| Midland, Western Australia |
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HISTORY Railway Midland, originally known as Midland Junction, was the site of the Midland Railway Workshops - the main workshops for the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) for over 80 years. It was also a terminus for the Midland Railway Company . At the end of the second world war it was the junction of the Midland Railway, the Upper Darling Range Railway , and the main Eastern Railway . The Transperth suburban railway system currently has a terminus at Midland Station . Until 1966 it was the connecting location for trains to Bellevue and then onto Chidlow . Prior to 1954 it included the passenger service from the Mundaring Loop - or the original Eastern Railway, which went through Mundaring , Glen Forrest and Darlington . Until 1949 the passenger service to Kalamunda on the Upper Darling Range Railway was still operating via the 'Zig Zag' at Gooseberry Hill to Midland. Commercial Midland Junction developed around the Town Hall and Post Office sites and spread slowly east and north for over 70 years. The centrality of the main services, and the unusual presence of the Midland Railway Company sheds and yard directly adjacent to the Town Hall and Post Office, combined with the Government Railway Workshops, gave a focused sense of location to the commercial centre, and the local residences. The commercialisation of Great Eastern Highway roadfront residential properties to Bellevue was not complete before the 1990s. In the 1970s the development of Midland Gate Shopping Centre completely changed the focus of the community, with businesses traditionally within walking distance of the Post Office and Railway Station closing down or shifting over the following decades. The current (2005) re-development of the Midland Gate Shopping Centre is reasserting the car oriented nature of the regional centre, and despite various attempts at revitalisation, the old centre of Midland remains relatively stagnant. REDEVELOPMENT It currently is being re-developed in part by the Midland Redevelopment Authority , which is organising redevelopment of the Railway Workshops site. Although some museum and storage facilities are being developed at the old workshops site, most of the massive railway superstructure and presence in Midland has gone. The Redevelopment Authority has under its act been vested with lands that do not fully encompass the whole 'old town' of Midland, but only parts of it. The Midland Saleyards which are at the eastern end of the Railway Workshop site have been in the process of closing and all the related businesses and properties have been relocated and redeveloped. Parts of the Midland Railway Workshops site are now home to a campus of Edith Cowan University and a large Western Australian Police Operations Centre, as well as other projects. The Coal Storage dam at the western side of the Workshops has become an ornamental lake adjacent to residential redevelopment called 'Woodbridge Lakes'. A large Harvey Norman store was opened in 2005 on the corner of Clayton and Lloyd Streets. In November 2005 the State Government announced plans to construct a 326 bed Hospital on the site of the old railway workshops. Located on Clayton Street, the estimated A$182.7 million dollar hospital will be constructed by around 2010-2011 and replace the old Swan Districts Hospital. PROMINENT PEOPLE OF MIDLAND
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