CBH history makes way for redevelopment

A PIECE of CBH Group history in Perth's outer eastern suburbs was turned to dust and rubble in the past fortnight.

The iconic curved-roof grain store on the corner of Elgee and Robinsons Roads, Bellevue, which had dominated the local skyline for almost 60 years was demolished to make way for a new development.

The broad expanse of steel-framed, curved, corrugated aluminium roof was brought down on Monday last week and cleared away during the week.

Work started this week on removing the concrete walls and 56 buttresses which had supported the clear-span roof.

The grain store was built in 1954 at a cost of ((xA3))£464,500 on a rail siding beside the main train lines east through the central Wheatbelt to Kalgoorlie and through the northern Wheatbelt to Geraldton.

It was opened on February 4, 1955, with a capacity to hold about 136,000 tonnes of wheat and served as CBH's main Perth grain transfer store until it was replaced by the current Forrestfield complex in 1998.

The site is owned by the Public Transport Authority and is destined for redevelopment.

Local residents groups had argued the grain store should be retained and incorporated into redevelopment plans, possibly as a park-and-ride extension of the metropolitan train service.

In a 2010 concept plan the former Midland Redevelopment Authority - now part of the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority - proposed the grain store be retained and adapted as a training facility.

Last September the WA Heritage Council decided not to add the grain store to its register of heritage places.

The demolition generated some angry comments on the Remember Midland Facebook page.