Grange Planning Brain

title: Bannockburn Second East-West Arterial and Bruce Creek Crossing Investigations council: golden-plains state: vic category: strategy classification: MAJOR status: unknown last_compiled: 2026-05-30 source_docs:

  • Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf
  • Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf

Bannockburn Second East-West Arterial and Bruce Creek Crossing Investigations

The second east-west arterial and additional Bruce Creek crossing investigations are transport-enabling actions for Bannockburn growth, not stand-alone road projects. Their planning function is to make the Bannockburn Growth Plan workable by connecting future growth areas, improving east-west movement across the township, and reducing reliance on through-freight movement through the town centre (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.379).

The available source set is thin for route, cost, staging and delivery analysis. The two documents confirm the strategic need, policy basis and investigation status, but they do not provide a preferred alignment, traffic modelling, bridge design, cost estimate, land-take schedule, environmental assessment, cultural heritage assessment, drainage design, funding mechanism or delivery program (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378; Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25).

Background

Golden Plains Shire identifies Bannockburn as its main south-east growth focus, with rezoning still required to accommodate expected growth under the Bannockburn Growth Plan (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.12; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.250). The 2024 draft Growing Places Strategy states that the Bannockburn Growth Plan includes three growth precincts: South East, North West and South West (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.8). Those three precincts are estimated to accommodate an additional 18,000 people, and the draft strategy says this is enough to meet the required 15-year supply under the VIF projections (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.8).

The same draft strategy makes the transport context larger than a local access issue. It states that Golden Plains had 9,408 households in 2021, that VIF 2023 projected 13,134 dwellings by 2036, that the draft Plan for Victoria target for Golden Plains was 11,700 new houses by 2051, and that the Housing Needs Assessment identified potential demand for 14,770 new houses by 2051 (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.8; Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.14). In that setting, the second arterial and Bruce Creek crossing investigations sit inside a wider question: whether Bannockburn’s planned growth can be staged with enough movement capacity to support new housing without shifting unacceptable transport pressure onto the town centre (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.379).

Analysis

Growth Mechanism

The first mechanism is growth-area access. The Planning Scheme Review lists a further strategic work item to investigate a second east-west arterial road for Bannockburn with the dual purpose of servicing the growth area and re-routing through-freight vehicles out of the town centre (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.235; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378). This means the road is intended to do two jobs at once: provide access for new residential precincts and change the pattern of freight movement through Bannockburn Town Centre (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378).

The second mechanism is east-west permeability across Bruce Creek. The same further strategic work list requires investigation of additional crossing points over Bruce Creek to facilitate east-west movement across Bannockburn (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.235; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378). In simple planning terms, Bruce Creek is both an environmental corridor and a movement barrier, so new growth west of the creek depends on crossing points that do not undermine the creek corridor’s open-space, habitat, drainage and landscape functions (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.260; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.261).

The third mechanism is town-centre relief. The Planning Scheme Review links High Street streetscape modification to the arterial road by stating that town-centre changes would be considered as part of the proposed town centre UDF and were reliant on the arterial road being planned (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.235). This makes the arterial a precondition for a different High Street role: if freight has no alternative route, measures that make the town centre more pedestrian- and cycling-responsive may be harder to implement without creating conflict with through-traffic needs (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.235).

Relationship to Bannockburn Growth

The transport investigations are embedded in a growth program that is materially larger than current zoned land. The 2024 draft Growing Places Strategy says the Bannockburn Growth Plan precincts are identified but not yet appropriately zoned, and that the undersupply of zoned residential land in Bannockburn had reduced the growth rate over the previous five years (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.8). That matters because road and bridge investigations need to precede or accompany rezoning; otherwise, residential land can be identified in strategy but remain difficult to sequence in statutory and infrastructure terms (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.8; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378).

The draft strategy says Bannockburn remains the focus for future growth consistent with the Bannockburn Growth Plan, which could cater for an additional 13,000 homes (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.23). It also states that the Growth Plan can accommodate over 8,000 new homes in the South East Precinct Structure Plan, North West Development Plan and South West Development Plan 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). The difference between the 8,000-home precinct-area figure and the 13,000-home full-development figure indicates that movement planning must be able to scale beyond the first planned precincts if the Future Investigation Areas are later brought forward (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25).

The timing sensitivity is explicit. The draft strategy says the Bannockburn Growth Plan will meet the Shire’s predicted growth over the next 15 years based on VIF 2023, but a faster take-up of rezoned and available land in Bannockburn would bring forward the need for a new growth front earlier than 2040 (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.24; Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25). For the second arterial and Bruce Creek crossings, that means the risk is not only whether infrastructure is eventually delivered, but whether investigation, reservation, funding and approvals happen early enough to avoid growth-area staging being limited by movement capacity (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378).

Bruce Creek as Corridor and Constraint

The planning scheme material treats Bruce Creek as more than a crossing location. Bannockburn local policy seeks to protect the natural and built environment, including the Bruce Creek environs, town character and rural ambience (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.251). It also seeks an integrated and environmentally responsive open-space network throughout Bannockburn township (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.251).

The local policy framework contains several creek-specific design expectations. It supports use of Bruce Creek as an active transport corridor, open-space connections into the creek corridor, walking and cycling trails preferably on the eastern side of Bruce Creek, protection of vistas and visual amenity, acquisition of land between the tops of the escarpment and the rim of the creek valley as public open space, and roadway setbacks from the rim of Bruce Creek to separate roads from public open space (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.261). These requirements mean any additional crossing is not only a traffic-engineering question; it must also be tested against public open-space continuity, habitat restoration, bushfire vegetation management, visual amenity and integrated water management outcomes (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.261).

The policy also says vegetation within the Bannockburn Flora and Fauna Reserve, Bruce Creek, constructed waterway corridors and other local environmental assets should be managed to mitigate bushfire risk (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.261). This creates a design tension for new crossings: creek regeneration and active-transport corridor objectives point toward a continuous vegetated corridor, while bushfire policy requires vegetation management so that risk is not increased over time (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.261).

Freight, High Street and Town-Centre Consequences

The clearest downstream dependency is the relationship between the second arterial and High Street. The Planning Scheme Review states that modifications to High Street through the town centre are intended to create a streetscape responsive to pedestrian and cycling needs and to discourage through-freight vehicle movements (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.235; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378). The same review states that this High Street work is reliant on the arterial road being planned for (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.235).

This creates a cause-and-effect chain. If the second arterial is planned and reserved, then High Street can be more credibly planned for lower freight dominance and higher pedestrian and cycling amenity (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.235). If the second arterial remains unresolved, then High Street redesign remains exposed to the unresolved need to accommodate through-freight vehicles moving through the town centre (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.235; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378).

Statutory and Strategic Work Status

The Planning Scheme Review shows that the second east-west arterial investigation had a “Yes” implementation marker and was being considered as part of the Bannockburn South East precinct (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.235). The same table shows that additional Bruce Creek crossing-point investigations had a “Yes” marker and were commenced (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.235). Appendix Three also lists both investigations in the further strategic work program, with each marked against Clause 74.02 and shown as retained in the work program (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.379).

The current source set does not show that either investigation has been completed. The 2024 draft Growing Places Strategy confirms the scale and timing pressure of Bannockburn growth, but it does not provide a completed alignment, crossing strategy, costed works package or delivery program for the second east-west arterial or Bruce Creek crossings (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25). The appropriate evidence-based status is therefore: investigations were active or commenced in the 2022 review material, but completion and delivery status are not established by the two documents in this manifest (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.235; Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25).

Infrastructure Funding and Delivery Exposure

The draft Growing Places Strategy says some parts of the Shire will require substantial infrastructure to support anticipated growth, including transport, community and recreation facilities, and adequate drainage infrastructure (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.16). It also states that development contributions require estimates of required infrastructure upgrades, and that developers will still be required to provide drainage and transport as part of planned growth (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.16). For the second arterial and creek crossings, this points to a likely need for a costed infrastructure schedule and contribution mechanism before growth-area staging can be treated as delivery-ready (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.16).

The available documents do not state whether the second arterial or Bruce Creek crossings would be funded through a development contributions plan, direct delivery by developers, Council capital works, state funding, or a hybrid mechanism. The absence of a funding mechanism is a material analytical gap because the road and crossings are described as growth-enabling infrastructure, and the draft strategy states that infrastructure sequencing is needed to support efficient infrastructure delivery (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.16; Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.23).

Current Status

The most specific dated evidence is from the 2022 Planning Scheme Review. It records the second east-west arterial road as being considered as part of the Bannockburn South East precinct and records additional Bruce Creek crossing investigations as commenced (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.235). The 2024 draft Growing Places Strategy confirms that Bannockburn remains the Shire’s primary growth focus and that the Growth Plan could accommodate 8,000 homes in precinct areas and 13,000 homes at full development, but it does not update the arterial or crossing investigations to a completed delivery stage (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.23; Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25).

Dependencies

  • Blocks: High Street town-centre streetscape changes that depend on a planned arterial alternative for through-freight movement (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.235).
  • Blocks: Fully integrated east-west movement across Bannockburn, particularly where new growth areas need additional crossing points over Bruce Creek (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378).
  • Blocked by: Completion of route, crossing, environmental, cultural heritage, traffic, land-take, cost and funding investigations, none of which are included in the two source documents (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378; Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25).
  • Informed by: Bannockburn Growth Plan, Bruce Creek Master Plan, Strategic Bushfire Risk Assessment for the Bannockburn Growth Plan Investigation Area, Bannockburn Framework Plan and Bannockburn Land Use Precinct Plan, all listed as relevant policy or background documents in the Planning Scheme Review material (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.261; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.377).
  • Implements: The Bannockburn local policy direction to accommodate growth within the Bannockburn growth boundary and deliver a second arterial road to support Bannockburn’s growth and enable more efficient through-freight movement (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.251; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.260).
  • Conflicts with: No direct policy conflict is identified in the source set, but creek crossings must be reconciled with Bruce Creek open-space, habitat, active-transport, visual amenity, roadway setback and bushfire vegetation-management strategies (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.261).

Bannockburn’s growth sits within a wider regional housing and movement context between Greater Geelong and Ballarat. The draft Growing Places Strategy states that Golden Plains is positioned between the Cities of Greater Geelong and Ballarat, that neighbouring municipalities are experiencing significant growth pressure, and that the draft housing targets were 139,800 new homes for Greater Geelong and 46,900 new homes for Ballarat (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.2; Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25). The second east-west arterial is therefore a local infrastructure investigation with regional implications, because Bannockburn’s residential growth and freight movement pattern are affected by the broader Geelong-Ballarat settlement and transport system (Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.2; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378).

Gaps in This Analysis

The missing primary documents are material. The source set references the Bannockburn Growth Plan but does not include the Growth Plan itself, even though it is the key source for precinct boundaries, full-development staging and the growth-area transport framework (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.261; Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25). The source set references the Bruce Creek Master Plan but does not include it, even though that document is likely to define the creek corridor’s open-space, trail, landscape and environmental expectations in greater detail (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.261; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.377).

The source set also references the Strategic Bushfire Risk Assessment for the Bannockburn Growth Plan Investigation Area but does not include it, even though bushfire risk is identified as a key issue around the Bannockburn Flora and Fauna Reserve, Bruce Creek and future growth areas (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.251; Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.261). Missing transport studies, traffic modelling, functional layouts, cost estimates, land acquisition plans and delivery agreements prevent a quantified assessment of alignment options, bridge locations, staging triggers, traffic redistribution, construction cost, land-take, ecological impact and funding responsibility (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378; Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.16).

These gaps should be recorded in _gaps as a corpus gap for Bannockburn Growth Plan transport and creek-crossing implementation documents, with high priority because the initiative is a major growth-enabling transport investigation and the available documents establish need but not delivery detail (Source: Att 7.6.1 - Golden-Plains-Planning-Scheme-Review-2022_FINAL combined_3.pdf, p.378; Source: Att 08.09 Growing Places Strategy Draft Text and Maps.pdf, p.25).

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