Stirling Highway

Stirling Highway
Basic data
Operator:	Main Roads
Start of the street:	Mounts Bay Road Hampden Road / Broadway Crawley ( Perth ) ( WA ) ( 31 ° 59 ′  S , 115 ° 49 ′  E )
End of street:	High Street East Fremantle ( WA ) ( 32 ° 3 ′  S , 115 ° 46 ′  E )
Overall length:	13 km
States :	Western Australia

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap

The Stirling Highway is a main thoroughfare in Perth in the southwest of the Australian state of Western Australia . It connects Mounts Bay Road in Crawley with High Street in Fremantle Seaport . The mostly four-lane road without a median runs along the north bank of the Swan River . The speed limit is generally 60 km / h. East of Crawley, Mounts Bay Road connects the highway to the nearby University of Western Australia and downtown Perth.

The road runs through various western suburbs of the city, such as B. Nedlands, Claremont, Peppermint Grove, Cottesloe and Mosman Park . Many elite schools are also located on this route, e.g. B. Christ Church Grammar School , Presbyterian Ladies 'College and Methodist Ladies' College . There are large shopping areas in Claremont and Cottesloe, and there are many retailers all along the street. The section south of Cottesloe runs along the railway.

history

The Stirling Highway was originally laid out as a rough dirt road that connected the two newly established settlements of Perth and Fremantle after the founding of the Swan River Colony in 1829. A real road did not emerge on this route until a few decades later, the reasons for this were the lack of labor, the initially slow development of the colony, the initial lack of a bridge over the Swan River at the southern end of the dirt road and the use of the river itself as the main transport route between the two settlements.

Halfway Tree: Historical marking of the delivery of mail between Perth and Fremantle until 1867

Prisoners had to build the road after the colony was established as a convict colony in 1850. In 1858 the work was completed. In 1881 the road was declared a public trunk road.

In 1881, the Perth to Fremantle railway line was completed, stretching along the road in parts. This spurred the development of the western suburbs of Perth and the country along the road.

In 1930 the street was renamed in honor of the first Governor of Western Australia, Admiral Sir James Stirling . Construction of the modern highway began in the 1930s and was completed in sections about 1 mile each year:

• 1934 - Broadway in Nedlands to Weld Street in Nedlands
• 1935 - Weld Street in Nedlands to Bay View Terrace in Claremont
• 1936 - Bay View Terrace in Claremont to Anstey Street in Claremont
• 1937 - Anstey Street in Claremont to Johnston Street in Peppermint Grove
• 1938 - Johnston Street in Peppermint Grove to Leighton Crossing in North Fremantle
• 1939 - Leighton Crossing in North Fremantle to Fremantle, including the new Fremantle Traffic Bridge .

During the heyday of streetcars and trolleybuses in Perth (from the 1930s to the 1950s), several lines ran on the Stirling Highway, the contact wires being held by steel masts at the edge of the highway. After the tram lines were dismantled, the remaining masts soon became unsightly and were removed in the early 2000s as part of the underground power cable installation project.

In the 1970s, a new bridge was built over the Swan River just east of the Fremantle Traffic Bridge . This Stirling Bridge was opened to traffic in 1974. The Stirling Highway was led over the new bridge and ended on the Canning Highway (S6).

An extension to the south to High Street (S7) was opened in 1985 and should represent the first part of the planned Roe Highway , construction section 8 (Fremantle Eastern Bypass). These plans have since been abandoned, so the Stirling Highway comes to an end on the High Street.

swell

• Leigh Edmonds: The vital link: a history of Main Roads Western Australia 1926-1996 . University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, Western Australia 1997, ISBN 1-875560-87-4 .
• WhereiS.com . Sensis. Retrieved April 17, 2006.
• Town of Cottesloe: History . Retrieved July 6, 2006.
• Steve Parish: Australian Touring Atlas . Steve Parish Publishing. Archerfield QLD 2007. ISBN 978-1-74193-232-4 . P. 77

Individual evidence

1. ^ Underground Power Project . Energy WA ( Memento of the original from September 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.