WARail & telegraph
Maylands
Railway, foundry, brickworks and Perth’s aerodrome on one river bend.
1896Engineering works planned
WHAT STARTED IT
The Eastern Railway, built through the area in the 1880s, put this Swan River peninsula within easy reach of Perth. In the 1890s gold boom, land beside the line was subdivided and Mephan Ferguson set up engineering works there to supply the goldfields.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Ferguson’s foundry gave the suburb an industrial start, and clay on the peninsula fed a brickworks with a Hoffman kiln from 1927 to 1983. The river flats also became Perth’s aerodrome, by 1938 only just large enough for airliners among the factory chimneys.
TURNING POINTS
1896Mephan Ferguson buys 30–40 acres near Perth for engineering works.
1906The Hotel Peninsula opens.
1927A Hoffman-kiln brickworks starts on clay land on the Maylands Peninsula.
1938Pilots warn that drainage works make the Maylands aerodrome hazardous.
1983The brickworks closes.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
An inner north-eastern suburb of about 13,200 people centred on its railway station. The old brickworks kiln still stands on the peninsula.