title: Heritage Overlay HO324 Hard Hill Statement of Significance, California Gully council: greater-bendigo state: vic category: constraint classification: MINOR status: in-progress last_compiled: 2026-05-31 source_docs:
- agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf
Heritage Overlay HO324 Hard Hill Statement of Significance, California Gully
HO324 Hard Hill is a narrow heritage-control initiative within Planning Scheme Amendment C285gben, centred on inserting a Heritage Overlay entry for land at 57 Green Street, California Gully and incorporating the January 2021 statement of significance into the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.106) The available source does not include the actual January 2021 statement text, so this page can analyse the statutory mechanism and amendment pathway but cannot verify the heritage criteria, significant fabric, curtilage logic, or conservation controls for Hard Hill itself. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107)
Background
Planning Scheme Amendment C285gben is a corrections amendment for the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme, prepared to correct zoning and overlay mapping errors, remove redundant overlays, correct scheme text, rezone one privately owned property from Industrial 3 Zone to Neighbourhood Residential Zone, and apply or rationalise Heritage Overlay controls across multiple places. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.32-34) The amendment applies across Bendigo, California Gully, Eaglehawk, Epsom, Flora Hill, Golden Gully, Golden Square, Jackass Flat, Kangaroo Flat, Kennington, Marong, Quarry Hill, Spring Gully, West Bendigo, Heathcote, Argyle, Big Hill, Lockwood South and Shelbourne. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.33)
Council previously resolved on 22 April 2024 to request authorisation from the Minister for Planning to prepare and exhibit Amendment C285gben, to prepare the amendment generally in accordance with the attached documentation, and to place it on exhibition subject to Ministerial authorisation. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.38-39) The Minister for Planning authorised preparation and public exhibition on 22 August 2025, subject to conditions, with the only noteworthy post-authorisation change being deletion of three properties to satisfy Department of Transport and Planning concerns about consistency with Clause 13.02-1S Bushfire planning. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.39)
Analysis
Statutory Mechanism
The Hard Hill action works through two linked planning-scheme changes rather than through a standalone heritage study process in the available source. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107) First, Amendment C285gben proposes to amend the Schedule to Clause 43.01 Heritage Overlay to insert HO324 Hard Hill on land at 57 Green Street, California Gully. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.106) Second, the amendment proposes to amend Clause 72.04 Incorporated Documents to insert Statement of Significance: 57 Green Street, California Gully, dated January 2021. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107)
The mechanism matters because the Heritage Overlay schedule identifies the place to be controlled, while the incorporated statement of significance is the document that should explain why the place is significant and what elements need conservation attention. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.123) The explanatory report states that Planning Practice Note 1 treats the Heritage Overlay as the appropriate tool for protecting and managing places that have conclusively been identified and assessed as having heritage significance. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.123) The same report states that PPN1 requires each heritage place to have a statement of significance that establishes the importance of the place and addresses heritage criteria. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.123)
What Can and Cannot Be Concluded About Hard Hill
The available source supports only four direct conclusions about HO324: it is named Hard Hill, it relates to 57 Green Street, California Gully, it is proposed for insertion into the Heritage Overlay schedule, and its statement of significance is dated January 2021. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107) The source does not reproduce the January 2021 statement of significance, so it does not disclose whether Hard Hill is significant for historical, archaeological, architectural, aesthetic, social, scientific, or other cultural values. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107) The source also does not identify the significant fabric, any contributory buildings or landscape elements, any archaeological sensitivity, any recommended tree controls, any external paint controls, any internal alteration controls, or any specific curtilage rationale for 57 Green Street. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107)
This creates a material analytical limitation. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107) The planning effect can be described at the level of the proposed statutory instrument, but the planning significance of Hard Hill cannot be tested against the underlying evidence because the operative significance statement is absent from the source bundle. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107)
Relationship to Amendment C285gben
HO324 is one of five heritage-related statement-of-significance insertions proposed through Amendment C285gben, alongside HO525 Hope Park, HO934 The Palms, HO939 Residence, and HO940 Sheard’s House and Orchard Wall. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107) The broader amendment is not primarily a heritage amendment, because it combines zoning corrections, overlay deletions, public open space schedule corrections, bushfire-related Design and Development Overlay changes, and Heritage Overlay changes in one omnibus correction process. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.32-34, 106-107)
The heritage component is framed by the explanatory report as a proper use of the Victoria Planning Provisions because it applies the Heritage Overlay to places identified as having heritage significance and rationalises the overlay where its application is erroneous or cannot be justified. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.123) For HO324, the practical implication is that Hard Hill depends on the success of Amendment C285gben rather than on a separate amendment pathway identified in the available source. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.32-39, 106-107)
Submissions and Contested Issues
Amendment C285gben was publicly exhibited from 23 October 2025 to 22 December 2025 after the original exhibition period was extended because of an administrative notification issue. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.37) Council received nine submissions, comprising five opposing submissions and four supporting submissions. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.34) Three supporting submissions were from public authorities, and one supporting submission was from Taungurung Land and Waters Council. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.34)
The unresolved submissions did not relate to HO324 in the available report. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.34-36) The two unresolved submissions concerned removal of Vegetation Protection Overlay Schedule 2 from public land within Bendigo Regional Park, and Council officers recommended no change to the amendment and referral to a Planning Panel. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.34-36) This means the Hard Hill control appears uncontested in the available agenda material, but that conclusion is limited to the summarised and redacted source material in this manifest. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.34-36)
Planning Implications
If Amendment C285gben proceeds, HO324 would bring 57 Green Street, California Gully into the Heritage Overlay schedule as Hard Hill and would anchor the place to the January 2021 statement of significance as an incorporated document. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107) The stated purpose of applying the Heritage Overlay in the amendment is to protect places identified and assessed as having heritage significance against demolition and inappropriate development. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.123) The report also links the amendment to Clause 15.03-1S Heritage conservation, whose objective is to conserve places of heritage significance. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.120)
The planning effect is therefore protective and documentary, not growth-enabling. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107, 120, 123) The key planning consequence is that future decisions for 57 Green Street should be tested against the significance identified in the January 2021 statement, but the available source does not provide enough detail to identify the specific constraints on demolition, alterations, subdivision, buildings, works, trees, paint, interiors, or archaeological fabric. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107)
Current Status
As at the 20 April 2026 council agenda, Amendment C285gben had been exhibited, submissions had been considered by officers, two submissions remained unresolved, and the recommended motion was for Council to request the Minister for Planning to appoint a Planning Panel and refer all submissions to that Panel. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.32-33) The report states that a further report would be presented to Council after the Planning Panel’s recommendations to support a decision on adoption of the amendment. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.32)
Dependencies
- Blocks: The available source does not identify any land supply, infrastructure, or sequencing matter that is blocked by HO324. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107)
- Blocked by: HO324 is dependent on Amendment C285gben progressing through the Planning Panel, Council adoption, Ministerial approval, and final planning scheme amendment process. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.32-39)
- Informed by: The proposed incorporated document is Statement of Significance: 57 Green Street, California Gully, dated January 2021, but that document is not reproduced in the available source. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107)
- Implements: The heritage component of the amendment is linked by the explanatory report to Clause 15.03-1S Heritage conservation and to Municipal Planning Strategy directions for protecting sites, places, and features of cultural heritage significance. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.120-122)
- Conflicts with: The available source identifies no direct conflict between HO324 and another planning initiative. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.34-36, 106-107)
Cross-Jurisdictional Links
No cross-jurisdictional infrastructure, agency, or adjacent-council dependency is identified for HO324 in the available source. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107) The broader amendment was notified to relevant authorities and organisations, and the agenda records supporting submissions from public authorities and Taungurung Land and Waters Council, but the available summary does not connect those submissions to HO324. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.34, 37)
Gaps in This Analysis
The critical gap is the missing incorporated document Statement of Significance: 57 Green Street, California Gully, January 2021. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107) Without that document, this page cannot identify what is significant about Hard Hill, which heritage criteria are satisfied, what fabric or land is significant, whether any controls beyond the base Heritage Overlay are proposed, or whether the proposed curtilage is proportionate. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107, 123)
A secondary gap is the absence of the final Council decision or post-Panel outcome after the 20 April 2026 agenda. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.32) The available source shows the officer recommendation to request a Panel, but it does not prove that Council carried the motion, that a Panel was appointed, that the amendment was adopted, or that HO324 was ultimately approved and gazetted. (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.32-33)