Stirling is a town in the Adelaide Hills,

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, approximately 15 km from the

Adelaide city centre Adelaide city centre (Kaurna: Tarndanya) is the inner city locality of Greater Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is known by locals simply as "the City" or "Town" to distinguish it from Greater Adelaide and from the City of Ade ...

. It is administered by the

Adelaide Hills Council Adelaide Hills Council is a local government area in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia. It is in the hills east of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, and extends from the South Para Reservoir in the north to the Mount Bold Reservoir ...

. Neighbouring townships are

Crafers The town of Crafers is in the Adelaide Hills to the south-east of Adelaide, South Australia, considered to be an outer suburb of Adelaide. History Crafers was named after David Crafer, who arrived in Adelaide in 1838 and moved to the area. ...

and

Aldgate Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate. The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...

. Other nearby towns are Heathfield and Bridgewater. Of those five, Stirling has by far the largest commercial strip, with the greatest number and widest variety of shops, and the only banks. Stirling East, a similar sized area towards Aldgate, is home to several schools.

History

Stirling is named after Edward Stirling. He was the illegitimate son of Archibald Stirling, a planter in the

British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grena ...

, and a Creole woman. He was able to travel to South Australia because of a financial gift from his father who had been freshly compensated for his slaves on the

emancipation of the British West Indies The emancipation of the British West Indies refers to the abolition of slavery in Britain's colonies in the West Indies during the 1830s. The British government passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, which emancipated all slaves in the Brit ...

. Founded in 1854, Stirling grew rapidly as a result of the expansion of

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

growing and

market gardening A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to ...

to satisfy the demand of the expanding city of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, whose centre is only 15 kilometres from Stirling. It also developed as a residential address for English migrants who could afford it, to escape Adelaide's hot summers, often 10 degrees cooler than Adelaide. As a result, many historic, grand mansions can be found in the area. Today, farming has declined as more of the region has been urbanised, with many Stirling residents commuting to Adelaide daily.

Vegetation

Many

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

trees, particularly the

maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

and

ash tree ''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45–65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous, though a number of subtropical species are evergree ...

s, have been imported from

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. These trees flourish in Stirling's wet and mild to cool climate and are a popular tourist attraction in the autumn months (April–May), bringing rich and vibrant autumn leaf colour to the town. This activity is known as " leaf peeping". Some Australian cities are too warm (even in the autumn and winter months) to accommodate and produce maple trees, but some temperate regions along the eastern coast and towns at higher altitudes flourish in colour during autumn, rivalling those in North America, Europe and Japan. Other tourist sites include the nearby

Mount Lofty Botanic Garden First opened in 1977, the crescent-shaped Mount Lofty Botanic Garden is situated on 100 hectares on the eastern slopes of Mount Lofty in the Adelaide Hills east of Adelaide in South Australia. The cooler, wetter location suits plants from tem ...

and

Cleland National Park Cleland National Park, formerly Cleland Conservation Park, is a protected area located in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia about south-east of the Adelaide city centre. It conserves a significant area of natural bushland on the Adelaide ...

Climate

Stirling has a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

: ''Csb''). Owing to its location near

Mount Lofty Mount Lofty (, elevation AHD) is the highest point in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges. It is located about east of the Adelaide city centre, within the Cleland National Park in the Adelaide Hills area of South Australia. The mountain's s ...

, Stirling is the wettest place in South Australia, receiving an average of 1,107 millimetres (43.6 inches) of rain per year—more than twice the average of Adelaide. Between May and August, the average monthly rainfall is as high as 155 millimetres (over 6 inches), and in June 1916, over 450 millimetres fell. Mean summer temperatures are about 5 °C (9 °F) lower than in Adelaide, which may explain why Stirling was recommended as a desirable residence for English migrants and Adelaide's high society in the 20th century. Winters are distinctly cool particularly compared to Adelaide, with an average minimum of 4 °C (39 °F) and an average maximum of 11 °C (52 °F).Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, South Australian Office; ''South Australian Year Book''; 1978 edition The Australian

Bureau of Meteorology The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Australian Government responsible for providing weather services to Australia and surrounding areas. It was established in 1906 under the Meteorology Act, and brought together ...

stopped the collection of weather data at Stirling from the 1980s onward. Weather recording instruments were removed from the grounds of Australia Post's Stirling office following a commercial dispute between these two Australian government organisations.

Government

Stirling is located in the state electorate of Heysen and in the federal

Division of Mayo The Division of Mayo is an Australian electoral division located to the east and south of Adelaide, South Australia. Created in the state redistribution of 3 September 1984, the division is named after Helen Mayo, a social activist and the fir ...

. The local council is the

(formerly Stirling Council) in the Mt Lofty and Manoah wards.

Culture

A prominent landmark in Stirling is the historical Stirling Theatre, home to the

Hills Musical Company A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not a ...

Stirling Players Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, ...

and Hills Youth Theatre. Stirling also has a strong affinity with books and has been referred to as South Australia's 'Book Village'. This relates to the close proximity of varied book venues Chapter Two Books, Matilda Bookshop, The Hut Book Shed and the Coventry Memorial Library.

Artistic Community

Stirling has traditionally had a strong community of artists. Notable are

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...

ist, Colin Russell Gardiner who was a former

electrician An electrician is a tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, transmission lines, stationary machines, and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance ...

and held many

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

s in the 1970s and 1980s. Michael Plant Atchison OAM (4 August 1933 – 16 February 2009) was an Australian cartoonist who worked for the South Australian Advertiser for over 40 years.

Fire Service

The Stirling community is protected from fire, road crash and hazardous materials by the Stirling Country Fire Service Volunteers. In 2006, the

stepped up efforts to relocate the station to

, against the wants of the volunteers. The council proposed the move in order to sell the land currently inhabited by the CFS station on Avenue Road, to fund a new library. However, in mid-2006 the council elected to sell the land the fire station was on to SAFECOM (South Australian Fire and Emergency Services Commission), which owns all Fire Service assets. The new library started construction anyway in early 2007, and it was completed the following year.

Transport

Stirling (Main Street) is very well serviced by public transport, with a 30min off-peak service to the city and nearby Mount Barker (routes and ). During peak it is also service by routes and . Route operates nights and weekends only. For the east of Stirling, route http://www.adelaidemetro.com.au/content/download/627/10382/file/865-866_ttable_routemap_26-01-16.pdf operates to and from the city and route operates to

. Route http://www.adelaidemetro.com.au/content/download/793/10750/file/820-821-822_ttable_routemap_26-01-16.pdf also links Stirling to

Carey Gully Carey Gully is a small town in the Adelaide Hills region of South Australia. The name of the town is taken from one of the early settlers of the area, Paddy Carey, and was originally called Carey's Gully, (This can be seen at the town's War M ...

. For the West of Stirling (heading out towards Heathfield) routes and operate via Avenue Road and Longwood Road, at peak times only with very limited interpeak services.

References

{{authority control

Stirling, South Australia Stirling is a town in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, approximately 15 km from the Adelaide city centre. It is administered by the Adelaide Hills Council. Neighbouring townships are Crafers and Aldgate. Other nearby towns are Heat ...