HMAS Stirling (Fleet Base West)

HMAS Stirling is a Royal Australian Navy base forming part of Fleet Base West, the RAN's principal establishment on the Indian Ocean coast. It occupies roughly 28 per cent of Garden Island, Western Australia, off the coast south of Perth and near Rockingham, the remainder of the island being nature reserve subject to quarantine restrictions on the introduction of plants and animals. The base is owned by the Department of Defence and operated by the RAN.

Stirling is the largest RAN shore establishment, with a base population of about 2,300 service personnel, 600 Defence civilians and 500 contractors. It hosts the headquarters of the Australian Submarine Squadron, relocated there in 1994, and the Royal Australian Navy Submarine Service. The base is home port to ten fleet units, including Anzac-class frigates, the Collins-class submarine force in its entirety, and a replenishment vessel. Under the AUKUS partnership and the Submarine Rotational Forces–West initiative announced in March 2023, Stirling receives United States and United Kingdom nuclear-powered submarines for increasingly frequent and longer visits.

Facilities comprise berths and wharves, vessel repair and refit services, a ship-lift, fuel storage, a helicopter support facility, medical facilities and accommodation. The base also operates the Submarine Escape Training Facility, one of six such installations worldwide and the only one in the Southern Hemisphere. A military airport (ICAO: YGAD) is located on Garden Island. The island is connected to the mainland by a 4.3 km causeway.

Planning followed the 1969 adoption of the Two-Ocean Policy, which prompted a feasibility study into the use of Garden Island as a naval base. The causeway was completed in June 1973, wharf and workshop construction began in early 1973 and accommodation in 1975, with the base and Fleet Base West commissioned on 28 July 1978. HMAS Stuart was the first major unit assigned, from 1984, and HMAS Oxley became the first submarine based there in 1987. The base takes its name from Admiral Sir James Stirling, first Governor of Western Australia.