Roller shutters in Bibra Lake

WA Police recorded 38 burglaries in Bibra Lake in 2025. With 42.9% of the suburb's land commercial or industrial, that count includes businesses such as offices, shops and factories as well as homes. Measured against the 5,892 residents counted at the 2021 Census, it comes to 6.5 per 1,000 people, compared with 4.0 across metropolitan Perth.

The direction is clearly down. There were 60 burglaries in 2021 and 58 in 2024, then the count dropped to 38 in 2025, a fall of 36.7% over the five years. Go back to 2017 and the figure was 126. Between January and June 2026 the total was 12.

None of that makes a building immune, and a shutter is not a guarantee either. What it does add is a physical barrier on windows and doors that makes forced entry slower and noisier, for a family home near the lake or a workshop on an industrial lot.

The City of Cockburn's history of the suburb records a small suburban development east of the lake by the early 1980s, and some of the bush north of Phoenix Road turned into housing by the 1990s, while the suburb as a whole remains mostly light industrial. Its homes are overwhelmingly freestanding: 84.7% of occupied dwellings were separate houses in 2021, above the Greater Perth figure of 77.8%, and 14.6% were semi-detached, terrace or townhouses. Home ownership was 82.6%.

On a house, residential roller shutters can start with the bedrooms and the large sliding doors. In a townhouse group, read the strata by-laws first: the default by-law needs the strata company's written consent before you keep anything visible from outside the lot that is not in keeping with the rest of the building.

Factories, warehouses and showrooms are a separate job, and commercial roller shutters are made for business premises. For outdoor areas, Ziptrak, Slidetrack, cafe and motorised blinds are all part of our outdoor blinds range. About 4 km away in Hamilton Hill we fitted a manual Ziptrak blind with a white frame and 99% Ebony mesh.

For a single house, the state planning rules exempt alterations such as shutters from development approval when three conditions hold: the R-Codes apply, the work meets their deemed-to-comply provisions, and the property is not heritage protected. A place on the City of Cockburn Heritage List is heritage protected, and the City's heritage guidelines require development approval for all development affecting it, including minor works.

Cafe and restaurant owners should read the City's alfresco dining policy before choosing blinds for an outdoor dining area. It does not permit screens more than 1 m high, including glass or perspex panels or clear plastic rolled down from umbrellas and awnings, and it encourages high quality awnings or market umbrellas for shade and shelter.

For older homeowners, the WA Seniors Card Safety and Security Rebate lists security window screens or window shutters as eligible, up to $400 per household. The City of Cockburn's Seniors Security Rebate lists roller shutters at $350, but it is closed to applications for the 2026 to 2027 financial year.