Perth Girls School

A big shout-out to the awesome team at Australian Development Capital, especially Cassandra, for giving me the opportunity in November 2023 to photograph the former Perth Girls’ School.

The former Perth Girls’ School at 2 Wellington Street in East Perth dates back to 1847, making it one of the oldest institutions established specifically for girls in Western Australia. Over the decades, the school operated from several different locations around Perth before the purpose-built East Perth site we know today was completed in 1936.

1847 - Perth Girls' Colonial School - Perth Court House on William Street
N/A - A house on Hay Street
1854 - A new building on Pier Street
N/A - Perth Cultural Centre
1896 - Moved into a new “Government School” which is now the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
1936 - Moved into the Perth Girls' School building

External Front

During the 1920s, the education system was already struggling under familiar pressures. Overcrowded classrooms, limited resources and school buildings that couldn’t be renovated or properly maintained often enough. Viewed through a modern lens, particularly in rural areas, it feels uncomfortably familiar. The situation was severe enough to justify the construction of a new girls’ school.

Although plans for the distinctive E-shaped girls’ school were finalised in 1934 by government architect A. E. Clare, construction would not begin for another two years, delayed by the lingering effects of the Depression. Designed in the Inter-War Stripped Classical style, the building served as a girls’ secondary school until 1962, when declining enrolments led to its closure.

The curriculum placed a strong emphasis on domestic science and offered education only up to junior certificate level. By around the age of 15, girls were expected to leave school and make their way into the world, ideally achieving something more ambitious than the narrow role of a 'domestic engineer'.

Second Floor

A year after its closure, the site was taken over by the Western Australia Police Traffic Branch, which remained there for several decades. While Landgate imagery indicates the building was vacated sometime before November 2018, a 2021 Development Application report lists the Traffic Branch’s departure as occurring in 2015.

The Perth Girls’ School was adopted onto the City of Perth Heritage List on 16 December 1991 and later entered on the State Register of Heritage Places on 28 February 1995. In June 2017, the State Government sold the 7,000 m² site for $5 million to a syndicate of local investors led by Australian Development Capital, alongside the Warburton Group.

Between 2019 and 2020, more than 360 graves were exhumed from the northern portion of the precinct over a ten-month period and reinterred at Karrakatta Cemetery. This area had once formed part of the East Perth Cemetery before later being converted into a car park.

Centre Staircase

Library

In June 2020, the Perth Girls’ School Precinct Design Guidelines were adopted by the Western Australian Government. Early plans proposed a four-tower development, including two 25-storey build-to-sell towers comprising 242 apartments, a 36-storey and a 15-storey build-to-rent tower with around 500 apartments and an additional 15-storey build-to-rent tower. The heritage school building itself was earmarked for uses including a brewery, retail spaces, art galleries, a supermarket, food and beverage venues, an Artrage event space, offices and a yoga studio. Earlier reports from September 2020 suggested as many as six towers were being considered.

On 20 June 2022, DevelopmentWA’s board approved a 37-storey mixed-use development for the site, subject to conditions, particularly relating to its heritage-listed status. That application detailed the ground floor of the Perth Girls’ School building as accommodating a supermarket, seven retail stores, a brewery and creative mixed-use spaces, with construction originally slated to begin in 2024.

In December 2025, a revised development application was lodged proposing a new student accommodation and mixed-use development for the site, with an estimated value of $110 million.