Mark Pownall

National publisher Fairfax Ltd has launched a Perth-based news website, creating a major new entrant in the local media sector and making Western Australia the most fiercely contested online market.

One of Western Australia's longest serving resources sector representatives, David Parker, has quit his role as a director of leading industry lobby group the WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy.

As concern grows about the impact of Tuesday's explosion at the Varanus Island gas plant the spectre of the 1998 Longford gas explosion in Victoria looms, notably in terms of economic cost.

Perth-based Amcom Telecommunications Ltd is among the most successful company recapitalisations in the local market, and one that spawned an industry.

Succession planning is an ongoing issue for family businesses; it challenges most in the sector, even when they have put a lot of time and effort into devising a strategy they think will work.

Picking over the carcasses of failed companies and seeking to bring them back to life is something of a specialty in the Western Australian corporate scene, where the appetite for risk and a ready supply of listed shells have spawned a unique industry.

The market may be tired of hearing about Andrew Forrest's ever-growing paper fortune, but the continuing rise of Fortescue Metals Group Ltd is astounding.

I had to get coffees for group of people at work last week, and I couldn't help seeing of it as a great example of how the world has changed.

To management afficionados, the name Argenti is synonymous with Wesfarmers Ltd's success during the reign of Michael Chaney.

Perth flat-screen mounting manufacturer Skunkworks has claimed victory in a struggle with US military and aviation giant Lockheed Martin over efforts to trademark the company's name in Australia.

When BHP Billiton Ltd officially opened its Ravensthorpe nickel mine last week, many pundits focused on the cost blow-outs that hit the project, but industry insiders reckon the development looks l

State Scene highlights Australia's first Iraqi affair because it implicates Mr Whitlam just like the Iraqi-AWB Affair implicates Mr Howard; two PMs who have a conga-line of fans and gloating admire

Marylyn New is something of a Western Australian enigma. Raised to be a homemaker, Ms New has instead ended up as one of Perth’s most colourful business people.

Perth flat screen mounting manufacturer Skunkworks has claimed victory in a struggle with US military and aviation giant Lockheed Martin over efforts to trademark the company's name in Australia.

Brisbane-based Bank of Queensland Ltd (BoQ) will be looking for as many as 30 people with banking experience to take on former Home Building Society Ltd branches as it sets about converting its newly purchased Western Australian operations into franchises

The wealth story hasn't been all good news in the past year.

Stan Perron is one of the state’s most successful entrepreneurs, having created an empire of immense proportions fuelled initially by his Toyota franchise and then iron ore royalties, and more recently by significant property assets and equities.

Former Liberal senator Ian Campbell is an unlikely eco-warrior but his track record since leaving federal parliament last year definitely has a green tinge, albeit with a very corporate approach.

Tenacity and perseverance are words that we often associate with battlers – those we admire, who get through life despite the odds.

A largely hidden side of wealth creation is in the private sector, where successful entrepreneurs have built considerable businesses, in many cases with their families or over more than one generation.

Enormous wealth is being created as a result of WA's unprecedented boom, with a handful of super-rich mining executives leading the way.

HIT by the high cost of feedstocks, biofuel players Mission Biofuels Ltd and Australian Renewable Fuels Ltd are seeking to adapt their strategies as rising agricultural product prices disrupt their business models.

LAST week’s state budget was exactly what you’d expect from a pre-election government in a very strong electoral position, picking a few winners and hoping to make positive headlines.

FROM the outside, John Atkins’ decision to quit his five-year leadership role at law firm Freehills to join a bank appears a significant change in trajectory.

AFTER a setback earlier this year, Pankaj Oswal’s Burrup chemicals empire appears to have gained renewed confidence in the market, unveiling plans for a $600 million ammonia nitrate plant and a likely relaunch of the IPO it shelved in March.

Royal Automobile Club of WA has exited the home lending business it entered five years ago, selling its 1,800 mortgage loan portfolio to Adelaide-based credit union Australian Central for an undisclosed sum.

Paramount Mining Corporation Ltd has lost its chairman Steven Cole after a group of shareholders two weeks ago voted down a number of proposals, including increases to director remuneration.

Pankaj Oswal's Burrup Fertilisers' stock market float is back on the drawing board, with the company planning to launch a revised offer to investors, possibly within the week.

Winemakers are bracing for an increase in taxes after the federal government took its first steps towards fighting binge drinking with the imposition of an additional levy on the ready-to-drink sector of the market.

As the state's winemakers emerge from a tough few years, the industry has a different look to it.

It’s almost a scene from a one of those East End gangster movies.

Watching state Liberal leader Troy Buswell become enmeshed in a scandal of his own making made me question what it is we really want from our political leaders.