Roller shutters Thornlie

Each year from 2020 to 2025, the Thornlie burglary count came in below the year before: 425 in 2019, then 261, 239, 235, 144, 121 and 102. Taking the standard five year view, the fall from 239 in 2021 to 102 in 2025 is 57.3%, and 2025 is 70.3% below the 343 recorded in 2017.

Those 102 burglaries equal 4.3 per 1,000 residents, close to the metropolitan rate of 4.0. As WA Police do for every suburb, the figure counts homes and businesses as one.

So Thornlie is a large suburb where the numbers have come a long way down but still run near the metro rate. A roller shutter does not change the statistics. What it does is put a physical barrier on windows and doors while it is lowered, which makes forced entry slower and noisier.

Landgate's suburb history records that in December 1955 the Gosnells Road Board told the Nomenclature Advisory Committee that part of Canning Location 17 had been approved for subdivision, and the Thornlie name followed in April 1956. Houses dominate. At the 2021 Census, 91.1% of the 8,401 occupied dwellings were separate houses, 7.6% semi-detached or townhouses and 1.2% flats, and 75.9% of homes were owned (Greater Perth 70.4%).

Residential roller shutters suit most Thornlie homes. Street facing bedrooms, the sliding door to the patio and windows that cop the western sun are the usual first three. For the patio itself, Ziptrak and cafe blinds can enclose an alfresco, in manual or motorised versions.

Townhouse owners should look at their strata rules before booking. The default by-law requires the strata company's written consent for anything visible from outside the lot that does not fit in with the rest of the building.

Thornlie's older residents may want to start with the WA Seniors Card Safety and Security Rebate. Security window screens or window shutters are an eligible item, with a minimum purchase of $100 and a rebate of up to $400, claimable once per household over the life of the scheme. The Department of Communities notes that shutters also bring savings on energy costs and sunlight control.

On approvals, Thornlie is not one of the suburbs named on the City of Gosnells Heritage List. Under the state rules, a single house can take shutters without development approval if the R-Codes apply, the work is deemed-to-comply and the home is not heritage protected. The City's exempted development policy, LPP 1.3, adds a caution: work that needs no development approval may still need a building permit or another approval from the City or another authority.