Who were the mysterious Cockburn Central faces?

A fun little trip down commuter memory lane for your hump day with today’s deep dive into the infamous Cockburn Central faces. As someone who had to do that drive a lot back then, their cold, piercing eyes still haunt me to this day — and I get the feeling I’m not alone.

Elsewhere, you can see how we fared on a recent World’s Most Liveable Cities list; check out the lineup for this year’s 10 Nights in Port; find out what’s on this week; and read our review of a movie I cannot wait to go and see this weekend — The Invite.

^{Troy Mutton, Editor-in-Chief, Perth is OK!}

For 13 years, two faces stared down at Perth commuters – uncanny and unblinking.

Emblazoned on the Cockburn Central Station tower from 2006 to 2019, who were these unsettling figures watching over us? The inscrutable, unknowable Mona Lisa smiles on hazy, dreamlike apparitions of a teenage boy and elderly woman.

Over the years, rumours abounded – the most tenacious of which was the theory that the photos depicted missing persons from the area.

As time went on, the portraits would become more and more degraded, the faces decaying and disfiguring into their crackling, peeling and blurred fate.

With more and more calls for their removal (including a Facebook group “Remove the Cockburn Train Station Face” with thousands of followers, and a change.org petition in 2018 that gathered hundreds of signatures), the faces were eventually removed in 2019 due to safety concerns.

Even after their removal, the general public still had no idea who these people were…

Baby it might be cold outside, but there’s plenty of cool and cosy events happening around town once again, including the return of Revelation Perth International Film Festival, some fun looking mini markets, the 7th annual Model Car Spectacular and more!