Perth Shiva Temple (Shri Shiva Devasthanam)

Planning for what would become Western Australia’s oldest Hindu temple began in 1985, and Swami Shantanand Saraswati consecrated the Canning Vale land in 1987; the main structure was completed by February 1990, with a Dravidian-style Royal Tower (Rajagopuram) added decades later, finished in June 2008 with substantial funding support from the City of Perth. Run by the non-profit Shri Shiva Devasthanam, the temple is jointly dedicated to Shiva and his consort Meenakshi, with subsidiary shrines to Ganesha, Murugan, Durga, the Navagraha (nine celestial bodies), Bhairava, Hanuman, Vishnu, Lakshmi, and an Athma Lingam, reflecting the multi-deity model common to diaspora temples serving a religiously diverse Hindu community.

The temple has grown into a recognized civic landmark: both major Australian political parties publicly pledged AU$1 million each toward its continued development during the May 2022 election campaign, an unusual level of mainstream political attention for a diaspora place of worship. It continues to serve Perth’s Hindu community with regular worship as well as festival observances such as Maha Shivaratri and the twice-monthly Pradosham prayers to Shiva.