Roller shutters in Rivervale

Burglaries in Rivervale have come down. WA Police recorded 129 in 2021 and 76 in 2025, about 41% fewer. The count moved around in between, dipping to 83 in 2023 and reaching 129 again in 2024, before the fall to 76. In 2017 it was 152, exactly double the latest figure.

Even so, 76 burglaries among 10,897 residents gives a 2025 rate of 7.0 per 1,000, above the metropolitan rate of 4.0. Motor vehicle thefts eased over the same five years, from 46 in 2021 to 27 in 2025.

Shutters do one job here. Rolled down, they put a physical barrier on windows and doors and make forced entry slower and noisier.

Only 42.6% of Rivervale's occupied dwellings are separate houses, well below the Greater Perth figure of 77.8%. Flats and apartments make up 36.1%, and semi-detached homes, terraces and townhouses another 21.2%.

If your home is part of a strata scheme, start with the by-laws. WA's default conduct by-laws say an owner needs the strata company's written consent to keep anything visible from outside the lot that is not in keeping with the rest of the building. Shutters on a balcony door or a street facing window are visible, so ask early. Landgate also points out that strata approval is in addition to any development and building approvals.

For freestanding houses, residential roller shutters are made to each opening in our Wangara factory, where we cut the Ozroll aluminium slats to size, build the pelmets and guides, fit the motors and test every shutter before it leaves the floor. Courtyards and balconies can be closed in with Ziptrak or Slidetrack blinds, and we also supply cafe and motorised outdoor blinds.

Rivervale is in the City of Belmont. A single house can usually take shutters without development approval, as long as the R-Codes apply to the work, it meets their deemed-to-comply provisions and the home is not heritage protected. Places on the City's Heritage List are the exception: the City requires a development application before any development on them.

Where a shutter or external blind is used as a privacy screening device, the deemed-to-comply standard in the R-Codes Volume 1 asks for it to be at least 1.6m high, at least 75 per cent obscure and permanently fixed.

One local point is reassuring. On its heritage page, the City says of the first State Housing Precinct in Rivervale that individual properties do not hold any historical significance and there are no development implications.

The City's security incentive scheme can also take some of the cost off. Roller shutters attract a $200 rebate, or $250 for seniors, while that financial year's funding lasts, and the City's terms say they must be put in by a licensed security installer.