Hamersley, Western Australia

Hamersley Perth, Western Australia
View east from Benjafield Way towards ABC tower
Coordinates	31°51′07″S 115°48′22″E / 31.852°S 115.806°E / -31.852; 115.806
Population	5,209 (SAL 2021)[1]
Established	1968
Postcode(s)	6022
Area	3.347 km2 (1.3 sq mi)
Location	14 km (9 mi) NNW of Perth CBD
LGA(s)	City of Stirling
State electorate(s)	Kingsley
Federal division(s)	Cowan
Suburbs around Hamersley: Duncraig Warwick Girrawheen Carine Hamersley Balga Gwelup Balcatta Westminster

Hamersley is a residential suburb 14 kilometres (8.7 miles) north-northwest of the central business district of Perth, the capital of Western Australia, and six kilometres (4 mi) from the Indian Ocean. The suburb adjoins two major arterial roads—Mitchell Freeway to the west and Reid Highway to the south—and is within the City of Stirling local government area. It was built during the late 1960s and 1970s as part of the Government of Western Australia's response to rapidly increasing land prices across the metropolitan area.^[2][3]

Before development, Hamersley was a remote district covered in jarrah, marri, banksia and other vegetation typical of the Swan Coastal Plain, with small areas cleared for small-scale agriculture such as market gardening and poultry farming. By 1974, six years after the first subdivision, Hamersley was home to the district's first community hall, an annual parade and fair which were broadcast on Perth TV and radio, an active progress association, and its own newspaper, the Hamersley Gazette, a forerunner to today's Stirling Times. Rapid growth further north removed the focus from Hamersley, which was completed in 1981 and has remained relatively stable since then.

Significant reserves of remnant bushland remain in parts of the suburb. The largest of these is an exclusion zone around the 180-metre-high (590-foot) ABC radio tower in the suburb's southeast, which broadcasts AM stations to the Perth metropolitan area. The guyed tower was built in 1939 and is a landmark in the region, although it has been a local political issue since the 1980s.^[4]