The Construction Source Australia

| January 2021 that goal was realised, and the Midland Re- development Authority – now the Metro- politan Redevelopment Authority (MRA) – was formed. The City of Swan has been working with the MRA ever since to revital- ise and redevelop the town centre. “That’s been done very successfully,” May- or Zannino says. “If you compare the area today to what it was back then, you’ll see it has really been transformed. We have new residential housing worth $1 to $1.5 mil- lion each,we have residential apartments,we have commercial and retail developments. We also have a new health campus coming, which is scheduled to open by late next year, and that’s going to make a huge difference.” “Midland has really changed over the past five to 10 years,” he reiterates. “If you saw it 10 years ago and you saw it today, you wouldn’t recognise it.” Mayor Zannino says the ultimate vision forMidland is to realise its rightful status as a major regional centre.That remains an ongo- ing process, but they are already well on their way. According to Mayor Zannino, the City of Swan as a whole is looking at an equally promising future, especially as the Western Australian state government starts to imple- ment some local government reform. The State Government’s plan is to re- duce the number of local authorities in the Perth metropolitan area from 30 to 15, and an amalgamation is proposed for the City of Swan and the Shire of Mundaring – a local government area that covers an area of 645 square kilometres, and includes a population of more than 36,000. “That looks like it might happen within the next year or so,” Mayor Zannino says. “Once it does, that’s going to make the City of Swan virtually one-third of the total met- ropolitan area in geographical size.Wewould be a very large and substantial council.” “The City of Swan has a bright future ahead of it,” he adds. “We’ll be a leader in most areas. We have one of the highest growth rates, we have the most residential development occurring, and we have a very attractive place that we’re going to keep that way.”