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Williams Stirling Apartments
The original apartment proposal
In May 2022, planning consultants Element lodged a development application on behalf of Hot Sand Capital for an 18-storey apartment tower called William Stirling. The $22.8 million proposal covered four commercial properties at 37-43 Stirling Highway, on the corner of Williams Road in Nedlands. Together, the four lots covered 2,123m², with Hibbertia Lane running along the rear. The West Australian reported that the properties had been bought for a combined $9.19 million between 2014 and 2021.
The plans included 75 apartments and seven commercial tenancies for offices, shops, a restaurant or café and an art gallery. There were 18 one-bedroom, 33 two-bedroom and 24 three-bedroom apartments. Residents would have had a pool and terrace, a gym, a lounge, indoor and outdoor play areas for children and a garden for growing food. The applicant also proposed that more than 85 per cent of the apartments meet Silver or Gold Liveable Housing standards, which cover features such as ease of access and movement through the home.
The plaza and the former post office
Dapple Studio+ placed the tallest part of the building towards the Williams Road corner. The lower floors, known as the podium, stepped down towards the single-storey former Nedlands Post Office at No. 35. The 1934 post office sat immediately east of the development site on its own property and was listed on both the State Register of Heritage Places and the City’s Heritage List. A heritage architect attended both design review meetings, in December 2021 and April 2022. Element’s report said it expected the proposal to be referred to the Heritage Council for comment.
At ground level, a landscaped plaza would have been open to the public. The architects arranged the café, shops and apartment entrance around the space to provide some shelter from the prevailing winds. The plans showed shaded seating, tiered planting and strings of lights towards Hibbertia Lane, with room for informal events. Two mature kurrajongs along the highway were marked for retention. The plans allowed for 131m² of deep soil, where trees could put down roots directly into the ground, against the 149m² benchmark. A further 267m² of planting in built-in beds was proposed to make up for the shortfall.
Parking, access and building size
Most of the 162 car bays were to be in a multi-level basement. The May plans allocated 116 bays to residents, nine to residential visitors and 37 to the commercial tenancies. They also showed 104 bicycle bays and 16 bays for motorcycles or scooters. The applicant’s assessment treated parking as an item that needed a different design solution from the standard rates. The original assessment listed 69 commercial bays under those rates, compared with the 37 proposed. Hot Sand Capital also proposed widening the trafficable part of Hibbertia Lane to 5.8 metres and contributing towards a pedestrian crossing on Stirling Highway.
The site was zoned Mixed Use with an R-AC1 density code. The apartment design codes gave it a standard plot ratio of 3.0. Plot ratio compares the floor area counted under the planning rules with the size of the site. On these four lots, a ratio of 3.0 equated to 6,369m². The May application put the ratio at 3.78, or about 8,000m² of counted floor area. Element argued that the public plaza, extra planting, laneway works, contribution towards a crossing and mix of apartments justified the additional floor space. The planning rules allowed the panel to consider whether the benefits warranted that extra space.
Revised plans and approval
The City of Nedlands accepted public submissions from 20 May to 17 June 2022. The amended landscape drawings are stamped as received by the City on 19 October 2022. The City made them available for information after the consultation period had closed. The revised tower was 17 storeys, one fewer than the May proposal, while its reported plot ratio rose slightly from 3.78 to 3.82.
The October drawings still showed a public plaza at ground level, with sheltered café seating along the highway and a tiered garden with seats and a lawn towards Hibbertia Lane. A bridge crossed a sunken planted area. On Level 2, residents would have had raised garden beds, citrus trees and a sheltered communal dining area. Level 3 showed a lap pool, a pool deck and a raised outdoor dining terrace.
In an objection later reproduced in his submission to a WA parliamentary inquiry, Ken Perry raised concerns about the tower’s height and floor area, the number of commercial parking bays and the effect on local traffic. He also argued that the public had too little time to examine the revised proposal and the City’s assessment before the November council meeting. The City recommended refusal, citing the building’s bulk and scale in relation to the existing and planned character of the area.
The final decision rested with the Metro Inner-North Joint Development Assessment Panel. On 2 December 2022, the panel approved the revised 17-storey development under application DAP/22/02232. The apartment tower was never built and the same four lots later became the site of a new proposal for student accommodation.
© Element (2022)
Nedlands EPIISOD Stirling
A new application proposed purpose-built student accommodation on the same four lots at 37-43 Stirling Highway. The site is on the corner of Williams Road, within about 500 metres of the University of Western Australia’s Crawley campus. DMG Architecture prepared the plans for the $60 million development, which would replace the four commercial buildings with a 19-storey tower, a café and a separate commercial tenancy.
The October 2024 traffic report described a building with 440 rooms and 472 beds. The plans included study areas, communal lounges, a laundry and a 107m² commercial tenancy. The basement had only 11 car bays, including two accessible bays and eight for shared electric cars. A pick-up and drop-off bay was planned off Hibbertia Lane. The traffic consultant expected many residents to walk, cycle or use the bus and estimated about 200 vehicle movements a day, counting arrivals and departures, with around 20 movements in each of the morning and afternoon peak hours.
Planning approval and later changes
The City of Nedlands recommended refusal at a special council meeting on 29 January 2025. The City was a referral body for this application, which went through the state’s Part 11B pathway for significant developments. On 7 May 2025, the WA Planning Commission’s Statutory Planning Committee granted conditional approval under application SD-002-24, using plans date-stamped 3 April 2025. The Commission records the approved development as having 446 student rooms with 482 beds, 11 basement car bays and 162 bicycle bays.
A further amendment was approved on 20 March 2026 after the design had been worked through in more detail. It reconfigured the basement and ground floor, including the entrance lobby, café, 24-hour reception, study areas, bicycle parking and servicing. The sunken garden was replaced with more deep-soil planting area, where trees and other plants could root directly into the ground.
A separate amendment would add 31 beds, bringing the total in the plans from 482 to 513. It proposes changes to the room layouts on Levels 2 to 17 and to the arrangement of fixed and opening windows on part of the façade. The proposal keeps the approved building height. As of 12 November 2026, the state planning register listed this amendment as under assessment.
Sale and Centurion’s investment
Hot Sand Capital sold the four lots off market in a deal brokered by Brian Neo of Sterling Property. The sale was reported in September 2025. Sterling Property put the price at $8 million, while Real Estate Source reported $8.8 million and said the purchase had been agreed in late 2024, subject to planning approval, with settlement in late August 2025.
On 28 November 2025, a subsidiary of Singapore-listed Centurion Corporation agreed to subscribe for A$6 million in shares in Stirling Highway Development, the company that owned the site. The deal gave the subsidiary a 25 per cent stake, with Centurion Properties Australia Investments Pty Ltd holding the other 75 per cent. Centurion announced the deal on 1 December and said it would operate the building under its EPIISOD brand.
Demolition, road closures and the tower crane
Demolition was underway by 4 February 2026. Multiplex was engaged as head contractor for the new building. Its construction management plan divided the job into three permit packages. The first covered piling, earthworks and the capping beam that ties the tops of the retaining piles together. The second covered the foundations, ground slab and structure above. The third covered the façade, building services, fit-out and landscaping. The plan allowed about two years for the work, with completion programmed for February 2028.
On 25 March 2026, the City approved daytime closures on Williams Road at Hibbertia Lane from 7am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday. It also approved a full-time closure of the section of Hibbertia Lane between Williams Road and Laxum Lane from 26 March 2026 to 28 February 2028, subject to maintaining safe driveway access for a resident. Multiplex needed the laneway for deliveries and unloading because there was little room to do that within the site. The contractor expected up to 30 construction vehicles a day and planned to have no more than two trucks waiting or unloading in the closed section at once. The City received 15 responses to its survey. Eight supported the Hibbertia Lane closure and 12 supported the Williams Road closure.
The Comansa tower crane installation began on 9 August 2026 and was completed on 10 August. Multiplex’s plan identified the crane as the main way of lifting materials and equipment for the structure above ground. It also called for the shortest jib that could still reach across the job, to reduce how far the crane would swing over neighbouring properties.
Centurion and EPIISOD
Centurion Corporation owns and operates student accommodation and worker housing internationally. Its Australian student properties include Dwell East End Adelaide, with 300 beds, and Dwell Village Melbourne City, with 611 beds. It launched EPIISOD in July 2025 with its Macquarie Park property in Sydney, which opened in January 2026 with about 732 beds.
Stirling was Centurion Corporation’s first Perth investment under the EPIISOD brand, followed by EPIISOD Fairway at 55-57 Fairway in Crawley.
Centurion’s September 2026 investor update still listed about 472 beds for EPIISOD Stirling and gave an opening target of early 2028. The Commission’s approval records 482 beds, with the separate proposal for 513 beds still under assessment.
Comansa Tower Crane Install
Monday 10 August 2026 was a completely and utterly munted morning for finishing the tower crane installation, which had begun the day before. You can probably tell from these dark and grey photos, despite my best efforts to improve them in Lightroom.
August 2026
