2022: The Debut of a Railway Station at a Major Australian Airport

October 9, 2022

In the Australian state of Western Australia (WA), an underground commuter railway station at Perth Airport was officially opened. This station is part of Transperth, the public transportation system for WA’s capital city of Perth and the surrounding area. Airport Central railway station is specifically located at terminals one and two of Perth Airport. The public officials participating in the inaugural festivities for the station included Anthony Albanese, who became prime minister of Australia in May of that year; Mark McGowan, who was premier of WA from 2017 to 2023; and Rita Saffioti, who has been WA’s minister for transport since 2017.

Airport Central railway station was jointly designed by the firms Weston Williamson + Partners and GHD Group Pty Ltd. This station consists of three levels – an underground platform level; an underground concourse level; and an above-ground entrance level connected to a 920-foot (280-meter)-long elevated walkway known as the Skybridge. In 2023, this airport was named that year’s recipient of the Award for Public Architecture. This award is one of the Australian Institute of Architects’ WA Architects Awards that are each presented annually.  

The wide range of artwork on display throughout Airport Central railway station includes a two-part display that was created by Anne Neil and John Walley and is titled Journeys. One portion of this artwork, which can be found on the station’s northern interior wall, encompasses petal-shaped objects that are meant to evoke the flight of birds. (These images can be seen in the attached photo, which was taken a couple of days after the opening of the station.) The other portion of the artwork is a series of 50 glass panels on the station’s southern interior wall. These panels collectively feature a water-based theme that commemorates the Noongar, an Aboriginal Australian people living in WA.

Photo Credit: Steelkamp (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)

For more information on Airport Central railway station, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_Central_railway_station