A 71-year-old man has a bad cut to his head and fractures to his eye sockets, cheekbone and spine after an unprovoked attack at his Oakford house.

Armadale Det- Const Johnny Valastro said police had no idea why the intruder had been on the property or assaulted the husband and wife.

Police do not believe anything was stolen.

“We consider this to be a very cowardly act,” he said.

“It’s very concerning which is why we’re taking it very seriously.

“We’ll do everything we can to get this person.

“We are asking for anyone who saw someone matching the description of the man or his car to contact police. “We consider the person to be quite irate and violent, we don’t encourage anyone to approach the person but to call police or crime stoppers.

He would not reveal exactly what happened but it is believed the 71-year-old was bashed with a weapon.

Royal Perth Hospital state trauma director Sudhakar Rao said the 71-year-old had serious injuries, some that required surgery and would have “lifelong implications”.

“He has a fracture through his spine... we’re waiting for some more scans (but) not to trivialise it, while it’s only a fracture, it could have gone a little bit further and he could have become paralysed. “It’s actually his neck - he’ll have a lot of neck pain and that can be quite debilitating.”

Dr Rao said the man had other facial injuries that required surgery.

“These particular injuries are indicative of a very violent attack,” he said.

“I understand that a weapon of sorts was used, I think something that was conveniently around the house was used to bash him around the head, so quite violent… he’s quite lucky that he doesn’t have more serious head injuries.

“He’s conscious and he’s quite coherent now but there was also a period where he had lost some period of consciousness and he had lost some memory around the incident as well but that has returned, over a period of time most of that will return.

Dr Rao said he had been seeing an increased number of assaults over his 22 years at the hospital.

“I think anyone who comes to hospital is lucky to be alive and lucky that they didn’t die from their injuries,” he said.

“We are seeing more and more personal assaults, it does bother me that the inter-personal nature of our society is getting a little bit more violent.”

Anyone with information, or who saw a black Ford utility being driven in the Oakford and Byford areas, is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report the information online at www.crimestopperswa.com.au.