Medina, Western Australia

Medina
Perth, Western Australia, Western Australia
Medina, seen from Chalk Hill Lookout
Map
Coordinates32°13′55″S 115°48′07″E / 32.232°S 115.802°E / -32.232; 115.802
Population2,260 (SAL 2021)[1]
Established1951
Postcode(s)6167
Area3.7 km2 (1.4 sq mi)[2]
LGA(s)City of Kwinana
State electorate(s)Kwinana
Federal division(s)Brand
Suburbs around Medina:
Kwinana Beach Kwinana Beach Postans
Kwinana Beach Medina Orelia
Kwinana Beach Calista Parmelia

Medina is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Kwinana. It lies 32 km south of central Perth.

Medina was the first developed of the Kwinana suburbs named after ships carrying settlers to the Swan River Colony in 1829 and 1830. Medina arrived at Fremantle on 6 July 1830 with 51 passengers on board. The ship's name Medina is believed to be derived from the River Medina on the Isle of Wight, and was approved as a suburb name in 1953. Streets were named after passengers and crew, such as Pace Road after Captain Walter Pace, and Ridley Green, Ridley Way and Ridley Court after passenger Mary Eliza Ridley.[3]

History

Medina is a well-established suburb, designed in the early 1950s by Perth's first female town planner, Margaret Feilman. Medina was the first of Kwinana's four 'neighbourhood units' developed to meet the housing needs of the newly established Kwinana industrial area. During the 1950s construction included Australia's largest oil refinery, operated by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later British Petroleum); the Cockburn Cement works (then owned by Rugby Portland Cement); and a BHP blast furnace and steel-rolling mill. In 1963 Alcoa of Australia established an alumina refinery, and in 1967 the CSBP sulphuric acid and superphosphate plants were commissioned.[4]

Medina housing was typical for the State Housing Commission (now the Housing Authority) of the era. Most original houses were built with jarrah weatherboard to window height, and asbestos sheeting above, with jarrah frames, floors and stumps. Most lots were 730 square metres (7,900 sq ft) or greater in size.

References

  1. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Medina (suburb and locality)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022. Edit this at Wikidata
  2. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "2016 Community Profiles: Medina (State Suburb)". 2016 Census of Population and Housing. Retrieved 30 November 2021. Edit this at Wikidata
  3. ^ "History". City of Kwinana. 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  4. ^ Wakeman, Rosemary (2016). Practicing Utopia: An Intellectual History of the New Town Movement. University of Chicago Press. p. 59. ISBN 9780226346175. Retrieved 23 May 2017.

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