FREMANTLE council is set to punish Western Australia’s founding governor for his role in the Pinjarra Massacre by stripping his name from one of its inner-city streets.

Councillors have deemed James Stirling “not a good person or a good man” as they backed in principle a proposal to rename Stirling Street to Manitj Street, after the Noongar word for white cockatoo.

The proposal has already sparked a clash over reconciliation, heritage and who gets a say in Fremantle’s history, with critics accusing council of dividing the community and being selective about who gets to have a say.

But councillor Jemima Williamson-Wong said the change was an important opportunity for truth-telling.

“Our history is often recorded in the names of suburbs and streets and places, and for many 1000s of years before settlement, Aboriginal people had names for places as well,” she said.

“James Stirling was not a good person or a good man. He led the 1834 Pinjarra massacre.”

Cr Williamson-Wong said the city had control over its own streets and should recognise that the way history had been recorded might not be correct.

She also acknowledged the financial burden a name change could place on businesses, suggesting council consider helping cover the cost of changing merchandise and other materials.

Forty-year Stirling Street resident and gallery owner Adriana Treasure says she was “shocked” when she heard about the proposed change.

Ms Treasure hails from an indigenous Macedonian background and says while that helps her understand Aboriginal culture, she doesn’t believe changing a street name will have much impact.

“I feel like those money that would be put into changing the name would be a huge cost to residents, to small businesses,” Ms Treasure said.

“That amount of money… would definitely help better if we address the issue of helping the original people in a more economic way.”

Ms Treasure said the name Stirling appeared in many locations across Western Australia, and queried whether it would have to be expunged from all of them.

“My opinion is that I would either say ‘no’ to change to the name, or if it have a mixed name like Stirling and [Manitj]… but not completely changing because that means all the paperwork we have to change on the merchandise, on the letterhead, on everything and that’s a huge cost.”

Cr Pip Slaughter said the proposal had been discussed by the Walyalup Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group for a year and was supported by its elders.

“It aligns with all of our strategic documents to to back them, and this would be the beginning of consultation,” she said.

Mayor Ben Lawver backed the consultation but suggested the street could retain the name Stirling while honouring a different person.

He pointed to King County in Washington State, where he previously resided, which retained its name but changed the person it commemorated to Martin Luther King Jr.

“I would just challenge that maybe there might be a Stirling out there in Australian history who has done some good works that we could potentially look at through this process,” he said.

The proposed name Manitj was selected by Aboriginal members of the reconciliation working group in August, from a list of 22 Noongar names endorsed in 2022. Landgate has confirmed the name is available.

The city’s report says Stirling Street was named after Admiral Sir James Stirling, who led the 1834 massacre of Bindjareb Noongar people at Pinjarra. Governor Chris Dawson formally apologised to Bindjareb people for the massacre in October 2025.

Offensive

The report says the city has a basis to consider renaming the street under Landgate’s geographical naming policy, which allows a change where there are concerns a name is derogatory or patently offensive.

The street has 30 dwellings, including 21 apartments, and four businesses, who will get to have a say on the proposed name-change.

The Chook delved into council records and found that those living on a street had generally been the only ones asked their opinion for a street naming/renaming, however the broader community was able to have a say on the change from Kings Square to Walyalup Koort.

Former Fremantle heritage architect Agnieshka Kiera says street names are an inherent part of a place’s heritage value, saying the renaming of Fremantle landmarks “gets on my nerves”.

Ms Kiera said renaming places could create confusion or conflict between heritage values, and accused some elected members of acting for “frivolous or political reasons”.

She said places of particular significance to Aboriginal people should instead be named and protected in accordance with their significance.

Fremantle Society president John Dowson also wants the broader community to get a say, describing the process as “highly flawed, discriminatory”.

“At the end of the day this issue reflects a heritage issue of relevance to the whole community, and it should be the whole community whose opinions are sought and acted upon.”

Mr Dowson agrees Stirling’s participation in the Pinjarra Massacre complicates the matter, but says the severity of the Colonial reprisal could be somewhat understood because of the gruesomeness of the murder of Private Hugh Nesbitt three months earlier.

According to reports, Nesbitt was stabbed by Binjareb Noongar warriors at least 30 times and had his tongue cut out, while his fingers were then severed and forced into his mouth.

“So they’re targeting the former governor, who some of us think that despite Pinjarra, he was the founder of the state and he is the reason most of us are here, and he was actually a pretty good guy,” Mr Dowson said.

Consultation with residents, some of whom the Chook understands are putting together a petition, concludes this week, with a report then heading back to council to decided on a formal application to Landgate.

by STEVE GRANT