A new chapter began in 1982 when the site was repurposed as the Hillview Child and Adolescent Clinic, a government-run psychiatric service for children and teenagers aged 8 to 18. In practice, many children were admitted at their parents’ insistence rather than by choice. The facility had three parts: an outpatient clinic, a six-bed residential unit called the W.E. Robinson Unit and a 12-bed residential ward known as Hillview Hospital.

 

Hillview provided care for young people dealing with serious emotional and psychological challenges. It was often linked to abuse, grief, trauma, eating disorders or suicidal thoughts. Stays lasted on average four months, during which patients continued their schooling at nearby primary and secondary schools.

 

Mildred Creek Centre

A clinic dedicated to children with autism, also operated on the Edward Millen site. The centre was named after Dr Mildred Creak (1898–1993), a pioneering British child psychiatrist. Creak was one of the first doctors to specialise in children’s mental health and became the first female consultant psychiatrist at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. In the 1960s, she chaired a working group that developed what became known as the “Nine Points of Creak”, one of the earliest formal attempts to define autism and related developmental disorders. Her work helped shift thinking away from harmful ideas that blamed parents and towards recognising autism as a developmental condition with biological roots.

 

At Edward Millen, the Mildred Creak Centre was set up during the 1980s as part of the site’s broader shift to child and adolescent mental health services. Alongside the Hillview Clinic, which supported young people with psychiatric needs, the Mildred Creak Centre focused specifically on autistic children. For many families in Western Australia, this was one of the first specialist services available. The centre provided assessment, treatment, and support at a time when autism was far less understood than it is today. It represented an important step in recognising the needs of autistic children and their families within the public health system.

 

Closure and Aftermath

The Hillview Clinic closed in 1995, when patients were transferred to the W.E. Robinson Unit at Bentley Hospital. The Mildred Creak Centre continued to operate until 2001, when it too closed its doors. After that, the Edward Millen site became vacant, with no new health services established there. In 2006 the land and buildings were handed over to the Town of Victoria Park and they have stood empty ever since, awaiting redevelopment.

 

Redevelopment plans stalled for years. A breakthrough came in 2023, when Blackoak Capital Ventures signed a 20-year lease with the Town. Their vision is to restore and revitalise the heritage-listed Edward Millen buildings and surrounding parkland, transforming the site into a lively hospitality and community hub. Plans include a café, bistro dining, gastro pub, event and function spaces, a bakery, a farmers market, and even childcare facilities.