title: Meredith Growth Location and Structure Plan Update council: golden-plains state: vic category: growth-area classification: MAJOR status: in-progress last_compiled: 2026-05-30 source_docs:
- Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf
- Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf
Meredith Growth Location and Structure Plan Update
Meredith is the next identified growth location in Golden Plains Shire after the Bannockburn Growth Plan, but its role is conditional rather than immediate: the town is only to move into substantial growth planning if Barwon Water commits to reticulated sewerage. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.23) The practical planning mechanism is simple: without sewerage, Meredith cannot support the higher-density residential forms needed to make efficient use of converted rural land; with sewerage, Council can update the Meredith Town Structure Plan and test how much additional housing, employment land, infrastructure and environmental capacity the town can safely accommodate. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.25-26)
Background
The Meredith growth location comes from the Golden Plains Shire Growing Places Strategy, a municipal housing strategy prepared to guide where future housing could be located to 2050 and beyond. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.5) The strategy was prepared in response to Victoria’s wider population growth, the State Government’s Housing Statement target of 800,000 homes between 2024 and 2034, and Golden Plains’ position between the regional cities of Geelong and Ballarat. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.6-7)
Golden Plains had a 2021 population of 24,892 and Victoria in Future 2023 projected it to reach 34,036 by 2036, an increase of 9,144 people over 15 years. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.7) The same forecast projected total dwellings increasing from 9,408 in 2021 to 13,134 in 2036, an increase of 3,726 dwellings. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.8) The strategy also records a preliminary Plan for Victoria housing target of 11,700 new houses for Golden Plains by 2051, while the Housing Needs Assessment prepared for the strategy identified potential demand for 14,770 new houses by 2051. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.13, 25)
The adopted growth logic is staged. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.22-25) Bannockburn remains the primary growth focus, with the Bannockburn Growth Plan described as capable of accommodating over 8,000 new homes in its precinct areas and 13,000 new homes at full development including future investigation areas. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25) Meredith is then identified as the next location to investigate, but only if reticulated sewerage is delivered. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.23)
Analysis
Role in the Settlement Hierarchy
The Growing Places Strategy changes Meredith from a District Town to a Sub Regional Centre direction and assigns it a Substantial Change category, with two stated preconditions: reticulated sewerage and a new structure plan. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.19) This is a major planning shift because the strategy is not treating Meredith as a small incremental infill town; it is identifying Meredith as a future settlement that may carry municipal-scale housing supply if servicing is resolved. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.19, 23, 25)
The strategy’s sequencing places Meredith ahead of Lethbridge and Teesdale in the growth program because it states that Meredith is the next location where future growth will be considered, subject to Barwon Water committing to reticulated sewerage. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.23) Lethbridge and Teesdale are also growth locations, but the strategy describes their additional growth as subject to significant infrastructure commitments to reticulated sewerage and public transport. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.23)
The underlying planning trade-off is between housing supply readiness and infrastructure dependency. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.22-25) Bannockburn can meet the baseline 15-year Victoria in Future requirement, but faster take-up of Bannockburn land would bring forward the need for another growth front earlier than 2040. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25) Meredith is therefore positioned as a readiness measure: Council wants the structure planning work prepared before housing demand forces a rushed decision. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25)
Sewerage as the Binding Precondition
Reticulated sewerage is the central constraint for Meredith. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.23, 25, 27) The strategy states that Meredith could provide necessary land supply if it is serviced with reticulated sewerage, and says Council must advocate for sewerage through Barwon Water and the State and Federal governments so groundwork investigations and structure planning can occur. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25)
The mechanism is direct. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25) Higher densities can only be supported in locations with reticulated sewerage, so Meredith’s capacity to provide a meaningful housing supply depends on sewerage because conventional low-density or rural living formats would consume more rural land for fewer dwellings. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25) The strategy explicitly says the additional land supply that Meredith could provide is unknown until more detailed planning is undertaken, but that sewerage could allow a substantially higher supply than low-density residential growth in Lethbridge and Teesdale. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25)
The strategy also identifies the delivery of reticulated sewerage to Meredith as a review trigger for the Growth Places Strategy and its Multi-Criteria Analysis tool. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.27) This means sewerage is not merely a background infrastructure item; it is a formal decision point that could change the timing, scale and sequencing of municipal housing planning. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.27)
Housing Supply Function
Meredith’s housing role is best understood as a contingency and capacity function within the municipal housing pipeline. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.24-25) Under baseline Victoria in Future projections, Bannockburn is expected to meet the Shire’s 15-year supply requirement, but the strategy recognises a realistic possibility of higher growth associated with the Geelong and Ballarat housing markets. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.13, 18, 24)
The numerical gap explains why Meredith matters. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.13, 25) The preliminary Plan for Victoria target is 11,700 new houses by 2051, while the Housing Needs Assessment identifies potential demand for 14,770 new houses by 2051, a difference of 3,070 dwellings. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.13, 25) Bannockburn’s full-development capacity of 13,000 homes could theoretically cover the preliminary target, but the strategy notes that the timing of Bannockburn land take-up is uncertain because there has been scarce greenfield residential supply in Bannockburn over the previous decade. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.24-25)
Meredith therefore operates as the next planning release valve if Bannockburn demand is absorbed faster than expected. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25) The strategy does not quantify Meredith’s potential dwelling yield, which is a material analytical gap because the land supply contribution cannot yet be compared with the 11,700-house target, the 14,770-house demand estimate, or Bannockburn’s 8,000-to-13,000-home capacity range. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25)
Employment and Local Services
Meredith is not framed only as a residential growth location. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.15) The strategy identifies Meredith as a potential location for value adding or processing of agricultural production and states that a new structure plan should consider a suitable location for an industrial precinct that can accommodate larger land users. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.15)
This matters because around 70% of working Golden Plains residents work outside the Shire, according to the strategy’s use of 2021 Census data. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.15) A Meredith structure plan that only allocates housing land would not respond to the strategy’s broader settlement logic, because the strategy links future growth to stronger local employment, reduced dependence on regional city jobs, and more complete town functions. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.14-16)
The strategy also records low rental supply and demand for key worker housing in Meredith associated with windfarms, agriculture and food manufacturing. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.14) This creates a specific housing diversity issue for structure planning: if Meredith is planned mainly for detached owner-occupied dwellings, the structure plan may not address the rental and key worker housing need already identified for the town. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.14)
Transport and Public Transport Dependency
The strategy identifies passenger rail as Meredith’s enabling infrastructure. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.23) It also states that the railway between Geelong and Ballarat presents a spine that could accommodate new growth, with Meredith, Lethbridge, Bannockburn and Teesdale growing based on proximity to that spine. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.16)
This is a long-term accessibility concept rather than a resolved service plan. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.16, 23) The strategy records strong community and stakeholder support for reinstating passenger rail, improving bus networks, and improving active travel, but it does not provide a funded passenger rail project, service frequency, station location, bus integration plan, or delivery timeframe for Meredith. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.16-17)
The May 2026 post-exhibition report recommends changing some strategy language from passenger rail to public transport for Lethbridge and Teesdale, but the listed change does not alter Meredith’s entry in the foundations table. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, pp.16-17) The distinction is important because Meredith remains linked in the draft strategy to passenger rail as an enabling item, while the post-exhibition changes indicate Council was already refining transport terminology in response to submissions. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, pp.16-17)
Character, Heritage and Design Controls
The strategy identifies Meredith’s key character elements as wide streets and timber structures that create a light and open quality, and says these should be retained in future development. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.23) This creates a design control task for the future structure plan: growth cannot simply be measured by dwelling numbers, because subdivision layout, street cross-sections, canopy space and building materials will need to carry the town character objective. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.13, 23, 26)
The structure planning work must also address First Peoples cultural heritage, post-contact heritage and dry stone walls. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.11-12, 25-26) The listed groundwork includes Cultural Values Assessment, place-name audit, cultural heritage design responses, historical heritage assessment, dry stone wall mapping, and design that incorporates heritage places into urban development. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.25-26)
The documents do not identify specific Meredith heritage places, cultural values, dry stone wall alignments, curtilages or development buffers. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.25-26) This means the current evidence supports a requirement for heritage assessment, but it does not yet define the land-take, lot-yield or layout effects of heritage constraints in Meredith. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.25-26)
Environmental and Hazard Testing
The strategy requires future growth planning to test bushfire risk, stormwater, flood impact, flora and fauna, arboriculture, land capability, contamination, sodic soils, buffers, and infrastructure servicing. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.25-26) These requirements indicate that Meredith’s growth boundary is not yet settled: the future structure plan must first determine which land is safe, serviceable, environmentally suitable and compatible with surrounding uses. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.25-26)
At the municipal level, the strategy directs substantial growth locations to areas of low bushfire risk and avoids growth in flood-prone areas based on existing flood mapping. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.8-9) It also states that future developments will need flood impact assessments as part of rezoning proposals. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.9)
The documents do not provide Meredith-specific flood extents, bushfire landscape ratings, vegetation mapping, contamination mapping, buffer mapping or land capability results. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.8-10, 25-26) The current analytical conclusion is therefore conditional: Meredith is identified as strategically suitable at a high level, but parcel-level capacity cannot be known until the required technical studies are completed. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.23, 25-26)
Planning Scheme Amendment C106gpla
Council adopted the Growing Places Strategy at its June 2025 Council Meeting and resolved to seek approval from the Minister for Planning to prepare, authorise and exhibit a planning scheme amendment to implement it. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, p.11) The Minister authorised exhibition of Amendment C106gpla in mid-December 2025 with conditions mostly relating to terminology and Ministerial Form and Content requirements. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, p.11)
Amendment C106gpla was exhibited between 23 February and 13 April 2026. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, p.11) Council received 9 submissions during exhibition and 2 after exhibition closed, making 11 submissions in total. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, p.11) The submissions comprised 5 agency submissions and 6 submissions from or on behalf of landowners. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, p.11)
The May 2026 officer recommendation was to refer all submissions on Amendment C106gpla to an independent Planning Panel under section 23(1)(b) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, p.11) The report states that 8 submissions either supported the amendment, requested no changes, or requested minor changes; 1 submission supported the broad objective but requested substantial changes; and 1 submission objected to the amendment. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, p.11)
The unresolved issues in the post-exhibition report were not Meredith-specific. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, pp.12-15) The objecting submission concerned rural zone policy and land management matters, while the substantial-change submission sought growth status for Batesford. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, pp.13-15) The Batesford response is relevant to Meredith because Council stated that the exhibited growth scenario was based on five locations: Cambrian Hill, Meredith, Lethbridge, Teesdale and Stonehaven. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, p.15)
Current Status
As at the 26 May 2026 council agenda, Amendment C106gpla had completed exhibition and officers recommended referral of all submissions to an independent Planning Panel. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, pp.11, 20) The agenda material does not confirm whether Council carried the recommendation, so the current evidence supports a status of post-exhibition with Panel referral recommended, not Panel referral completed. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, pp.11, 20)
For Meredith itself, the next substantive planning step is a new Meredith Town Structure Plan, but that work is dependent on reticulated sewerage commitment and the technical groundwork listed in the Growing Places Strategy. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.23, 25-26) The strategy identifies delivery of reticulated sewerage to Meredith as a trigger for review and updating of the strategy’s Multi-Criteria Analysis framework. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.27)
Dependencies
- Blocks: Meredith cannot be treated as a quantified housing supply source until the new structure plan defines the growth boundary, infrastructure requirements, environmental constraints, development contributions and dwelling capacity. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.25-26)
- Blocked by: Reticulated sewerage is the primary precondition for substantial growth planning in Meredith. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.19, 23, 25)
- Blocked by: The future structure plan also requires cultural heritage, bushfire, stormwater, flood, flora and fauna, infrastructure servicing, land capability, contamination, transport, heritage, buffers, social housing, development contributions, character, economic and retail assessments. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.25-26)
- Informed by: The current policy basis is the Growing Places Strategy and the post-exhibition Amendment C106gpla officer report. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf; Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf)
- Implements: The Meredith growth direction implements the Growing Places Strategy’s municipal settlement framework and its response to the preliminary Plan for Victoria housing target. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.7, 18-25)
- Conflicts with: The documents do not identify a direct Meredith-specific policy conflict, but they identify a general tension between converting rural land for housing and protecting agricultural land for future food, fibre, energy and climate-adaptation value. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.12)
Cross-Jurisdictional Links
Barwon Water is the key external infrastructure authority for Meredith because Council must work with Barwon Water to develop the case for sewerage for Meredith. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.17) State and Federal government funding or support may also be required because the strategy says Council should advocate for reticulated sewerage through Barwon Water and State and Federal Government. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25)
Meredith also sits within the broader Geelong-Ballarat regional planning frame. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.6-7, 16) The strategy states that Golden Plains is positioned between Geelong and Ballarat, that neighbouring regional cities are experiencing growth pressure, and that the railway between Geelong and Ballarat is a potential transport spine for growth locations including Meredith. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.6, 16)
The strategy records that Golden Plains is split between two 2014 Regional Growth Plans, with the Central Highlands Regional Growth Plan covering the north of the Shire including Meredith, Smythesdale and Rokewood. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.7) This matters because Meredith’s future role will need to align not only with Golden Plains policy but also with the review of regional growth planning through Plan Victoria. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.7)
Gaps in This Analysis
The source set is thin for a major growth location. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf; Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf) The available documents identify Meredith as a strategic growth location but do not provide the technical evidence needed to quantify land supply, infrastructure cost, lot yield, staging, environmental constraints or development contribution requirements. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.25-26)
Key missing documents include the Growing Places Strategy Informing Document, the Housing Needs Assessment 2022, the Service Limitation and Civil Infrastructure Analysis 2024, the Community Services and Infrastructure Plan Update 2023, the Natural Environment and Hazards Analysis 2022, the Agriculture Assessment 2022, the First Peoples Cultural Heritage Report 2023, the Post Contact Heritage Report, the Town Character Profiles 2022, and any Barwon Water sewerage servicing assessment for Meredith. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, pp.5, 8-17, 25-27)
The full Amendment C106gpla ordinance, the suggested updates attachment, the combined suggested ordinance changes, and the full public submissions were not available in the provided source set. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, p.11) This limits analysis of how Meredith is translated into statutory planning controls, whether any submitters raised Meredith-specific issues, and whether the Panel process may alter Meredith’s status or preconditions. (Source: Council Meeting Agenda Final - 26.05.2026.pdf, pp.11-20)
The most important analytical gap is Meredith’s unquantified capacity. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25) The strategy states that Meredith’s additional land supply is unknown until more detailed planning work is undertaken, so this page cannot calculate a dwelling yield, net developable area, infrastructure levy, sequencing trigger or land-take effect for the Meredith growth location. (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25)