Roller shutters in Southern River

Southern River had 41 burglaries in 2025, according to WA Police. Four years earlier there were 45, and 2024 recorded 42, so the count is little changed over five years and has held fairly steady of late. Go back to 2017 and the figure was 83.

For 2025 that works out at 3.2 per 1,000 residents, below the metropolitan Perth rate of 4.0. The rate is based on the 2021 Census population of 12,852, and the suburb is estimated to have grown 15.6% between 2021 and 2025, so the figure probably overstates the real rate. Homes and businesses are counted together.

A low count is still not none. A roller shutter gives a house a physical barrier on windows and doors, and makes forced entry slower and noisier for anyone who tries it.

With 97.1% separate houses against 77.8% across Greater Perth, Southern River comes close to a single housing type. Semi-detached and townhouse dwellings were 2.4% of the 3,866 occupied dwellings counted in 2021, and flats 0.3%. That keeps the approval side simple for most owners, as the council section below explains.

On a house like this the usual starting point is residential roller shutters across the bedrooms and the big glass doors to the yard. They are built from Ozroll aluminium slats cut to size in our Wangara factory, where we also make the pelmets and guides, fit the motors and test each shutter before it leaves the floor.

For the alfresco, motorised outdoor blinds can be programmed through the Somfy app to open or close at set times, much like the shutters. We also make Ziptrak, Slidetrack and cafe blinds.

Southern River is in the City of Gosnells and is not one of the suburbs on the City's heritage list. That leaves the state exemption as the main test: shutters on a single house need no development approval where the R-Codes apply, the work is deemed-to-comply and the place is not heritage protected.

There are two caveats. On bush fire prone land, development approval is still required where a bushfire attack level assessment puts the site at BAL-40 or BAL-FZ, for the development those rules cover, such as a single house on lots totalling 1,100 m2 or more. And the City's exempted development policy reminds owners that a building permit or other approval may still be needed when planning approval is not.

The few townhouse owners in strata schemes need the strata company's written consent for changes visible from outside. Older residents with a WA Seniors Card can look at the state Safety and Security Rebate, which covers security window screens or window shutters up to $400 per household.