The entire Guildford townsite in Perth's east could soon become the largest place ever listed on Western Australia's heritage register.

A nomination put forward by the City of Swan is under consideration by the state's Heritage Council, a project very much driven by the local community.

"There has been a longstanding view among residents and property owners there that they are living in a pretty significant part of WA," Graeme Gammie from the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage said.

Stirling Square reflects the town's British founders and is home to local war memorials. ( ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne )

Perth historian and author Richard Offen tells a significant story about the early colonisation of Perth by Captain James Stirling in 1829.

"Perth was set up as the main town and Fremantle as the port," Mr Offen said.

"What Stirling hadn't reckoned with was that the soil around Perth was worse than useless in agricultural terms and there was an urgent need to find somewhere that would be suitable to feed people.

"They came up to the Swan Valley and found decent soil."

Stirling named the new town Guildford, after his wife Ellen's hometown in Surrey.

It was laid out by surveyor-general John Septimus Roe, "much on the same lines as many ancient British towns and villages were laid out", Mr Offen explained.

Stirling angered many of the settlers by allocating much of the best land to himself and others in the upper echelons of society.

James Street, Guildford's main street, has more cars nowadays but is otherwise unchanged since 1949. ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

"Stirling had 4,000 acres and his country residence as governor was Woodbridge House, just east of Guildford," Mr Offen said.

"That didn't really please the rest of the settlers.

"Some only got a few acres of river frontage which was where all the fertile soil was."

Guildford had a main street, town square, post office and town hall, and in 1841 acquired a gaol as well.

"The main reason was that there were three pubs in the town and a lot of drunkenness, so they had to build a courthouse and a gaol to accommodate all those who were drunk and disorderly," Mr Offen said.

"The railway came in 1880 which made this area much more accessible.

"But really the centre of Guildford remains very much as Roe laid it out and there are lots and lots of historic buildings there."

Many of the houses in Guildford are also more than 100 years old. ( ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne )

One of the quaintest is the Mechanics Institute, built in 1865.

"Mechanics institutes were set up in the north of England in the 18th century as a means of educating the working classes," Mr Offen said.

"Most of them had a library, there were regular lectures, and the idea was transported out here.

"This was the Swan Mechanics Institute which was the first one in Western Australia and the president of it was John Septimus Roe, the surveyor-general.

"It's interesting that over here, although ostensibly for the working classes, mechanics institutes were very much dominated by the upper echelons of society."

Map Guildford is an island surrounded by the Swan and Helena rivers.

Although some historic buildings have been lost, altered and new architecture has been added, Guildford remains well preserved thanks to its unusual geography.

It is an inland island surrounded by the Swan and Helena rivers, and hemmed in by floodplains on three sides which have prevented it from sprawling.

"It's a very unique situation," Mr Gammie said.

"Its physical location ensured that its original planning has remained intact and it's populated by a whole range of heritage buildings.

"As a larger group it tells a significant story."

If the entire townsite is eventually heritage listed, it will become the largest such listing in the state, surpassing Fremantle's West End precinct.

After an eight-year campaign by locals, Guildford Hotel was restored and reopened in 2016. ( 720 ABC Perth: Hilary Smale )

But it wouldn't mean the town would be frozen in time and unable to be changed.

"It certainly doesn't lock up Guildford," Mr Gammie said.

"What we look at in terms of future development is making sure that the identified precinct values, what makes the place as a whole important, are carried through.

"Typically changes to individual properties have little impact, it's about the impact on streetscapes and the broader landscape."

The department is conducting a thorough heritage assessment of the town, after which it will draft a statement of significance and consult with the community before proceeding further with the heritage listing process.

Many of the shops on James Street are original. ( ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne )

The Guildford Association has welcomed the moves towards listing, but president Barbara Dundas said the "devil will be in the detail of possible heritage listing".

The community fought an intense, and ultimately successful, eight-year battle to save the 120-year-old Guildford Hotel from demolition after it was gutted by a suspicious fire in 2008, and to oppose an apartment development in the town.

In 2017 the community rallied again to prevent a 24-hour McDonald's being built behind the hotel.

At the time Ms Dundas said she believed the town's future was as a heritage-listed, well-preserved tourist destination.

"Guildford is unique, probably in Australia," she said.

"It's the only town of first settlement that has never expanded beyond its boundaries."