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No place like home for Tia

After living and modelling in New York, *Tia Hayes *returned home to a different * Perth *than the one she left behind a few years ago.

The *Bull Creek *model arrived back from the Big Apple recently, after living there with then boyfriend and top *WA *male model *Tom Bull *.

"It's changed a lot. I last lived here 2 1/2 years ago and in that time so many new restaurants and bars have opened, it's pretty cool now," Hayes told _AAA Weekend _.

Since competing in the Miss Universe competition in 2005, Hayes worked in Milan, London, New York, Sydney and Malaysia, modelling for brands such as La Perla and Jets.

She moved to New York to be with Bull, who has worked for Hugo Boss, Giorgio Armani and Banana Republic since leaving Perth. But the pair have since split.

"We broke up last year, it's been quite a while," she said.

Hayes isn't dating anyone again just yet but looked back fondly on their time in the city.

"We had an amazing apartment, right on the river with views of the Manhattan skyline," she said.

"It was owned by *James Lafferty *, the guy in One Tree Hill and *Ed Westwick *(from Gossip Girl) lived upstairs."

She had plenty of "New York moments" - passing *Ryan Gosling *in the street, seeing *Miley Cyrus *partying in a club with a cigarette in each hand and chasing *Owen Wilson *down for a photo.

The model said her favourite jobs in New York were for the late designer *Ruth Tarvydas *. "It was really cool doing the Ruth Tarvydas shows, she did two of them," Hayes said,

"It was so nice having some Perth over in New York."

Also an engineer, Hayes was thrown into the grand scale of New York planning when she worked on the World Trade Centre redevelopment and the underwater Lincoln and

Holland Tunnels.

Back in WA, she has already been booked for shows including the Perth City Fashion Runway show, styled by One Fell Swoop designer *Daniel Romanin. *The free event will take over *Forrest Place * tomorrow at 2.30pm.

Hayes insisted she was here to stay.

"I've had a good run in New York but Perth's home," she said.

Jillian McHugh