picture of Gary Shannon yet.
I wouldn’t class Ledger as a “Perthonality”. he was a genuine international star of real talent. Once you get an Oscar nomination, I think you move onto the A-list, and get the hell out of this town.
to class as a Perthonality, one must be famous only in Perth, unknown outside, and yet must act as if getting your picture in Holly Wood’s column is equal to an Oscar nomination.
aah…Gary Shannon
I went to see “Hey Hey it’s Saturday” when they recorded it at Burswood in ‘92 or thereabouts. Gary Shannon was a guest on the show as a ‘local Perth radio personality’, but was struck dumb with stage fright. he blew his big opportunity with a national audience, poor lamb, and his star has receded along with his hairline
Heath comes up in the stats. TWOP has enough traffic to appear in many google search front pages.
[No one’s got me a picture of Gary Shannon yet.]
There is this classic “Pic” from 1978 :-)
http://www.waynemac.com/gallery/32_6PMTEAM.JPG
And a more recent pic: http://www.mytalk.com.au/Stations/Talk/6PR/PublishingImages/100/279.jpg
6PR - the retirement home of ex 6PM Jocks (along with 6IX).
Hi,
How about the worst council(s) in Perth?
I nominate Subiaco for pure ineptutide and beauracratic idiocy,
led by a Mayor and a CEO who with all the vision of Mr Magoo.
I won’t even go into the extensive list of suspect decisions made by these incompetents’, but at the top has to be preventing small bars from opening within 200m of the existing hotel.
Maybe the CEO’s holiday house is on the CCC radar, maybe not?
This holiday home. If it’s ugly, tell me where to find it. Yes, this small bar thing is crap. They have finally resolved it in Sydney. Melbourne has so many interesting small bars around. It really does make a big difference to the city.
I hate to give these guys any extra publicity but did anyone see those two idiots caught for a years worth of graffiti vandalism - one got prison and one got off. Weren’t they a little OLD to be tagging around town? In the picture (in the West Australian) one has his own surname tattooed on his arm! I don’t think you can get any WOP stupider or more pathetic than that.
http://blogs.thewest.com.au/general/news-blog-harmless-fun-or-embarrassing-yobboism/
Nomination for most stupid story ever in worst newspaper (well this week anyway)…. isn’t it typically intellectually backward not to be able to synthesise competing concepts…. it’s harmless fun AND embarrassing yobboism, where’s the controversy?
How about the worst nightclub of the eighties?
I suggest Pinnochios of Murray Street, What a Dump!, but well patronised since late night clubs were few and far between in those halycon days, SNORT!
Damn it all. I spotted Julie Bishop’s powered roller-skate - a contender for worst graphic design/worst car - outside a worst graphic design shop in West Perth this arvo.
Sadly, the mobile phone-cam had been left at work, and really I couldn’t be fucked. Bugger, bugger, bugger.
The map’s pretty cool BTW. There’s two of us online at the moment. Hello whoever you are in the UK!
Yes architecture is fascinating ‘n all, but your site ‘motto’ says it features the worst “Humanity” - yet I haven’t seen you post any of the youtube video’s floating around of the Aust.Day “Mullalloo Riot” or “Cott Girls Gone Wild”… ?
Mostly because I usually prefer original stuff, Paul, however there is a youtube link found by James coming up soon that is better than those.
http://imdb.com/title/tt1170350/synopsis
This movie, currently being shot on campus at UWA, looks like a worthy successor to the Panther films. Is it possible to nominate a ‘worst of future Perth’?
Don’t know if its been suggested, really don’t care either, but why not start a section or sister site called “best of perth”.
Also, many people suggest Perth is akin to Los Angele 40 years ago, minus the guns.
For the antithesis to the viewpoint on sprawled cities and bad planning, check out this post; http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/greater-los-angeles.html
A rather optimistic view of LA. Every time you read “Los Angeles”, replace it with Perth. It’s scary how familiar it sounds.
My point is, if you complain about Perth not being enough like Melbourne, f*&k off and live in Melbourne. If you want European planning models to enrich the urban fabric, go and live in Europe.
Perth is great, warts and all.
Good blog though, I added it to my reader.
I do have my rather good photos of perth via flickr on the sidebar, but 1000 to 1 prefer to see bad. That’s people. There is also another blogger linked with best of Perth architecture on there too. A best of Perth blog would have cobwebs, the occasional sound of a dog barking in the distance and no hits. Talking worst gets people in, but there is much discussion on why people do like some of the things posted there.
Best of Perth?
Oh Lordy, it would read like some sort of chip-on-the-shoulder weekend supplement to the local newspaper.
I have been trying to find a terrific feature article in Perth from *Wallpaper magazine in London. It highlighted Perth’s good points, i.e quality of life and climate, whilst making fun of how quiet and timid the place is.
it had a brilliant photo of a woman holding a baby standing proudly on her new housing block by a “Sold” sign, but all you could see was a rectangle of sand bounded by a super six fence.
the only quotes I can recall were:
“like the Swan River, Perth is very clean but also rather shallow”
“why have a revolving restaurant on top of one of the tallest buildings, when all you can see is 50,000 bungalows in every direction?”
I think DJ is missing the point.
I don’t doubt that nearly all of the contributors to this blog love Perth and would not want to live anywhere else. If they did not love it, no doubt they would have indeed bugg*red off and lived somewhere else. Plenty of contributors have lived elsewhere, and are hoping to bring the best elements of their experience to benefit Perth.
I think for most of these contibutors here their love of Perth is forever clouded by the distinct possibility that their city is going to be thoughly f*cked up by parochial politicians, dodgy developers, ignorant journalists, opinionated myopic commentators and reactionary NIMBY residents, who conspire to prevent this city from realizing its potential.
The wonderful tasteless cr*ap that graces this site acts as a constant reminder of what can happen without vision, planning and a desire to have this city measured against world standards.
hmm, it seems Sue Walker may walk away from that train wreck known as the WA Liberal Party.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/04/2153839.htm
Time for an update to Party Troy;s post.
Is it just me or are there way too many people driving around cars with personalised plates? And some of them are truly shocking - VANILLAICE, 4U2CMEFLY and YAHBABY to name a few. A nice little category I think
There are a few plates in here PGirl under the worst car caregory. This is still the one to go for.
http://theworstofperth.com/2007/11/29/cup-half-empty/
Hi Skink,
Cheers for your reply. Please elaborate on the world standards though. World standards in planning, density, aesthetic? Please list the world standards and their attributes you’d like to see taken on in Perth.
I don’t believe that anyone of these parochial politicians and Laissez Faire developers you refer to are conspiring at all. I am of the opinion that it is exactly these people that have already brought these “world standards” to this city, only to be interpreted poorly or accepted without question by uneducated planning authorities and the more complacent general public. Did someone say Public space?
We also come from the mentality of the quarter-acre. With that comes Suburbia. Ask any member of the general public if they are willing to give up their backyard, or their quiet, or their 1.5m side boundary setback. I will be the first one to support anything that enlivens the city, and I am also a huge advocate for density. I love it, it is the most environmentally sustainable solution for cities hands down. But the majority don’t.
We’ve had too much space for too long. And to every action (everyone getting their space) come a reaction (the endless decentralised city. the lifeless freeways, the noise restrictions). You can’t have it all, and Perth has chosen. We are democratic aren’t we? If it was to be another way, I’m sure it would.
Perth has taken on an organic nature of its own, an endless abyss of suburban nests spreading north and south for hundreds of kilometres, geographically confined by the ocean and the hills. If you can’t handle this huge landscape made entirely from concrete and quarter-acre lots, interspersed with fuel stops stocked with mrs macs pies and expensive soft drinks you don’t need, then stay away as I don’t think there is any likely hood its going to change without petrol prices trebling. But you can already see a reaction to this, more fuel efficient cars that can still push you all the way out to your nest in the suburbs.
I also have lived in Europe, and America and the people I stayed with would give their right leg to have the open space that we enjoy, and the lifestyle. And the quarter-acre.
Perth is how it is. It could be better. Such as a train to the airport perhaps? Anyway, the more I read this site the more I love it, just as TWOP does.
Look forward to hearing from you Skink. Keep up the posts, this site is fantastic.
An excellent and thoughtful comment DJ. A comment like this every now and then raises TWOP above just slagging off. Don’t do it to often DJ, I have to keep my 80% slagging, 20% thoughtful quota!
Other than making the ” we live in the best of all possible world” logical fallacy what does DJ have to offer ?
Length surely?
Is there something more that should be on offer Bill?
The other week I saw an electric blue Subaru WRX with the plates ‘Oedipus’. My mind truly boggled. I wished i could see the driver.
I did bugger off and live somewhere else for 6 years and it really sucked (Canberra). I visited Sydney and Melbourne a lot to get away from Canberra, and despite being big exciting cities they pretty much sucked too. They’re big, the people are stuck up and bogged down, and they’re too far away from here.
I missed Perth SO much, even and especially the bad things like the not very bright public debate, the hoons, the demolition, the ugly cars and buildings and eavelessness….
I check out this site and ‘Perth’s best architecture’ every day and they both make me look around with new appreciation of it all. (and they cover some of the same things sometimes like Midland Train Station).
DJ,
gorblimey, where do we start?
yes, Perth has a wonderful lifestyle, climate, standard of living etc, and we all love our quarter acre blocks (if only I had one)
you didn’t read my last posting carefully - we all love Perth and I agree that I’d much rather be here just now than in my old flat in London, but this city has taken its good luck for granted for a long time, and needs vision for the future
but since you want some areas that can be improved, and that Perth does badly, here we go:
1. Planning - I agree with you that Perth needs higher density, or should we say mixed density. The sprawl is becoming too great and the infrastructure does not keep up. Personally I live close to the city so don’t give a sh*t about how far the city sprawls and how long the poor commuters spend trapped on the freeway in their single-occupant SUV’s, but I would like to see more life in the city centre.
Alannah made a great comment last year about Perth people building McMansions on big blocks in the middle of nowhere, then complaining that the roads/schools/services were not good enough. But why are they allowed to build out there? and why are they allowed to build such bloody awful starter castles?
My favourite recent example of the idiocy of Perth planning is that they are finally going to build the Mandurah bypass, and before it is even started they are planning a new town on the route to clog it up with local traffic, which is exactly what happened to he last bypass.
I don’t believe any of the rubbish about ‘organic growth’. Organic growth like an oak tree or like a cancer?
2. quality - there seems to be virtually no planning controls on the quality of new buildings, both public and private. Developers are allowed to build down to a price, rather than build up to a quality. Just look at all those Indonesian-quality condos, ‘warehouse’ developments that are just tilt-up sheds, and the convention centre as examples.
3. yes, a rail link to the airport, and a three-lane road. Last week I got stuck on Gt Eastern Highway trying to get to the airport at 5pm - the airport traffic had a lower priority than the drive-in KFC.
4. the waterfront. endless argument - no good ideas - and every time they do make a change, it is for the worst. they should look at other waterfront cities, study carefully, invest public money, get the best architects, and then leave it just as it is. Do not let developers anywhere near it because we’ll just get another Claisebrook Disneyfication, and it’s not like anone enjoys the ‘riverfront cafe lifestyle’ there, apart from the kids sliding down the hill on cardboard boxes, and a few tossers in Lamonts.
finally - please stop that tiresome “if you don’t like it, move somewhere else”. you sound like some grunter on talkback radio.
We are all allowed to live here and criticize our fair city, just as we are allowed to support the cricket team and yet yell abuse at Punter every time he fails to pick the doosra
Back to suggestion box matters . . .
I don’t know if this has already been suggested or even dealt with, but there is a house in Tuart Hill alongside Wanneroo Road that looks like something out of Bram Stoker. I can’t recall the exact location, but it’s on your left hand side as you drive north along Wanneroo Road–either just before you get to Cape Street, or just after (overlooking Acapulco Annies). The house is massive and has been there for as long as I can remember.
I think I know the one AV. I have slowed the Camry, but haven’t stopped yet. A big square thing? Near the place that should get a mention for worst name, The Mighty Quinn Tavern, formerly something like El-Dorado Tavern, or was it San Miguel? I’ve made you think about Wanneroo Rd all the way from japan?
Yeah–a big square thing. Perhaps its saf