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Remediation of the former WA Government Railway workshops
By Justin Lumsden, Coffey Environments, Kay Stritzke, Coffey Environments
The former Western Australian (WA) Government Railway Workshops (the Workshops) in Midland, also referred to as the ‘Helena East Precinct’ in planning and approval terms, are a unique example of the early 20th century Australian rail industry and a significant link to the social history of the Midland Township and people of Western Australia.
Nearly a century of industrial operations at the site, ranging from metal plating and parts manufacturing to rolling stock maintenance and construction, had created a legacy of soil and groundwater contamination by the time of Workshops closure in 1994.
Together with various point-source contamination ‘hotspots’, site investigation works identified the presence of widespread geotechically-unsuitable, low-level contaminated waste fill deposits, up to 8m thick in some areas. Key groundwater and/or soil contaminants identified included heavy metals, asbestos, petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated hydrocarbons [in the form of lighter non-aqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) and inferred dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL), respectively.
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