Thornlie, Western Australia

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Thornlie
Perth, Western Australia

Thornlie Square shopping centre.

Population:

22,591 (2001 census)

Established:

1956

Postcode:

6108

Area:

11.5 km² (4.4 sq mi)

Property Value:

AUD $370,000 (to December 2007)^[1]

Location:

18 km (11 mi) SSE of Perth

LGA:

Gosnells

State District:

Kenwick, Southern River

Federal Division:

Hasluck

Suburbs around Thornlie:
Langford	Kenwick	Maddington
Parkwood	Thornlie	Gosnells
Canning Vale	Southern River	Huntingdale

Thornlie, Western Australia is a suburb in the south east of Perth, Western Australia. It is part of the City of Gosnells local government area. It is largely a residential suburb with associated schools and small businesses, mainly existing to service local residents.

The Canning River which is a tributary of the Swan River, flows through Thornlie on its way from the Darling Scarp to join the Swan at Melville Water.

1 History
2 Facilities
- 2.1 Schools
3 Demographics
4 Suburban areas
5 Gallery
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

Captain Peter Pegus was the original settler of the area which is now known as Thornlie, however back in 1829 when Pegus was granted the land, he called it 'Coleraine'.^[2] Prior to this the area would have been used by the indigenous population otherwise known as Noongar. In 1834 his premises and belongings were burned in a fire that was to prove the end of his settlement.^[3]

The name Thornlie came about when Walter Padbury financed a farm known as "Thornlie Park". This farm was established in 1884 by Frank and Amy James. Walter Padbury was in fact the uncle of Amy'James.^[4]

The James family subsequently sold the estate which had been a productive dairy farm,^[5] in 1937 to the mine-manager and investor,^[6] Nathaniel Harper.^[4] Later the 1,715-acre (6.94 km²) Thornlie estate was put up for auction in two lots in September 1954.^[7] 228 acres (0.92 km²) of Lot 1 were purchased by D. and M. O'Sullivan and by June 1956 the Gosnells Roads Board had provided approval for the development of the area.^[7] By March 1957 40 houses had been completed and by May 1958 there were 100 occupied homes.^[7] Thornlie thus as a residential suburb was established in the late 1950s as a housing estate aimed mainly at middle-income earners and inner city dwellers.^[7]

The first homes in the area included a section of residences constructed in the 1950s and early 1960s which lie to the north of the intersection of Thornlie Avenue and Spencer Road, and residences lying to the south of Thornlie Avenue between Spencer Road and the Canning River which were constructed in the 1960s and 1970s. The more up-market Crestwood estate, which was an experiment in providing fully-integrated facilities and services to home-owners, was established from the early 1970s in the southern part of Thornlie; the experiment did not lead to these provisions becoming common on the part of land developers in Perth. From the 1980s the newer Castle Glen and Forest Lakes housing estates, which were at that time to some extent in competition with one another for land purchasers, were established in the remaining land in the western and south-western portions of Thornlie.^{[citation needed]}

Some semi-rural land in the western portion, mainly utilised for horse agistment and chicken-farming, was developed in the early 2000s. At one time there were several industrial activities taking place in the north-western portion. The last of these to close, about 2004, was the Ingham chicken-processing factory, the site of which is currently being redeveloped as the Yale residential estate which will begin land sales in early 2006.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Facilities

Roe Highway at the Nicholson Road Exit.

Thornlie has several government and independent schools, a number of churches, a bowling club, a performing arts centre and three moderate-sized shopping centres. The Tom Bateman Reserve in the far west of Thornlie includes a number of sporting and recreation facilities including a baseball stadium which opened in 2004.

Thornlie is bisected by a main transport artery, Spencer Road, and is served by the Roe Highway, via Nicholson Road which provides access to the Great Northern Highway and Kwinana Freeway. It is also being serviced, since August 2005, by a newly-constructed passenger railway service terminating at the Thornlie railway station, during commuting times services run every 15 minutes to and from the city. Speaking at the time about the newly completed rail development, the Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan stated:

"As well as the station building, car park and railway line, the project included construction of an electrical sub-station at Beckenham, the Kenwick Tunnel, the rail bridge over the Canning River, and the traffic bridge at Spencer Road." ^[8]

It is served by the Cannington telephone exchange.^[9]

[edit] Schools

Australian Islamic College ^[10]
Coolabaroo Neighbourhood Centre ^[11] ^[12]
Forest Crescent Primary School ^[11]
Sacred Heart Primary School ^[13]
South Thornlie Primary School ^[11]
Thornlie Christian College ^[14]
Thornlie Primary School ^[11]
Thornlie Senior High School ^[15]
Thornlie TAFE Campus ^[16]
Yale Primary School ^[11]

[edit] Demographics

The 2006 Census reported^[17]

Thornlie had 8,017 occupied dwellings. 31.1% of these were fully owned.
60.6% of Thornlie residents were born in Australia; 11.3% in England; 3% in New Zealand, and significant smaller percentages from Malaysia, India and Scotland.
18.8% of Thornlie residents spoke another language at home.
1,447 children were aged 0-4 years. This was second only to Canning Vale with 1,836 for all Perth suburbs.^[18]
The median weekly family income was $1,193, which compared with $1,171 in Australia as a whole.

[edit] Suburban areas

Thornlie contains two significant suburban areas:

Crestwood Estate:

Crestwood Estate is a small urban area within Thornlie planned and developed by Paul Ritter.

While only a small residential development, Creswood is notable for being decades ahead of its time. Paul Ritter was influenced by the Garden City approach to planning. This concept was initially one of a self-sufficient town balancing agriculture, residential and industry. Crestwood was Paul Ritter's more practical approach to applying these principles to a suburban lifestyle. He envisioned unfenced communal living, shared facilities and parks connected to every house. The blocks where also small and each house individually designed. A central pool was built for the communal use of the Crestwood residents.

This was such a contrast to surround suburbia at the time. Urban morphology was dominated by the Grid layout, and houses were often identical and situated on larger quarter acre blocks.

The principles that Ritter applied to Crestwood are only know being implemented across the rest of suburbia, such as curved roads. more parkland connecting areas and underground power.

Forest Lakes

A 1980's development of the south east corner of Thornlie. Serviced by a primary school and Forest Lakes Shopping center. Originally the area was planned to be a expansion of the Crestwood development but this never eventuated.