Sorrento, Western Australia

Sorrento is a northern coastal suburb of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia in the local government area of the City of Joondalup. At its northwestern corner is the Hillarys Boat Harbour, built in the late 1980s.HistoryA private subdivision of freehold land known as 'Sorrento' was surveyed here in 1929. It is assumed that the name was taken from the Italian seaside town of Sorrento which is located south of Naples opposite the Isle of Capri. Prior to white settlement, the Whadjuk Aboriginal people, who called the area Mooro, gathered abalone and other shellfish in large numbers off the nearby reefs.The first European to settle in the area was Patrick Marmion, master whaler, who operated a whaling station in the area in 1849. There are still some remains of the old whaling station at the present-day Surf Lifesaving Club site, and a monument to Marmion can be found in Geneff Park in Padbury Circle.The area was popular with fishermen in the 1930s, and numerous boatsheds and shacks were built there. Residential settlement commenced in the early 1950s and until 1981, it was part of the suburb of Marmion.In 1958, the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions bought land in Sorrento at what was then the end of the West Coast Highway, and in 1967, the Sisters and boarding students moved from Highgate to the new site, Sacred Heart College Sorrento. The college became coeducational in 1977, and in 1989, the Catholic Education Commission took over management of the school.