The plan to set out bait for large sharks near popular WA beaches has been criticised over concerns it could attract them into swimming areas, but others back the move.

The Royal Life Saving Society says WA's latest drowning figures, which reveal a 50 per cent increase on the previous year, should serve as a warning ahead of the festive season. A new report shows 31 people drowned in the state in 2012. Children under the age of four were the highest risk group for drowning and near drowning. Older people over the age of 55 were also at risk.

The latest survey of the cost of living in regional WA has shown a significant drop in living costs in the state's north. The State Government assesses the cost of 500 goods and services in 27 regional centres as part of the Regional Price Index every second year.

Demand on accommodation pushes tourists out from hotspots

With extremely hot inland conditions being experienced and forecast in Western Australia, farmers are warned of potential threats to livestock.

The mercury is set to tip over the forty degree mark for many parts of WA this weekend, and it's important to know how the heat can affect your body.

The Shire of Kondinin says there has been a big impact on the Wheatbelt community of Karlgarin from a major storm that occurred a year ago today.

How many worms can you count in an hour? Albany backyard farmer Bede Harold claims that he can count one thousand red wrigglers an hour. Bede also believes it is his worms that are the key to his vegetable patch.

WA's District Court has confirmed Collingwood defender Marley Williams will face trial next month, accused of causing grievous bodily harm.

Main Roads says there are improvements being made to Western Australian roads to try to prevent crashes being caused by cattle.

Firefighters will continue to strengthen containment lines around a bushfire in Riverslea in the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River.

Investigations are continuing into the cause of a blaze in the Western Australian Wheatbelt town of Corrigin.

Police say they are concerned about an incident where a man tried to lure a teenage girl to his car.

The Maritime Union says it has made concessions and lowered a pay claim to try to forge a new wages deal for support staff in the offshore oil and gas industry. The union is now seeking pay rises of 22 per cent over four years from marine contractor, Tidewater, down from its original claim of 24 per cent over the life of the agreement.

A 34-year-old Perth man has been charged with driving at more than 175 kilometres per hour near Cranbrook, while his 12-year-old daughter was in the car.

A prominent businessman on Western Australia's south coast has been sentenced to eight years and six months in jail for attempting to hire a hitman to murder his estranged daughter-in-law. Brian Vincent Attwell paid $10,000 to an undercover police officer who had posed as a hitman in September last year. The court heard the 74-year-old was angry over legal action after his son's divorce and he was motivated by "sheer hatred" of Michelle Attwell. The trial was played recordings of the businessman saying his daughter-in-law had cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars, and he wanted her "strangled and buried".

Research into doctors in regional Western Australia has found there is an increase in city-based medical students working in country postings after enjoying training in the regions.

An elderly woman has been indecently assaulted while walking her dogs at an Albany school.

The State Government says it has sent a serious warning to the owners of one of Albany's prime vacant lots, by signing off on a plan that would allow it to forcibly reclaim the site.

The State Government says it's sent a serious threat to the owners of one of Albany's prime vacant lots, by signing off on a plan that would allow it to reclaim the site. But the Opposition maintains it's a hollow threat.

A 40-year-old Albany man is due to appear in court this month after being charged with deliberately lighting three fires in Narrikup.

The City of Albany is launching a new tourism marketing campaign in Perth, aimed at attracting visitors in off-peak periods through the south coast's cooler climate.

An economic forecaster says WA mining companies operating in Africa are struggling with a range of cost and productivity issues. The Deloitte WA Index indicates the combined market capitalisation of WA companies with African assets, particularly gold producers, fell almost 45 per cent. That is compared to WA producers, as a whole, who rose nearly five per cent. The fall is bigger than expected.

Nigerian police have arrested a man after the death of a West Australian woman who was caught up in an online romance scam.

It's a plane with a story, changing hands over the span of seventy years to land on a hill in the Great Southern of Western Australia.

New data has identified a substantial jump in housing sales in Albany but an increase in the time properties are taking to sell.

Aboriginal teaching assistants whose jobs have been axed, have appealed directly to the Education Minister for their jobs to be reinstated.

There has been a mixed reaction from Western Australia's two biggest farm lobby groups to the release of further details of the Federal Government's agricultural white paper.

The chairman of Australia's first parliamentary inquiry into 'fracking' says the investigation is entering a significant new chapter.

Lawyers representing a West Australian farmer who is suing his neighbour over genetically modified canola which allegedly contaminated his property, say the court case will hinge on the principle of negligence. The landmark case has been taken by Kojonup organic farmer Steve Marsh. They say the neighbour Michael Baxter had a duty to contain his own crop of GM canola.

A man has been sent to jail for a crime spree, that included the theft of firearms, tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewellery, and an attempted theft of an ATM.

Former WA chief scientist Lyn Beazley says she is honoured to be named patron of an agriculture program in Manjimup.

The Western Australian Opposition is calling on the State Government to revisit the eligibility criteria for its concessional farming loans because of limited demand so far.

The Mayor of Albany has scoffed at reports the city is considering spending millions of dollars on a prime vacant site in the central business district.

An eastern Wheatbelt farming group says it is extremely frustrating for struggling growers in the region to see limited demand for a Government support package.

How quickly do you think Australia could assemble more than 20,000 troops, 8,000 horses, and put them on to yet to-be-equipped navy ships to be sent to the battlefields of World War I?

A court in WA has heard a Collingwood footballer was motivated by "sheer revenge" when he assaulted a man outside a nightclub on the state's south coast. Marley Williams, 20, is on trial in the District Court charged with causing grievous bodily harm.

A Denmark man has been charged with attempting to use a hidden camera to film his teenage stepdaughter while she showered.

Collingwood footballer Marley Williams has been found guilty of grievous bodily harm over a one-punch attack in Albany.