15/09/2026
30 YEARS OF PERTH STEAM WORKS
On Sunday, 20 September 2026, Perth Steam Works celebrates 30 years since it was founded by Mike Chester in 1996.
For three decades, Steam Works has been more than a venue. It has been a meeting place, a refuge, a playground, a landmark, and for many, an important part of their own story.
Across generations, people have walked through our doors looking for connection, freedom, friendship, excitement, belonging and the chance to simply be themselves. Some came for a night. Some became regulars. Some formed friendships and relationships that lasted far beyond these walls.
Through enormous social change, Steam Works has endured. The city has changed. Our community has changed. Attitudes have changed. But the need for places where people can connect openly and without judgement has never disappeared.
This 30th birthday is a tribute to the vision of Mike Chester, to every staff member who helped build and protect what Steam Works became, and above all, to the thousands of people who have made this place their own over the past three decades.
Every generation has left something behind here, a memory, a story, a friendship, a moment.
On 20 September, we celebrate all of it.
The past. The people. The memories. The community.
Thirty years later, Perth Steam Works is still here, and its story is still being written.
30 years. Thousands of stories. Generations of memories. One enduring place in Perth’s LGBTQ+ history.
Perth Steam Works
