Thornlie, WA
By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan ·
Thornlie is a large residential suburb of Perth, about 15 km south-east of the city centre within the City of Gosnells, with the Canning River running along its northern side. Before European settlement the area would have been used by the local Noongar people. Captain Peter Pégus was granted land here in 1829, calling his holding Coleraine, though his settlement ended after a fire in the 1830s. The suburb's name comes from Thornlie Park, a farm established in 1884 by Frank and Amy James and later run as a productive dairy. After the large estate was auctioned in the 1950s, Thornlie developed as a residential area aimed at middle-income buyers, and is often described as one of Perth's leafy suburbs for its generous block sizes. It is also home to Crestwood, a model housing estate that won national and international recognition in the 1970s as a rare and well-preserved example of Radburn design, in which homes face parkland and pedestrian paths are separated from roads.
Less advantaged than the national average
Thornlie is more socio-economically advantaged than about 33% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 958, where about 1000 is the national average).
A socio-economic measure from ABS Census data — not a measure of how good a suburb is to live in or visit. How we calculate this.
Is Thornlie a good place to live?
There’s no single answer — it depends on what matters to you. So instead of one mystery number, we break it down: a transparent score on each part of life we can back with public data, and an honest “not yet” on the parts we can’t.
Below the national middle on the data we score
A weighted blend of the 3 components we can score for Thornlie from public data. It sits alongside — and reconciles with — the socio-economic Suburb Score above; it is a transparent read, not a complete verdict.
Socio-economic advantage
33/100Less advantaged than the national average
Less advantaged than the national average — the same ABS SEIFA-based Suburb Score (33/100) shown above. Income, education and occupation, as published by the ABS. · ABS SEIFA 2021
Housing affordability
36/100Less affordable than the national median
Median weekly rent was $330 at the 2021 Census — more affordable than about 36% of suburbs we can compare. Housing data only, no valuations. · ABS Census 2021
Amenities & access
92/100Plenty mapped nearby
About 230 everyday places (cafés, shops, services and more) mapped within ~1.2 km of the centre. · OpenStreetMap
Not yet scored
We’d rather leave these open than publish a number we can’t stand behind. Here’s where each one stands.
- Green spaceNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap green-space mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- TransportNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap public-transport mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- SchoolsNot scored yet — school performance (ACARA / ICSEA) needs a data-reuse licence cleared before we can publish it.
- SafetyNot scored yet — Australia has no single open crime dataset and safety data carries defamation and legal care, so it is gated pending a go/no-go and will be data-only when added.
- CommunityNot scored yet — we won't reduce community to a number from a proxy. We'd rather leave it open than publish an invented value judgement.
A transparent read on public data, not a verdict — and not a measure of any person or community. See our methodology for how each component is worked out and why some aren’t scored yet.
Thornlie at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 23,665
- Median age
- 38
- Median weekly household income
- $1,571
- SEIFA score
- 958
- Local government area
- Gosnells
- Coordinates
- -32.0614, 115.9577
Map of Thornlie
© OpenStreetMap contributors · View larger map
Housing & property in Thornlie
What it costs to live in Thornlie and how residents hold their homes, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census.
- Median rent
- $330
- per week
- Median mortgage
- $1,625
- per month
- Owner-occupied
- 76%
- of dwellings
- Rented
- 21%
- of dwellings
The full tenure and dwelling-type breakdown is in the Thornlie demographics section below.
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021. © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. See our methodology.
Thornlie demographics (2021 Census)
The figures below profile Thornlie using the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census; every percentage is a share of a clearly stated Census count, so each one traces back to the source. At a glance, the largest age group is young adults (25–44) at 27% and 43% of residents were born overseas.
Age profile
| Age group | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Children (0–14) | 4,605 | 19% |
| Youth (15–24) | 2,888 | 12% |
| Young adults (25–44) | 6,339 | 27% |
| Mid-life (45–64) | 5,828 | 25% |
| Seniors (65+) | 4,005 | 17% |
Share of the 23,665 people counted by age.
Housing and households
| Tenure | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 2,795 | 33% |
| Owned with a mortgage | 3,578 | 43% |
| Rented | 1,775 | 21% |
| Dwelling type | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 7,654 | 91% |
| Townhouses & semis | 642 | 8% |
| Flats & apartments | 104 | 1% |
Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 8,406 occupied private dwellings in Thornlie.
- Average household size
- 2.7 people
- Median weekly family income
- $1,825
- Median weekly personal income
- $682
Community and culture
- Born overseas
- 9,859 (43%)
- Speaks a language other than English at home
- 7,270 (32%)
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- 562 (2%)
Work and education
- Completed Year 12
- 10,127 (55%)
- Labour-force participation
- 61.8%
- Unemployment rate
- 7.1%
- Employed full-time
- 6,501
- Employed part-time
- 3,844
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021 (General Community Profile, by Suburb and Locality). © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. How we group bands and derive each share is set out on our methodology page.
Weather and climate in Thornlie
Based on 2014–2023 records, the warmest month in Thornlie is January (average daytime high around 31.2°C) and the coolest is July (around 15.5°C). The area receives roughly 739 mm of rain across the year.
| Month | Avg high | Avg low | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 31.2°C | 17.4°C | 23 mm |
| Feb | 30.6°C | 17.5°C | 24 mm |
| Mar | 27.8°C | 16.5°C | 43 mm |
| Apr | 23.3°C | 13.6°C | 45 mm |
| May | 19.2°C | 10.8°C | 81 mm |
| Jun | 16.5°C | 9.2°C | 103 mm |
| Jul | 15.5°C | 8.7°C | 140 mm |
| Aug | 16.2°C | 8.3°C | 122 mm |
| Sep | 18.2°C | 9.2°C | 69 mm |
| Oct | 21.3°C | 10.9°C | 49 mm |
| Nov | 25.5°C | 13.3°C | 30 mm |
| Dec | 29.4°C | 15.8°C | 10 mm |
Climate normals, 2014–2023 (Open-Meteo, ERA5 reanalysis).
Places in and around Thornlie
Amenities mapped within about 1.2km of the suburb centre, from OpenStreetMap. A guide to what's nearby — not a complete directory.
Eat & drink
10 nearbyThornlie Tavern · Subway · Lakers Tavern · Pizza Hut Express · Thornlie Kebabs · Thornlie Fish and Chips
Parks & recreation
203 nearbyCastle Glen Tennis Pavilion · Anytime Fitness · Osprey Reserve · McMahon Reserve · Ailsworth Court Reserve · Empire Way Reserve
Shops & groceries
5 nearbyColes · Woolworths · ALDI · Spudshed
Healthcare
3 nearbyThornlie Square Medical Center · Thornlie Square Pharmacy · Forest Lakes Medical Centre
Schools & education
6 nearbySacred Heart Primary School · South Thornlie Primary School · Thornlie Senior High School · Thornlie Primary School · Australian Islamic College (Thornlie Campus) · Australian Islamic College
Things to do
3 nearbyThornlie Library · Crestwood Community Centre · Don Russell Performing Arts Centre
Eat & drink in and around Thornlie
Cafés, restaurants, pubs and takeaway mapped within about 1.2km of the suburb centre. Listings are drawn from OpenStreetMap and shown as plain data — we don't rank or rate them.
Own a café, restaurant or pub around here?
Claim your listing to feature it at the top of this section. Placement is paid advertising, clearly labelled — never editorial opinion.
Claim this listing- BrewedCafé
- Lakers TavernPub119 Murdoch Road, Thornlielakerstavern.com.au
- McDonald'sTakeaway95 Forest Lakes Drive, Thornliemcdonalds.com.au
- Pizza Hut ExpressTakeaway
- Red RoosterTakeaway
- SubwayTakeawaysubway.com.au
- Thornlie Fish and ChipsTakeaway
- Thornlie KebabsTakeaway
- Thornlie TavernPub
Showing 9 mapped places; more may exist that aren't yet on OpenStreetMap.
Listings © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Own a venue here? Suggest a correction.
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Common questions about Thornlie
Is Thornlie a good place to live?
Thornlie scores 33/100 (SEIFA 958, bottom third nationally) but its story is not a simple disadvantage narrative: median household income of $1,571 is mid-range, the suburb is the fifth largest in Western Australia (23,665 people), and since 9 June 2025 it has had its own station on the Thornlie–Cockburn Link, which runs through to Cockburn Central and joins the Mandurah Line for direct CBD access. That infrastructure shift is the most significant change in Thornlie’s livability in a generation — turning a car-dependent outer suburb into a rail-connected one — and it preceded this draft. Unemployment at 7.1% and a below-average SEIFA are real features of the current data, but they were set at the 2021 Census before the rail infrastructure landed.
What is the median rent in Thornlie?
At the 2021 Census, the median weekly rent in Thornlie was $330, and the median monthly mortgage repayment was $1,625. These are official ABS Census figures — StreetScout publishes housing data only, with no property valuations or agent referrals.
Where is Thornlie?
Thornlie is a suburb of Western Australia, Australia, in the Gosnells local government area.
What is the population of Thornlie?
At the 2021 Census, Thornlie had a population of about 23,665.
Is Thornlie an advantaged area?
Thornlie has an ABS SEIFA score of 958, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 33 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 33% of Australian suburbs.
What is the weather like in Thornlie?
Thornlie has average daytime highs of about 22.9°C and overnight lows of about 12.6°C, with roughly 739 mm of rain across the year (based on 2014–2023 climate normals).
How big is Thornlie?
Thornlie is one of the most populous suburbs in Western Australia — the 5th-largest by usual resident population at the 2021 Census (about 23,665 usual residents).
Where Thornlie ranks
Thornlie appears in these data-driven guides — each a transparent sort on a single ABS figure shown on this page.
Nearby suburbs in Western Australia
More suburb guides in Western Australia
Other hand-written, cited guides — browse all guides.