Westminster history: the Westminster Estate, a limestone boulevard and the 1994 renaming

Westminster takes its name from an estate subdivided before the Second World War. For decades the area was counted as part of Balga, until it was approved as a separate suburb in 1994.

How Westminster got its name

Landgate, which approved Westminster as a suburb in 1994, says the name comes from Westminster Gardens, an estate developed in the 1930s, and that it was also the name of one of the area’s primary schools.

The City of Stirling says the change came from residents, who asked the City in 1994 to rename the southern part of Balga after the original estate. The City calls that estate the Westminster Estate rather than Westminster Gardens.

Before the suburb

The City of Stirling’s thematic history says Wadjak Nyoongar people traditionally occupied the country that is now metropolitan Perth, and that Mooro country, from the coast to the Swan River and north beyond Yanchep, lies within the City of Stirling.

After colonisation the land was used for market gardens and poultry farms, and timber was cut from the jarrah and banksia woodland. The Westminster Estate was subdivided before the Second World War, but the City says few people built there until the late 1940s because the area was thought to be too isolated. From 1936 to 1955 a limestone road, Westminster Boulevard, ran through Nollamara and the Westminster Estate.

How it grew

In the early 1950s the State Housing Commission took over the land as part of the planned Mirrabooka regional centre. The City describes the Mirrabooka satellite city as a plan for 16,000 houses that was to take in Balga, Nollamara, Westminster and the northern part of Dianella.

Many of the first houses were timber-framed Commission houses. From the 1960s private owners added brick houses on small to medium blocks, mostly in the north-west, and most of the units were built between 1960 and 1970. Newer houses followed in the east from the mid 1970s. The wider satellite city was never finished, and the thematic history records that the proposal was abandoned in 1982.

For most of this time the area was part of Balga. The 1994 request from residents brought back the estate’s name.

Places that tell the story

Esperanto Martin Reserve and Arkana Walderton Reserve are kept by the City as local natural areas. St Gerard’s Catholic Primary School on Majella Road and Westminster Primary School on Marloo Road serve the suburb, and Stirling Central in the north-west is the suburb’s shopping centre.

Westminster today

The 2021 Census counted 7,042 people in Westminster. High frequency buses link it with Mirrabooka, Warwick and Bayswater.

More about Westminster

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

Sources

• Landgate: Perth and surrounds suburb names (archived 2022)
• City of Stirling: Westminster suburb page
• City of Stirling: Balga suburb page
• City of Stirling: A Thematic History of the City of Stirling (2018)
• ABS 2021 Census QuickStats: Westminster

Top image: Westminster Centre on Marloo Road, Westminster, 2012. 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