THE Machinery Preservation Club of WA (MPC) will be holding its annual Vintage Machinery and Powerhouse Open Day on Sunday, September 13 from 9am to 2pm at the Old Midland Railway Workshops.
The day will include vintage cars and motorcycles along with historical equipment, live music and plenty of food and drinks available.
The club was formed in Perth in 1982 and has been located in various buildings within the old West Australian Government Railway (WAGR) Midland Workshops complex since 1996.
In 2021, the club relocated to the heritage listed Powerhouse complex which is comprised of an engine room, boiler house and elements building.
The club’s mission is to promote, restore and display historical working machines to the general public at their heritage listed Powerhouse complex and elsewhere at shows and venues throughout the state.
MPC also provides access to their historical venue to other community-based clubs to support their endeavors and aims to preserve, restore, make safe or rebuild to operating condition, any historically significant plant or machinery that had been used by the WAGR, on farms, in automotive or marine applications and to display any object worthy of exhibiting to the public.
Activities also involve the restoration of some of the old machines (lathes etc) from the Railway Workshop and these machines are used by members to fabricate parts in order to restore both the clubs’ and their own personal machinery collections.
MPC displays historical operating machinery and other antique objects within the complex with regular public open days and also attends numerous state-wide local and agricultural shows throughout the year.
The club also promotes ongoing opportunities for school excursions, community group visits, musical events and similar.
MPC provides a suitable venue to enable their affiliated club partners to conduct their club activities and services to the community, including blacksmith courses, hand tool demonstrations, catering and woman support services, and the preservation of the history of Midland and surrounding districts.
The club also meets every Tuesday morning from 9am at the Powerhouse complex to allow members to carry out work on a variety of projects generally related to machinery preservation.
All members of the public are welcome and most Tuesday morning work sessions are followed by a sausage sizzle lunch.
For further information go to the Machinery Preservation club website.
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