THORNLIE
Thornlie is a large outer suburb of Perth, 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. Since the 1950s the suburb has developed in approximately five stages; north-east Thornlie (1950s-60s), south Thornlie (1970s-80s), Crestwood (1970s), Castle Glen (1980s), Forest Lakes (1990s) and Forest Rise (2000s).
Thornlie is primarily a dormitory suburb with strong transport links to employment elsewhere in the metropolitan region. Albany Highway connects the suburb to the CBD, Roe Highway links it the regional road network, bus services are fairly frequent and a passenger rail service terminates at Thornlie railway station. Retail services are provided through local and neighborhood centre’s, the largest of which is Forest Lakes Forum (1990s) and the Thornlie Square Shopping Centre (1970s). A range of sporting facilities are available for community usage include lawn Bowls, tennis courts, a skate park, swimming pool, gyms and ovals for cricket and football. Barbagallo Park, built in 2007, is the home of Perth Heat, a team in the Australian Baseball League.
CANNING VALE
Canning Vale is a large southern suburb of Perth, and is located 20 km from the Perth CBD. Its Local Government Areas are the City of Canning (west of Nicholson Road) and the City of Gosnells (east of Nicholson Road).
Canning Vale contains five retail precincts, four within the residential areas such as Livingston Market Place. A large industrial area is located in the north-west.
Community facilities include five primary schools – Canning Vale (opened 1994), Ranford (1999), Campbell (2002), Excelsior (2005) and Caladenia (2007) – a private school (St Emilie’s Catholic) and a high school, Canning Vale College, a Sikh temple, a Hindu temple, community centre and two golf courses (Gosnells Golf Club and Canning Vale Country Club).
Canning Vale’s northern boundary is the Roe Highway, which connects with the Kwinana Freeway (west) and Albany Highway (east) and provides access to Perth Airport, while Nicholson Road heads north towards Cannington, Western Australia and Westfield Carousel, and Ranford Road goes to Armadale (southeast) and Fremantle over Kwinana Freeway via South Street (northwest).
Canning Vale is served by a range of buses linking the area to the Perth CBD, Murdoch University and to Cannington. Many bus services connect with Transperth trains at Murdoch, Maddington or Thornlie stations. All services are operated by Swan Transit.
HARRISDALE
Harrisdale is a southeastern suburb of Perth, and is one of the western suburbs of the City of Armadale. It was gazetted in 2007. The population of the developing area is expected to grow from about 3,500 in 2011 to over 10,000 in 2031.
The suburb is bounded by Warton Road to the northwest, Ranford Road to the northeast, Skeet Road to the southeast and Nicholson Road to the southwest. Harrisdale is made up with the Arion, Heron Park and Vertu Estates.
Carey Baptist College is a co-educational school that occupies a 12 hectare site in Harrisdale. It was established by the Carey Community Baptist Church in 1998 and provides education from kindergarten through to Year 12.
With Bunnings Warehouse (2012), Southern River Shopping Centre nearby and other infrastructure planned for the near future, this is a sought after suburb.
HUNTINGDALE
Huntingdale is a south-eastern suburb of Perth. 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. Homes in the area include a section of older residences constructed mainly in the 1970s, while there was significant new development from the 1990s onward in the southern portion of Huntingdale. There are some remaining pockets of semi-rural land.
MADDINGTON
Maddington is a suburb 20 kilometres (12 mi) southeast of the central business district of Perth, within the City of Gosnellslocal government area. Maddington is a mixed-use suburb containing major residential, retail and industrial sections as well as some semi-rural areas.
Unusual amongst the surrounding suburbs Maddington still retains several vineyards and orchards from when the locality was used for agricultural purposes. Maddington has a railway station and like numerous other centres, has been engaging in transit-oriented development planning.[3]
In the 1980s the first stage of a new regional shopping centre was opened in Maddington with the third stage completed by 1992. Now called Centro Maddington, it is situated along the south-eastern border of the suburb. The suburb also was the site of one of 24 new Australian Technical Colleges proposed by the Howard Government in 2005.
SOUTHERN RIVER
Southern River was originally a rural area with chicken farms for egg production, horse breeding properties and boarding kennels for cats and dogs. These farms combined gave the area a population of less than 500 people.
The current environment has undergone major changes; plans for the next few years will see the suburb totally redeveloped into medium density residential properties average block size of 490m². The result will be a population increase to above 15,000; along with this will be the building of all necessary infrastructures like shops, schools, parks and gardens.
The region bounded by Ranford Road, Warton Road, Holmes Road and Tonkin Highway. it is likely to retain its special status and unique lifestyle for the foreseeable future. Most residents are deeply involved in either greyhound racing or the breeding, showing and trialing of pedigree dogs and/or cats. Several boarding catteries and kennels are found in the area, servicing a large proportion of the Perth Metropolitan area.