WA news LIVE: Rinehart’s family empire unveils $250 million West Perth precinct plan; Severe tropical cyclone heads for Kimberley coast (2025)

Detectives are appealing for information, after finding a man lying unconscious on Great Northern Highway near Broome on Wednesday morning.

Around 6.45am, police received reports about the man and emergency personnel attended the scene in Roebuck.

They found a 48-year-old man and commenced emergency first aid. He was rushed by ambulance to Broome Hospital, but later died.

Investigators are conducting an examination of the scene and are appealing for any witnesses to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report the information online at crimestopperswa.com.au.

Reports can be made anonymously.

Dash-cam or mobile phone vision relating to the incident can uploaded directly to investigators.

As the date for the federal election creeps up the leaders of all parties, both major and minor, are making an appearance in the west to spruik their local candidates.

Today, Clive Palmer addressed media in the electorate of Durack as the leader of his newly named Trumpet of Patriots party, to support the nine candidates running for the lower house in WA.

A key policy, Palmer said, was a 15 per cent licence fee on all iron ore exports to “return WA’s natural wealth to its rightful owners, the people of WA”.

Palmer was then questioned about the COVID pandemic, and his attack against then Premier Mark McGowan’s hard border.

“Has that set you up as a villain in WA?” he was asked.

“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Mark McGowan in a political context – it’s one of the oldest tricks to have an ogre that you can blame all your problems on, or distract the community on what’s actually happening in your state, and that’s what he did with me,” Palmer replied.

“I don’t regret saying that we shouldn’t have borders in Australia. I don’t accept that the COVID crisis was a real crisis.”

He then turned his ire on Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese, labelling them as “Tweedledum and Tweedledee”, “dumb and dumber,” and “B1, and B2”, before stating they were “very boring”.

“They don’t know what to say,” he said.

Billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting empire has lodged plans to build a $250 million business precinct adjacent the home office it has occupied for almost four decades.

In a statement released overnight, the company confirmed it had lodged a development application with the state’s expedited planning pathway to pursue the multi-use precinct earmarked for 27-35 Outram Street and 46 Ord Street in West Perth.

It is set to accommodate the billionaire’s growing portfolio of business interests spanning mining, energy, agriculture and retail.

While declining to be drawn on the scale of the development, Hancock Prospecting characterised the multi-use building as a “work meets wellness” precinct featuring offices, gyms, wellness spaces, swimming pools, restaurants and serviced apartments.

It is understood the proposal would mark the company’s first foray into property development that would facilitate commercial leasing.

Property records show the company has acquired the sites over the past three years at a cost of more than $41 million.

Rinehart is Australia’s richest person, with a net worth estimated to be exceeding $40 billion.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a new severe weather update for residents in the state’s far north, as a tropical cyclone makes its way towards the Kimberley coast.

You can watch the update below.

Anyone brave enough to climb 60 metres up a tree, with no safety harness in sight?

Yeah me neither, but thousands of people every year flocked to the Gloucester Tree in the Shire of Manjimup to do just that.

But the famous climb, a historic fire lookout, has been closed due to internal structure issues and safety concerns for years.

Now, a tender has gone out to reopen the climb to a lower height of 37 metres.

To put that into perspective, the top of Optus Stadium is 40 metres high.

Shire of Manjimup President Donelle Buegge joined 6PR’s Breakfast program to discuss the rebuild.

When asked if she had climbed the tree herself she responded “oh, God no”.

Brady Hough was left in tears last week and Tim Kelly is struggling to regain his love for the game, but West Coast coach Andrew McQualter is adamant years of heavy losses aren’t taking a psychological toll.

The Eagles appear set for another doomed season after opening their campaign with a 0-5 record.

The season-opening 87-point loss to Gold Coast was ugly.

West Coast’s struggles were further highlighted during last week’s 71-point loss to Carlton when they tallied just 77 contested possessions for the match - the lowest ever since the stat started being recorded.

Hough broke down in tears while doing an interview after Saturday’s defeat.

Kelly, who during the pre-season said “my love of the game hasn’t been great over the last couple of years”, wasn’t even in Adelaide for Gather Round after being dropped to the WAFL.

Eagles forward Jake Waterman this week revealed some of West Coast’s younger players don’t understand what it’s like to train at an AFL standard.

It was hoped the arrival of McQualter, an assistant at Richmond when the Tigers won flags in 2017, 2019 and 2020, would spark a fresh new era.

Instead, the club remains stuck on a losing loop, with the Eagles having tasted just 10 victories over the past 73 games, dating back to the start of the 2022 campaign.

McQualter did his best to play down West Coast’s current plight on Wednesday, saying clubs had shown it is possible to rebound strongly from long periods of losing.

“I’ve seen a lot of teams in my history where you have periods of a journey, of a football club, where you lose (a lot) - they become premiership teams eventually and have premiership players,” McQualter said.

Spare a thought for the good people living in battleground seats around Perth where they’re being inundated with election signage.

The problem has gotten so bad in Moore, in Perth’s northern suburbs, that Labor candidate Tom French has issued a public plea to his opponents to “chill out” and stop putting signs up.

“Driving back from a doorknock yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice that the amount of election signs up is getting a bit silly,” he said in an open letter posted to his campaign Facebook page.

“I get it, we’re all good-looking roosters and in some ways we think we’re blessing people by showing off our mugs, but I think it’s fair to say that every major campaign is massively in breach of the City of Joondalup’s election signage rules, which among other things, says that a candidate or party can have a maximum of five signs per suburb.

“I think it’s fair to say that the good people of Moore by now have a fair idea of what everyone’s face looks like, so how about we chill out a bit, stop putting more signs up and actively work to bringing the amount of signs back to the legal limit?”

Moore is being contested by French, Liberal candidate Vince Connelly and incumbent Liberal-turned independent MP Ian Goodenough.

The seat is held by a slim margin of 0.9 per cent, but Connelly is tipped to bring it back into the Liberal fold.

To crime news now, WA Police have charged 27 people with 86 offences following an operation targeting the distribution of illicit drugs in the state’s South West.

Vehicles were searched along the South West Highway, targeting south bound travelling vehicles, with more than 100 vehicles stopped by police between March 3 and April 15.

A border search area was also established at Busselton Airport, and a local Australia Post depot was also searched using sniffer dogs.

Officers seized over 200 grams of methamphetamine, one kilogram of cannabis and four plants, seven firearms and 13 other weapons including knuckle dusters and gel blasters and over $140,000 in cash.

Various other illicit drugs were also found including heroin, MDMA, ketamine, cocaine, morphine, LSD and steroids.

South West District superintendent Paul van Noort said drugs and the associated antisocial behaviour caused serious harm to the community.

“I want to stress that this is an ongoing operation and this will be the new norm, we will not give up,” he said.

“We will continue to target those who prey on vulnerable members of our community and who seek to profit from the harm caused through illicit drugs use.

“Drug dealers are not your friends. They target your family, they target your mates and they do not care. It is un-Australian to simply stand by and watch your mates get hurt by these people.”