Stirling Gardens is Perth's oldest public garden, laid out in the 1840s on a triangular block between Barrack Street, St George's Terrace, and the Supreme Court buildings. It was originally the Governor's kitchen garden before being opened to the public, and it retains a pleasantly formal character — manicured lawns, established trees, a fountain at the centre — that makes it one of the more agreeable spots in the CBD for a midday sit-down. The garden is named after James Stirling, the founder of the Swan River Colony and Western Australia's first governor.
The mature Moreton Bay figs and tuart trees give real shade, which matters enormously in Perth's summers. A bronze replica of the Discus Thrower stands in one corner, a piece of civic decoration that has become oddly iconic. The Supreme Court of Western Australia occupies the building on the northern edge of the garden, and lawyers in robes occasionally cross the lawns between hearings, adding to the sense that this is a place where Perth's formal civic life carries on largely unchanged from the colonial era. It is a small garden but a civilised one, and a good place to escape the CBD's glass and concrete for ten minutes.