Stirling history: market gardens, the civic centre and the 1976 name

Stirling only got its own name in 1976. Before that it was an extension of the Osborne Park market gardens, and the council had already moved its offices to Cedric Street.

How Stirling got its name

Landgate records that Stirling is named after Admiral Sir James Stirling, the first Governor of Western Australia. The name was approved as a postal district in April 1976 at the City of Stirling’s request, and the area had until then been part of Balcatta. The City of Stirling’s own suburb page says instead that the locality was part of Osborne Park until it was gazetted as Stirling in 1976.

The council took the same name a few years earlier. The City’s thematic history records that the Shire of Perth became the City of Stirling, proclaimed by Governor Sir Douglas Kendrew on Sunday 24 January 1971.

Before the suburb

The City’s thematic history describes the Perth area as Wadjak Nyoongar country, with the Mooro people’s country lying within the City of Stirling. A coastal wetlands trail followed a chain of lakes from the Swan River towards Yanchep, taking in Monger, Herdsman and Gwelup, and the wetlands were used for camping, ceremonies, hunting and gathering.

After European settlement the low, swampy land was farmed. Stirling began as an extension of the Osborne Park market garden district. In the early twentieth century many Osborne Park residents were Chinese market gardeners who grew vegetables for Perth, and later settlers, mainly from Italy and what was then Yugoslavia, often took over holdings and kept the gardens going. In the 1920s C. Viadich had a vineyard on Balcatta Beach Road at the corner of Cedric Street.

How it grew

Local government arrived before the houses. In 1958 the council moved its administration from central Perth to Cedric Street, as the first stage of a civic centre, and after city status in 1971 the municipal headquarters was built in what became Stirling.

The name Stirling was gazetted in 1976. Subdivision began in 1978 and carried on through the 1980s and 1990s, and the City describes the suburb as now almost fully developed. The Joondalup railway, with stations at Stirling and Glendalough, opened in the early 1990s.

Since then the area around the station has been planned as Stirling City. The Stephenson Avenue bridge over the freeway and railway opened on 13 December 2025, and the enlarged Stirling Bus Interchange opened on 2 August 2026.

Places that tell the story

The City of Stirling Administration Building on Cedric Street marks the civic centre that began here in 1958, and on Sunday mornings it hosts the Stirling Farmers Market. Stirling Civic Gardens sits opposite it. Osborne Park Hospital, also within the suburb, keeps the older Osborne Park name, and the 1970s houses beside it are among the oldest in Stirling.

The corner of Cedric Street and Balcatta Beach Road was vineyard land in the 1920s.

Stirling today

The 2021 Census counted 10,165 people in Stirling. The suburb holds the City’s offices, a hospital and a railway station, and it sits within the area the City is planning as Stirling City.

More about Stirling

For what Stirling is like to live in now, read our Stirling suburb profile. If you own a property in Stirling and are thinking about selling, start with buyers for your property.

Sources

• Landgate: Perth and surrounds suburb names (archived 2022)
• City of Stirling: Stirling suburb profile
• City of Stirling: Thematic History of the City of Stirling
• Main Roads WA: Stephenson Avenue Extension
• WA Government: Stephenson Avenue bridge opens to traffic
• ABS 2021 Census QuickStats: Stirling (WA)

Top image: Houses on Amelia Street, Stirling, looking east from Main Street. Photo: Orderinchaos, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Dates and names are drawn from the sources above. Where sources differ, we have said so or given an approximate date.

By Key Performance Real Estate, 338 Beaufort Street, Perth