Mirrabooka and the roads through it
A satellite city that became a suburb
The name first belonged to an early 1950s plan for a satellite city of up to 60,000 people. What grew instead was a suburb of subdivided bushland, with much of the housing north of Yirrigan Drive, and 8,000 people at the 2021 census.
The Reid runs across it
Reid Highway crosses Mirrabooka, with Mirrabooka Avenue at the western end and Alexander Drive at the eastern end north of it. The Reid is half of Perth's outer ring road, and its grade-separated 8 km stretch runs between the industrial estates of Balcatta and Malaga.
The bus station
Mirrabooka bus station is the hub for the area, with buses to Perth, Warwick station and Stirling. That's handy if the car has to stay at a workshop for the day and you need to get to work.
Check the licence
Every business in WA's motor repair and servicing industry needs a repair business licence, and its repairers hold a repairer's certificate. Consumer Protection WA says to do an online licence check, so ask for the business name first.
Which jobs come up for Mirrabooka cars?
Servicing to the book, tyres, brakes and batteries, as anywhere. If the car mostly does quick trips to the shops, school or the bus station, the engine seldom warms through, and that's hard on the oil and the battery. A car that cranks slowly on a cool morning is telling you the battery is tired.
Summer adds its own list. Perth tops 35 degrees on 26 days in an average year, and those are the afternoons when a weak battery or a worn cooling system lets go in a car park. Car batteries in Perth and radiators and cooling in Perth cover both, and if the temperature gauge climbs, pull over somewhere safe and switch off.
Where we'd start
If the car won't start at home, we'd ask for a mobile mechanic first, because a flat battery or a starter fault can usually be found in the driveway. For anything that needs the car up on a hoist, we'd give the postcode of wherever it's easiest to leave for a day, and take the bus home.