| Thornlie Perth, Western Australia |
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Thornlie Square shopping centre |
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Thornlie
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| Population: | 22,265 (2006 census)[1] | ||||||||||||
| Established: | 1956 | ||||||||||||
| Postcode: | 6108 | ||||||||||||
| Area: | 11.5 km² (4.4 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Location: | 18 km (11 mi) SSE of Perth | ||||||||||||
| LGA: | City of Gosnells | ||||||||||||
| State District: | Gosnells, Cannington, Southern River | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division: | Hasluck | ||||||||||||
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Thornlie is a large outer suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located 18 kilometres south-east of Perth's central business district. It is part of the City of Gosnells local government area. The Canning River runs through the northern side of the suburb. The suburb contains the two smaller sub-developments of Crestwood and Forest Lakes, the latter being approximately 20 years younger than the main Thornlie development.
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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 Noongar population. 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, Amy being a niece of Walter Padbury.[4]
The James family subsequently sold the estate which had been a productive dairy farm,[5] in 1937 to the mine-manager and investor, Nat Harper.[6][4] When Harper died in 1954, the 1,715-acre (6.94 km2) Thornlie estate was put up for auction in two lots.[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. During this time Thornlie development focus was on a getting out of town. It was aimed at inner city dwellers who might want to live in the more spacious surround that a semi-urban rural setting could offer. It is one reason why Thornlie has typically large quarter-acre blocks and is often described as one of Perth's ‘Leafy Suburbs’.
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.. The focus of these developments was on providing affordable housing for new home buyers, often couples with families.
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.
Thornlie can be described as a well serviced residential area. It is bisected by a main transport artery, Spencer Road, and is served by Roe Highway, via Nicholson Road. It has also been serviced as of August 2005, by a passenger railway service terminating at the Thornlie railway station. Commuting services run every 15 minutes between the city and Thornlie. 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]
Telephone services are provided by the Cannington & Maddington telephone exchange.[9]
Thornlie contains two local shopping centres - Thornlie Square Shopping Centre which contains two supermarkets and a Post Office, and Forest Lakes Forum which also has two supermarkets and numerous small retailers. Thornlie Square was the larger of the two until a recent expansion of Forest Lakes Forum prompted by the growth of the Forest Lakes residential estate. Thornlie also contains Spencer Village, a smaller retail strip located next to Thornlie train station, and there is a small commercial centre in Spencer Road adjacent to Thornlie Square.
Lawn Bowls, tennis courts, a skate park, swimming pool, gym, a library and an oval for cricket and football are all available for community usage.
Thornlie has two local papers distributed fortnightly, The Comment News and the Gosnells Examiner. 107.3 Heritage FM is a volunteer run Radio station for Thornlie and the Shire of Gosnells as a whole.
“[107.3 FM] first went to air on 26th January 1998 and broadcasts a number of specialist programs profiling the community, local sports, youth issues and crime prevention as well as promoting local bands and Australian music in general. Heritage FM also provides a wide range of music programs produced and presented by local residents, ranging from rock, folk, classical and blues through to jazz, choral, gospel, punk and heavy metal.”
The kind of community activities promoted include:
Another community program are the annual Safe City awards including the Community Initiative Award, the Constable Peter Ball Memorial Youth Award and the Community Kids Award.
The 2006 Census reported[16]
Thornlie contains three distinct residential subdivisions in addition to older portions which were not separately named.
Crestwood is a small private estate within Thornlie. It was built very much as an experimental concept and was in stark contrast to the usual patterns of suburban development in Perth in the early 1970s. Paul Ritter was the designer of Crestwood, and his concepts of shared public space and neighbourhood aesthetics continue to be models for today’s privately built estates.
Where the planning approach at the time was for large blocks and linear roads, Crestwood had small blocks and curved roads. Every road that enters into the area flows out again at some point, with no cul-de-sacs being constructed. It is also possible to walk the entire way through the estate without needing to cross a road due to a system of paths and underpasses. Every house is connected to a public area of parkland, and a shared pool facility sits in the middle of the estate.
Originally, Crestwood was intended to be built to about five times the size that exists today. The entire estate would then feature around a large pool complex with main administration buildings and recreational area. However, the larger development did not go ahead and the land was used in the 1980s and 1990s for two more conventional subdivisions, Forest Lakes and Castle Glen Estates.
While a lot of the concepts used in Crestwood did not end up being used widely in later residential developments in Perth, many of the ideas behind them did influence developers. After Crestwood, developments tended to be built with non-linear road systems, smaller blocks and often focused around a central park or lake.
Forest Lakes and Castle Glen were the last significant residential developments in Thornlie, commencing in the early 1980s. They occupied land which was originally intended to become part of Crestwood Estate but were aimed at a more mainstream market while incorporating a few principles of Crestwood's design.
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