We've been working to protect Wyndham's important heritage

Heritage provides us with important evidence of how our community has evolved and developed over time.

As a region with high growth, heritage is particularly important to Wyndham as a touchstone to the past and a key contributor to a strong sense of place in our communities. There are pressures on our special heritage places due to development and competing strategic objectives such as infrastructure provision and housing growth.

Council must manage these pressures on our heritage to protect the places that make Wyndham special, and ensure that development is sensitive to identified heritage values.

The Wyndham Heritage Review is an important opportunity to protect places of local heritage significance in the face of unprecedented growth, to strengthen the City’s unique character, and to celebrate the history of Wyndham with our community.

Project Update - July 2024

At the June Council Meeting, Council resolved to adopt the recommendations of the Wyndham Heritage Review Stage 2: Residential Places and Precincts.

Council also resolved to implement the Heritage Review through the commencement of Planning Scheme Amendments C270wynd (that seeks to apply permanent Heritage Overlay controls) and C271wyndham (that seeks to apply interim Heritage Overlay controls) to the Wyndham Planning Scheme.

The adopted Stage 2 Heritage Study, proposed C270wynd and C271wynd Planning Scheme Amendment documentation, response to submissions, and minutes of the Council Meeting are available below.

• Volume 1: Wyndham Heritage Review Stage 2 - Residential Places and Precincts: Methodology, Findings and Recommendations
• Thematic Environmental History
• Volume 3: Residential Places and Precincts, Citations: Werribee and Little River
• Volume 4: Residential Places and Precincts: Werribee
• Stage 2 Heritage Study - Final Engagement Report
• June Council Meeting minutes

Questions about the project? Contact the team via heritage.review@wyndham.vic.gov.au

Traditional Owner Engagement

We are undertaking consultation with Wyndham’s Registered Aboriginal Parties, including the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation and the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation to provide an opportunity to contribute cultural heritage matters to the project.

Read Volume 1 - Methodology Report*.

*Aboriginal cultural heritage information contained in the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register has been redacted from Volume 1 – Methodology Report.

What's happened so far?

Wyndham Heritage Review – Stage 1 (Gap Study)

Council has completed a Stage 1 Heritage Review (Gap Study) which reviewed the existing Heritage Overlay, existing heritage resources, including unprotected heritage places across Wyndham and identified a number of gaps in the protection of post contact heritage places in Wyndham.

The Stage 1 Heritage Review (Gap Study) recommended further investigation and detailed assessment of 173 Individual Sites, including residential, commercial, industrial, community, archaeological places, military and infrastructure related sites, landscapes and trees, complex places, comprised of multiple land parcels and new precincts.

The Stage 1 Gap Study also recommended corrections to existing heritage citations, and the preparation of detailed Thematic Environmental History for Wyndham.

Stage 2 Heritage Study - Residential Places and Precincts

At the Ordinary Council Meeting 29th June 2021, Council resolved to adopt the Stage 1 Study and commence the first of the Stage 2 heritage studies - Work Item 1 (Residential places and precincts).

This includes individual residential places (including some groups) and precincts (generally residential, but also including the Campbells Cove/Baileys Beach boatshed precinct). You can read more about the Council process here.

Stage 2 Study – Phase 1 – Residential Places and Precincts Information Gathering

In August 2022, at the beginning of the Stage 2 Study, Council reached out to the community through letters to landowners, print and social media and The Loop, and invited residents to contribute information on places identified in the Stage 1 Study.

This information has been considered by the consultant and included where relevant.

What happens next?

Stage 3 - Protect residential places and precincts of historical significance

Following Phase 2 Engagement, Lovell Chen and Council officers will consider all community feedback and make changes to the citations where there are factual corrections, or where new information on the heritage place or precinct is found which changes the conclusion of the assessment or adds to the history of the place.

Places recommended for inclusion in the Stage 2 Study will not be removed prior to seeking Council adoption unless there is justification on heritage grounds. Property owners can also make submissions during the exhibition of a future Planning Scheme Amendment, and unresolved submissions will be considered by an independent Planning Panel.

The outcomes of Phase 2 Engagement, including a response to submissions, will be reported to Council in mid 2024. At this time, Council Officers will seek the adoption of the Stage 2 Study and commencement of a Planning Scheme Amendment to protect places and precincts recommended for protection.