Weetangera is one of the oldest suburbs in Belconnen, and it shows once the headbox comes off. Barrels and brackets going back decades, springs that have been quietly losing tension since the 1980s, and plastic parts from an era when nobody was thinking about what fifty Canberra winters would do to them. Very little out here fails from use.
We cover all of Weetangera in the 2614 postcode, across to the Hawker, Macquarie and Page boundaries and toward Aranda and Cook. The rest of Belconnen is on the same run.
The suburb was built through the 1960s and early 1970s, largely single-storey brick on level blocks. Shutters were added later, and the older the retrofit, the more likely the fixings are the real problem.
We get a noticeable run of Belconnen callouts in September and October, and there is a reason for it. Damage accumulates quietly through winter, when seals are being frozen open and plastic is at its most brittle, but a shutter that is left closed for warmth is not being cycled much. Come spring, people start opening them again, and everything that gave way over the cold months announces itself at once. If yours has been sitting down since May, run it through a full cycle before the weather turns properly and see how it behaves.
