Roller shutters for Whitby homes

There were 5 burglaries in Whitby in 2025, on WA Police figures. Whitby had 1,005 residents at the 2021 Census, so that small count works out at 5.0 per 1,000, against 4.0 for metropolitan Perth. On a population this size, one incident more or less moves the rate a long way.

The numbers are too small to read a trend. The yearly count went from 3 in 2021 to 12 in 2023, then 1 in 2024 and 5 in 2025. Swings like that come from a handful of incidents, not from any pattern you could plan around.

Fitted to a window or glass door, a roller shutter is a physical barrier over the opening. It makes forced entry slower and noisier, and it closes at the press of a button. Pair it with the deadlocks and sensor lighting that WA Police burglary advice lists.

The 2021 Census counted 320 occupied private dwellings in Whitby, and all of them were separate houses, with no townhouses or flats. 90.3% of households owned their home, against 70.4% across Greater Perth, though only 10.0% owned it outright.

Whitby was approved as a locality on 3 November 1988. Its name comes from Whitby Falls, which Henry Mead, who came from Whitby in Yorkshire, renamed after he bought the property in 1848.

That makes the product choice straightforward. Residential roller shutters suit every window and door on a house, and most owners begin with bedrooms. For outdoor living, cafe blinds, Ziptrak, Slidetrack and motorised blinds can all close in a patio.

Whitby comes under the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale. Its Designing Out Crime policy, Local Planning Policy No 24, treats roller shutters as a feature to use sparingly and keep in sympathy with the building, and encourages shuttering as an integral design element where openings are susceptible to break-in. It is planning guidance.

For a single house, the state's deemed provisions exempt works like shutters from development approval when the R-Codes apply, the works meet the deemed-to-comply standard and the place is not heritage protected. Because nearly all of Whitby is bush fire prone, one more condition matters: where a bushfire attack level assessment rates a site BAL-40 or BAL-FZ, development approval is needed despite any exemption, for the kinds of development the bushfire provisions cover.

A building permit is a separate matter. The Building Act requires one for building work unless an exemption applies, and we can talk through what that means for your job at the measure.