OUR HERITAGE AT RISK - VICTORIA - 2007

Place:    Melbourne's Green Wedges

Threat:  Destruction and Complete Loss of Heritage Values

Significance:

The Green Wedges are Rural areas radiating from the City of Melbourne. These areas are designated rural/non-urban areas generally beyond the urban growth boundary but within the Melbourne Metropolitan area as defined in the Planning Scheme. The working definition also includes major public open spaces radiating out from Melbourne.

Melbourne’s Green Wedges are aesthetically significant, and are also historically significant as a component of planning for the City of Melbourne since the mid twentieth century.  Their purpose is to provide the ‘lungs for the city’, allowing city residents access to a rural environment for enjoyment  and recreation. Essential qualities are their very low residential density, maintaining a green landscape, and protection of the visual aspects of the rural environment, including fields and trees. 

Statement of Risk:

Degree of Risk:            At Risk – No solution agreed

Threats/Risks:             Destruction

Fate/outcome:             Surviving

Melbourne’s Green Wedges are an irresistible attraction to developers, who see in them the opportunity to make large profits from commercial residential developments in attractive rural settings.  Recent examples of the threat posed in just one Green Wedge zone south of Melbourne are the two applications currently being considered for developments in this area: the realignment of the boundaries of the former Ansett Estate at Mount Eliza, which would create three new building blocks, and the application by Dromana Estate Winery for a conference and villa unit development at Moorooduc South.

 Desired Outcome / Vision:

Appropriate and sustainable heritage outcomes are contained in the policies enunciated in Town Planning Scheme: Melbourne 2030 and Metropolitan Parks Policy. The policies outlined in Melbourne 2030 need to be rigorously and consistently endorsed, and there needs to be a bipartisan acceptance that these policies will continue to be applied into the future regardless of any changes of government.