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Seven Seas Bar and Restaurant is the latest player to set sail on Beaufort Street's expanding sea of eateries.

This time of year used to be relatively quiet for winemakers.

Early summer's a great time to get out and enjoy Western Australia's wonderful outdoors, and the growing number concerts and wine and food events are a highlight of the season.

When Cape Bouvard began speculative construction on a $15 million, seven-level office building in early 2004, Perth's office vacancy rate was 12 per cent, the market outlook was dismal and construction costs were spiralling.

After a lengthy period of stagnation, Perth's office sales market last year broke all previous records with unpredicted momentum generated by a shortage of supply and rising rents.

Much of the decline in value of retail and industrial sales last year can be attributed to a lack of stock rather than a slowing of the markets.

Big mining projects, hotly contested takeovers, new floats and trade sales feature in WA Business News' review of the top deals of 2005.

The late Lang Hancock was usually described as a mining magnate but the great frustration in his life was that he never developed his own mine.

‘Everyone makes money in a boom' and ‘every deal is a winner' are statements that ought to be consigned to that list of other great lies, such as the ‘cheque is in the mail' – a point that close observers of the deals of 2005 will have noted.

Three high-profile transactions launched during 2005 ran into unexpected difficulties, providing telling reminders that even the best-laid plans can run off course.

Western Australian companies raised a record $3 billion in new equity issues in 2005, underpinning a second boom year for local broking firms Patersons Securities and Euroz Securities.

Perth-based biotech company Regenera Ltd has changed its name to Advanced Ocular Systems Ltd following its merger with US based refractive devices company Advanced Ocular Systems, Inc. on 30 December 2005.

It has been 200 years since Horatio, Viscount Nelson has lain dead after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. His flagship, HMS Victory, lives on as a shrine at the Royal Navy base at Portsmouth, England; his memory lives on in the hearts of seafarers.

These days we often hear about our ‘ageing population', but this demographic shift is about so much more than simply a baby boom.

One quarter of Australians will be aged 65 years or more by the year 2045, roughly double the present proportion, according to the latest population projections.

Perth is a unique location in the resources world, arguably the only place outside the major financial capital of London that can lay claim to being a global centre that straddles both the mining and oil and gas sectors.

Renowned corporate head kicker and Consolidated Minerals boss Michael Kiernan has positioned ConsMins for some healthy profits over the next few years, but it has been at a cost. Mark Mentiplay reports.

That the runaway Chinese economy is the reason for all that is right with Western Australia's booming mining sector is becoming a bit of a cliché.

One of the most significant challenges facing the state government is its capacity to provide economic and social infrastructure that is able to keep pace with Western Australia's rapid growth.

I found out the other day that broadband digital subscriber line (DSL) principles were developed 20 years ago.

WILL 2005 be forever etched in our memories?

Australia is almost singularly focused on a rising China, yet while the resource-led boom offers governments significant revenue through taxes and royalties, little thought or consideration is given to India, a nation which shares strategic space with Aus

State Scene wishes to conclude this year's assessment of the local political scene with some observations about the featherbedding and political funding of political parties.

Two of the more impressive Native Title agreements entered into nationally during 2005 took place in Western Australia, demonstrating the maturity of the Indigenous Land Use Agreement process.

After a rapid turnaround in the commercial property sector during the past year, property commentators are forecasting a bumper five years ahead, with the market riding on the back of the bounding resources economy.

There is something old and something new about the recently revamped Beaufort Street Merchants in Highgate.

Almost everyone involved in property has made money in recent years.

AFTER weeks of searching and deliberation, Delizioso owner and chief pizza artisan, Raffaele Brotzu, has decided to open a second pizza outlet in Perth.

Listed property group Stockland has filed a development approval to construct a $23 million shopping centre in Baldivis with the intention of increasing its retail presence in Western Australia.

The Master Builders Association of WA says two new economic surveys have confirmed that building industry conditions are set to remain strong in 2006.

Demand for land at LandCorp's upmarket Minim Cove development in Mosman Park continues, with buyer interest in an early December release outnumbering available lots by four to one.