Sarah Brookes
Sarah Brookes is a journalist with WAtoday, specialising in property and government and is the winner of four WA Media Awards.
What West Australians think of the state budget
Amid all the chest-beating spin from the government, each line item in the budget will have a real impact on West Australians. So we asked them what they thought.
- by Hamish Hastie, Sarah Brookes, Holly Thompson, Jesinta Burton and Peter Milne
Latest
Can WA’s drought-ravaged forests survive this year’s prescribed burns program?
In coming weeks, the DBCA will start torching 200,000 hectares of the state to boost our defences in the face of increasing bushfires. But is it causing irreparable damage to our ecosystems?
- by Sarah Brookes
Updated
Property market
Government leans on lobby groups to solve Perth’s deepening housing crisis
The opposition says the state government is out of ideas on how to fix WA’s deepening housing crisis.
- by Sarah Brookes
Opinion
Dating
Swiped: How a red-flagged obsession led me to Tinder
Lesson? If you see someone list their occupation as a journalist, swipe left if you have something to hide. We know how to stalk better than a private investigator.
- by Sarah Brookes
Guess who we overtook? Perth rental growth is country’s highest
Landlords have hiked rents more than 70 per cent since their COVID low point, with Perth’s now the third-most expensive rental market in the country.
- by Sarah Brookes
Exclusive
Forestry
WA’s parched forest canopy is turning brown as large areas die
From Shark Bay to Albany, WA’s famed national parks are experiencing mass plant deaths after the stress of the state’s unusually long, hot and dry summer.
- by Sarah Brookes
Global shock, rate rises only way to stop Perth’s runaway home prices
New data released by CoreLogic shows property prices increasing for the 15th month running, with overall values up $78,000 since the trough last January.
- by Sarah Brookes
Analysis
Population
The Perth suburbs where deaths of residents outnumber births
Perth’s local born population is shrinking. Use our interactive graphic to find out how your suburb is doing.
- by Sarah Brookes
The top five suburbs in Australia for price growth in the 12 months to April are in Perth
Ray White Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee said all suburbs across Australia were now seeing year-on-year price growth, with the top performers in Perth’s outer suburbs.
- by Sarah Brookes
Updated
Marine life
Mass casualties: 160 whales in beach stranding in WA’s south-west
More than 100 pilot whales have become stranded on a beach near Dunsborough on Thursday morning.
- by Sarah Brookes and Heather McNeill
Parts of Perth are more crowded than Berlin and Paris. Find out how dense your suburb is
Perth has recorded the largest increase in population over the past 20 years in Australia, while also clocking the highest portion of detached houses of any capital.
- by Sarah Brookes