The City of Boroondara in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne has introduced a community heritage nomination process to streamline local participation in conservation and to empower people to have a greater say about local places conserved.
But this novel people-centred approach appears to have inadvertently pitted residents against each other. A new homeowner was allegedly unaware of a pending nomination, when they signed their contract of sale, and so is aggrieved by the turn of events, as well as the associated costs of lost development potential that could occur from a possible future heritage listing.
Boroondara has defended itself: the nomination process did appear to involve informing the previous homeowner, who perhaps did not pass on the information to (potential) purchasers. Still, Boroondara will update its nomination process to prevent a repeat of this situation, by tweaking owner/purchaser notification requirements and by restricting nominations from occurring around property sales.
The rigour of local heritage has been brought into question. While it might make an irresistible newspaper headline, a single sentence cannot get a house heritage protected. No property in Boroondara has received permanent heritage protections from the new nomination process launched in May 2023. It’s still possible none ever will.
In total, 26 properties have been nominated by the Boroondara community, and 7 have passed expert assessment in the past 16 months. In other words, only 27 percent of community heritage nominations have passed through the first hurdle. A lower percentage will ever possibly achieve permanent protections.
The expert heritage assessment for the property that has sparked the recent media coverage – 23 Clapham Street, Balwyn – is 26 pages of research, analysis, photography and references. That’s much more than a single sentence! For any of the community-nominated properties to be permanently protected, a thorough, evidence-based and expert-led assessment will continue to occur.
Thresholds and democratic safeguards for local heritage protections have not changed. The Victorian Minister for Planning and Planning Panels Victoria, the independent planning adjudicator, will be involved in the near future; applying the exact same criteria and rigour that apply to any other new local heritage listings. Elected councillors will have the final say, based on the views of their constituents. That’s why local heritage protections take years to prepare and implement – to get them right.
While conservation inevitably comes at a cost to property owners, the long-term trend has been for heritage homes to perform well on the real estate market. The unique design features of heritage homes cannot be replicated in new builds and are highly sought after by homebuyers. It’s also often better for the environment to renovate and preserve than to demolish and rebuild. Still, there are opportunities for heritage policies to be tweaked to incentivise conservation, to socialise the costs, and to enable greater densification.
Fundamentally, heritage is of public benefit. It’s cherished by the community, reflecting our history, improving our wellbeing, showcasing design and beauty, and making our urban environment more sustainable. A report recently published by the independent Heritage Council of Victoria provides extensive evidence of the social, economic and environmental value of heritage to the public.
Unfortunately, there is always a risk that heritage may be hijacked by some to serve non-conservation or anti-development agendas. This means that any formalised community nomination process needs to be finely tuned. Note too that, in different ways, many authorities have allowed community members to nominate heritage places for decades, including Boroondara.
Boroondara could be more strategic in how it manages its formalised community heritage nomination process, so that conservation unites rather than divides the community. There may well be such a thing as a local council being too proactive when it comes to heritage protections, at the expense of local cohesion and ordered heritage planning.
Boroondara already has extensive heritage protections. It is also one of the least dense inner-to-middle ring municipalities in Melbourne. Greater housing densities will need to be achieved in Boroondara, given the housing crisis and conversations about housing targets.
Densification in Boroondara will inevitably happen with the new Camberwell Junction activity centre, which must be planned to enhance rather than detract from local heritage values. Indeed, many of our heritage areas are already dense in housing. Take a look at Collingwood or Fitzroy in the City of Yarra or Carlton and Kensington in the City of Melbourne.
Boroondara might next focus conservation efforts on updating its heritage and planning policies to, simultaneously, better support housing densification, design, sustainability and wellbeing. In this way, more people can enjoy the history, character and architecture that its fantastic neighbourhoods have to offer.
Dr James Lesh is founding director of boutique conservation firm Heritage Workshop, which consulted on the new City of Melbourne Heritage Strategy.
Leading photograph: Balwyn Aerial View, 1955, courtesy of https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/2032713.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.