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Theme 4: Neighbourhood character and heritage

The front of a blue and white weatherboard house
A community heritage nominated property in Boroondara

In Boroondara, we cherish our local heritage and appreciate efforts to preserve the unique character of our neighbourhoods. We value careful regulation of new development and diversity in housing size and affordability. These aspects contribute to Boroondara's charm, making it a wonderful place to live, work​ and play. Our strategic objective is to protect our heritage and respect Boroondara's character while encouraging well-designed, appropriate development.

Major achievement

Through major initiative 4.3, we started a Community Heritage Nomination Process to assist with protecting and celebrating Boroondara’s heritage.

Community Heritage Nomination Process implementation

The Municipal Wide Heritage Gap Study was finished in 2022. It protected an extra 5,000 of Boroondara’s heritage places, making the total number of places with heritage protection over 14,629.

We understand how important Boroondara’s heritage is to our community and that you might want to suggest potential properties for heritage consideration. So, we created a new way to let our community nominate places for heritage assessment. 

In May 2023, we launched this new process which formalises how we receive and consider community heritage nominations, while ensuring greater visibility. 

Highlights for the year

  • Implementation of a new Tree Protection Local Law to improve landscaping outcomes on development sites and maintain neighbourhood character and amenity across the municipality.
  • The Boroondara Design Excellence Guide was released in October 2023 to communicate the City of Boroondara’s expectations for high design standards for new developments, places and spaces in the municipality.
  • The level crossing removal works at Union Road, Surrey Hills were completed by the Level Crossing Removal Project in late 2023, with the train line put in a trench under Union Road. The removal of the dangerous level crossing, the site of a tragic double fatality, has improved road safety for all users of Union Road. The new Union Station, which replaced both the Surrey Hills and Mont Albert train stations, and new open space at Union Road, funded by both the Council and State Government, was opened on 12 November 2023. Vibrant landscaping extends along the rail corridor and into the pocket park at Montrose Street.