West Leederville is a suburb northwest of the central business district of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, the capital of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, and is within the

Town of Cambridge The Town of Cambridge is a local government area in the inner western suburbs of the Western Australian capital city of Perth, about west of Perth's central business district and extending to the Indian Ocean at City Beach. The Town covers ...

. It used to be integrated with Leederville prior to the construction of the

Mitchell Freeway The Mitchell Freeway is a freeway in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, linking central Perth with the city of Joondalup. It is the northern section of State Route 2, which continues south as Kwinana Freeway and Forrest ...

through the suburb in 1972. The tiny section east of Southport Street is a commercial area with several warehouses, taking advantage of its location at the end of the

Graham Farmer Freeway Graham Farmer Freeway is a inner-city freeway in Perth, Western Australia. It links Rivervale and Burswood with West Perth and Leederville, providing an east-west bypass of Perth's central business district. The freeway, in conjunction w ...

. The rest of the suburb is medium-density residential. The suburb backs onto

Subiaco Oval Subiaco Oval (; nicknamed Subi) was a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Subiaco. It was opened in 1908 and closed in 2017 after the completion of the new Perth Stadium in Burswood. Subiaco Oval was the high ...

and St John of God Subiaco Hospital. Many of the original residences still stand, with most being renovated next to newer double storey dwellings, leafy streets with some properties gaining views of the city. "Hill of Tara" is a newer subdivision with larger homes on bigger blocks, with many affording view of

Lake Monger Lake Monger ( nys, Keiermulu) is a large urban wetland on the Swan Coastal Plain in suburban Perth, Western Australia nestled between the suburbs of Leederville, Wembley and Glendalough. Located less than from the city of Perth and situated ...

. It is served by a bus service along Cambridge Street and the Leederville train station (

Joondalup line The Joondalup line is a commuter rail service in Western Australia, linking the Perth central business district (CBD) with the metropolitan area's north-western suburbs. The service is operated on the Northern Suburbs Railway by Transperth Tra ...

) and West Leederville train station (

Fremantle line The Fremantle line is a suburban railway and service in Western Australia that connects the central business district (CBD) of Perth with Fremantle. History The railway on which the service runs opened on 1 March 1881 as the first suburban rai ...

History

West Leederville, though informally known by that name for many years, was officially gazetted as a suburb in 1998. West Leederville is the earliest area of residential subdivision in the

. It was originally formed from the sale and subdivision of the estate of

William Henry Leeder William Henry Leeder was an early settler in the Swan River Colony, Western Australia. He was granted a parcel of land that now includes the suburb of Leederville, which was named after him. Leeder arrived in the Swan River Colony in 1830. He w ...

that occurred from 1891. West Leederville Primary School was founded in 1898. Most of West Leederville's residential land was subdivided prior to 1903. The Home of the Good Shepherd Convent (now the Catholic Education Centre) was established in 1903 by the

Good Shepherd Sisters The Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, also known as the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, is a Catholic religious order that was founded in 1835 by Mary Euphrasia Pelletier in Angers, France. The religious sisters belong to a ...

. Most of West Leederville was well developed with houses before 1925. Until the 1950s, a

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

ran down Woolwich Street. With a one in fourteen

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gr ...

, Woolwich Street was one of the steepest tram lines in the city. Subdivision of the Hill of Tara occurred in the 1990s when land was released around the Catholic Education Centre in Ruislip Street.

Leederville Town Hall and Recreation Complex

The Leederville Town Hall & Recreation Complex is bounded by Holyrood Street, Tower Street and Cambridge Street. It forms a central focus of West Leederville. It is historically significant in the development of Leederville and the surrounding district, and was developed in response to the rapid expansion of the suburb prior to the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It was designed by A. E. Clarke and built in 1916 by local builder, W. H. Roberts. The Leederville Bowling Club was established to the rear of the Leederville Town Hall in 1906, and continues to operate both as a bowling club and a social venue. The bowling club was the first sporting facility established on the site and was developed in association with the Excelsior

Masonic Lodge A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...

. The Fallen Soldier’s Memorial was designed and executed in 1924 by

Pietro Porcelli Pietro Giacomo Porcelli (30 January 1872 – 28 June 1943) was an Italian-born sculptor responsible for many statues in Western Australia, including the Explorers' Monument, and those of C. Y. O'Connor and Alexander Forrest. Biography Born ...

. The Leederville Croquet Club operated on the site from 1908 until 2006. In 2007 the West Leederville Residents Association began a

community garden A community garden is a piece of land gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively. Normally in community gardens, the land is divided into individual plots. Each individual gardener is responsible for their own plo ...

on an unused area of council land next to the bowling club.

Notable residents

Future prime minister Bob Hawke lived on Tate Street, West Leederville, during his childhood.

References

External links

West Leederville Residents AssociationWest Leederville Community GardenWest Leederville Primary School
{{Perth western suburbs Suburbs of Perth, Western Australia Suburbs in the Town of Cambridge