Melton council has identified five new sites, including one in Diggers Rest, as important to the area’s heritage and will add them to the Heritage Overlay to protect them from demolition.
The five new heritage-listed sites are The Oaks Homestead in Kurunjang, the Army Housing Estate and Soldier Settlement Housing in Diggers Rest, Minns Road Timber Bridge over Toolern Creek in Kurunjang and Hillview House in Toolern Vale.
The City of Melton Heritage Assessment Project 2020-21 assessed 13 places to determine whether they warrant protection and therefore inclusion in the Heritage Overlay within the Melton Planning Scheme. The 13 places assessed were identified in the Shire of Melton Heritage Study 2007 as ‘Conservation Desirable’ places for further investigation.
Of the 13 places assessed, the report found that five places met the threshold for local significance and should be protected via inclusion in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay within the Melton Planning Scheme.
A council document said local councils play an important role in preserving local history by carrying out heritage studies and permanently protecting heritage through the Planning Scheme. Under the Planning & Environment Act.
“All Planning Schemes in Victoria must act to ‘conserve and enhance those buildings, areas or other places which are of scientific, aesthetic, architectural or historical interest, or otherwise of special cultural value’,” it said.
