In December 2019, Council engaged Context GML heritage consultants to prepare a Stage 1 Heritage Review (Gap Study). The purpose of the Stage 1 Heritage Review (Gap Study) is to identify gaps in protection of Wyndham’s post contact heritage places in established areas that are not the subject of a PSP.

Heritage places were identified through a review of existing heritage studies and databases, and nominations from the Wyndham community.

The Stage 1 Heritage Review (Gap Study) identified interwar and post war residential development, industrial and transport-related sites, and migrant heritage places as the biggest gaps which are not currently represented in Wyndham’s heritage listings.

The Stage 1 Heritage Review (Gap Study) recommends further detailed assessment and documentation be prepared for 173 individual sites (including residential, commercial, industrial, archaeological and community places, landscapes, trees, military and infrastructure/transport-related sites), seven (7) complex places being comprised of multiple land parcels and six (6) new precincts, including residential precincts.

This work has now been completed and at the Ordinary Council Meeting 29th June 2021, Council resolved to adopt the Stage 1 Heritage Review (Gap Study). 

View: The adopted Stage 1 Heritage Review (Gap Study) document

View: Council Report

The Stage 1 Heritage Review (Gap Study) is a high-level study which does not recommend planning controls at this time, and detailed investigation and assessment of each place in a Stage 2 Heritage Study will determine whether the application of planning controls is warranted.

At the June 2021 Ordinary Council Meeting, Council has resolved to carry out the recommendations of the Stage 1 Heritage Review (Gap Study), commencing with a Stage 2 Heritage Study of Residential Places and Precincts. This work is proposed to commence this year, with affected landowners, stakeholders contacted, and the community will be invited to provide input to this process via The Loop website.

For further information on this project, please contact the Urban Transformation Team (Urban Futures Department) Heritage.Review@wyndham.vic.gov.au or 1300 023 411.

Read More About the Heritage Review

As a region with high growth, 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 historical places, to ensure that amenity and the character of areas are retained and protected ensuring any development, maintains the special character and places that reflect the history of our region.

Respect for our cultural heritage involves retaining and managing places that have importance to us as a community, providing historic continuity and a sense of place.

Currently, Wyndham has two sites on the National Heritage List (RAAF bases in Laverton and Point Cook) and 13 sites listed on the Victorian State Heritage Register.

Locally, Wyndham currently has 135 sites of Local Significance, including dry stone walls, homesteads, mansion, gardens, infrastructure, and homes, such as the Carter Housing Estate, Muswell House and Werribee Cemetery, which are listed on the Heritage Overlay Schedule, at Clause 43.01 of the Wyndham Planning Scheme.

Council manages the identification and protection of local places under the Scheme and is responsible for issuing planning permits for the use and development of heritage places under the Planning and Environment Act 1987.

What is a Heritage Place?

A heritage place may be a site, area, building, group of buildings, structure, archaeological site, tree, garden, geological formation, fossil site or other place of natural or cultural significance and its associated land.

Heritage objects may include furniture, shipwrecks, relics, archaeological artefacts, equipment, transport vehicles and everyday articles that contribute to an understanding of a place’s history.

Not every place has heritage value, and not every place with heritage value has sufficient value to meet the threshold justifying inclusion on a particular list, such as the Heritage Overlay Schedule for locally significant places, or the Victorian Heritage Register for places of State heritage significance.

Criteria and thresholds are key tools used to help decide the level of protection a place warrants.

In Australia, the ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) “Charter for the Conservation of Places of Cultural Significance”, known as the “Burra Charter” is a set of principles that have been adopted to create a nationally accepted standard for heritage conservation practice in Australia.

The Review will look at built heritage, vegetation and places of archaeological sensitivity within the post contact period. It will also include a review of the Thematic Environmental History of Wyndham, which identifies the key historical development themes of Wyndham, and apply these themes in identifying heritage places.

Get in Touch With Us

If you have questions about the Heritage Review, or information about nominated sites that you would like to share, you can chat to the team via heritage.review@wyndham.vic.gov.au or phone 1300 023 411.

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