title: Heritage Overlay HO525 Hope Park Mapping Correction, Kangaroo Flat 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 HO525 Hope Park Mapping Correction, Kangaroo Flat
The HO525 Hope Park item is a targeted Heritage Overlay mapping correction within Planning Scheme Amendment C285gben, rather than a new heritage assessment or broader precinct review (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.105). Its practical effect is to remove HO525 from six privately owned lots at Lovero Court and Weir Court and retain the overlay only over the adjoining Hope Park heritage place at 12 Weir Court, Kangaroo Flat (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.109).
Background
Planning Scheme Amendment C285gben is a municipal corrections amendment prepared by Greater Bendigo City Council to correct zoning and overlay mapping errors, remove redundant overlays, correct planning scheme text, rezone one privately owned property from Industrial 3 Zone to Neighbourhood Residential Zone, and apply the Heritage Overlay to two privately owned properties and part of 23 other properties (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.32-34). The amendment affects land across multiple Greater Bendigo suburbs, towns and localities, including Kangaroo Flat (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, prepare the amendment generally in accordance with the supporting documentation, and place the amendment 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 of the amendment on 22 August 2025, subject to conditions that included deleting three properties from the amendment to satisfy Department of Transport and Planning requirements about Clause 13.02-1S bushfire planning (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.39).
The HO525 correction sits within the Heritage Overlay component of the amendment, which proposes to delete HO525 from 7, 8, 9 and 10 Lovero Court and 11 and 13 Weir Court, Kangaroo Flat (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.105). The same amendment also proposes to amend the Schedule to Clause 43.01 to insert a reference to HO525 Hope Park on land described in the source as 12 Weir Park, Kangaroo Flat, and to insert the incorporated document titled Statement of Significance: 12 Weir Court, Kangaroo Flat (May 2019) (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107).
Analysis
Mapping Correction Mechanism
The mechanism is a curtilage correction: HO525 is currently mapped over six lots that resulted from a recent subdivision, but the council report states those lots do not contain any item of heritage significance relating to HO525 (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.109). The intended statutory outcome is that HO525 applies only to the adjoining property at 12 Weir Court, Kangaroo Flat (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.109).
The affected removal properties are 7, 8, 9 and 10 Lovero Court and 11 and 13 Weir Court, Kangaroo Flat (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.105). The mapping reference table identifies each of those six overlay-map changes as private land and links them to the exhibited HO deletion map reference for Planning Scheme Map 22HO (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.127-128).
The practical planning consequence is that the six removal lots would no longer carry HO525 permit triggers once the amendment is approved, while the heritage control would remain attached to the place that the council report identifies as the relevant Hope Park heritage property (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.109). This is a narrower heritage-control correction than a heritage delisting because the report does not propose deleting HO525 from the planning scheme; it proposes aligning the overlay with 12 Weir Court and inserting the relevant statement of significance into Clause 72.04 (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107).
Heritage Policy Logic
The amendment relies on the principle that Heritage Overlay mapping should accurately correlate with the Heritage Overlay schedule and the mapped heritage place (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 supports both applying the Heritage Overlay to places that have been assessed as significant and rationalising or deleting the overlay where its application cannot be justified or is erroneous (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.122-123).
For HO525, the report’s reasoning is that the relevant heritage significance remains with the adjoining property at 12 Weir Court and not with the six subdivided lots at Lovero Court and Weir Court (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.109). In simple planning terms, the amendment is trying to move the heritage “label” off land that the council says does not contain the labelled heritage item, while keeping the label on the land that does contain the Hope Park heritage place (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.109).
The broader amendment also proposes to insert five statements of significance into Clause 72.04, including the Statement of Significance: 12 Weir Court, Kangaroo Flat (May 2019) (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107). That matters because the incorporated statement is the document that should explain why the retained HO525 place is significant, but the statement itself was not included as a separate source document in the manifest (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.107).
Submissions and Contestation
The amendment was publicly exhibited from 23 October 2025 to 22 December 2025 after an initial one-month exhibition period was extended because additional notifications were required following a minor administrative error (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.37). Exhibition included approximately 800 letters to owners and occupiers of affected land and adjoining land, Government Gazette notices on 23 October 2025 and 20 November 2025, notices to prescribed ministers and relevant authorities, newspaper notices, and online access through council and Department of Transport and Planning websites (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.37).
Nine submissions were received, 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 the Taungurung Land and Waters Council (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.34). Four opposing submissions concerned removal of Vegetation Protection Overlay Schedule 2 from public land near submitters’ properties, and one opposing submission requested that two additional East Bendigo properties be included in the amendment (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.34-35).
No unresolved submission identified in the agenda report is directed to the HO525 Hope Park mapping correction (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.34-36). The two unresolved submissions relate to concerns about vegetation protection within Bendigo Regional Park, not to Kangaroo Flat heritage mapping (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.32, 36). This means the Hope Park correction appears uncontested in the available source, although the absence of objections in the agenda report is not the same as independent confirmation that all affected landowners support the HO525 mapping change (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.34-36).
Land Use and Risk Effects
The HO525 correction does not create new residential land, add infrastructure demand, or alter the zoning of the Lovero Court and Weir Court properties in the available source (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.105, 127-128). Its direct effect is administrative and statutory: removing a heritage overlay from land that council says does not contain the Hope Park heritage item, while retaining heritage recognition for the relevant adjoining property (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.109).
The explanatory report lists 7, 8, 9 and 10 Lovero Court and 11 and 13 Weir Court among sites that are not within a designated bushfire prone area, not within the Bushfire Management Overlay, and not proposed to be used or developed in a way that may create a bushfire hazard (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.114). On that basis, the available source does not identify bushfire risk as a constraint affected by the HO525 correction (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.114).
The amendment’s general strategic assessment says deleting redundant overlays and correcting mapping anomalies should improve the legibility and efficiency of the planning scheme by removing unnecessary restrictions that originate from incorrectly applied or outdated controls (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.107). Applied to HO525, that means the planning scheme should become clearer for the six affected private lots because the Heritage Overlay would no longer signal heritage significance on land where council says no HO525 heritage item exists (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.109).
Internal Source Issues
The source contains a possible naming inconsistency that should be checked before relying on the statutory drafting alone: the Schedule to Clause 43.01 insertion is transcribed as HO525 on land at “12 Weir Park, Kangaroo Flat,” while the statement of significance and explanatory reasoning refer to “12 Weir Court, Kangaroo Flat” (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107, 109). The most likely planning issue is not the heritage logic but the need to confirm the final amendment documents use the correct property description consistently before approval (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107, 109).
Current Status
As reported in the 20 April 2026 council agenda, officers recommended that Council note the explanatory report, consider all submissions, endorse the officer response as the basis for the City’s submission to a Planning Panel, request the Minister for Planning 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 explanatory report set indicative panel dates of a directions hearing in the week starting Monday 18 May 2026 and a panel hearing in the week starting Monday 15 June 2026 (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.101).
The available source does not include the council meeting minutes confirming whether the recommended motion was carried, the Minister’s appointment of a panel, the directions hearing outcome, the panel report, council adoption, ministerial approval, or gazettal (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.32-39). The status is therefore best treated as in-progress on the available evidence, with the HO525 correction dependent on the broader Amendment C285gben process (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.32-39).
Dependencies
- Blocks: The HO525 mapping correction blocks removal of Heritage Overlay permit triggers from 7, 8, 9 and 10 Lovero Court and 11 and 13 Weir Court until Amendment C285gben is approved and the HO mapping is changed (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.105, 109).
- Blocked by: The HO525 correction is blocked by completion of the Amendment C285gben statutory process, including panel referral because two submissions to the broader amendment remained unresolved at the time of the agenda report (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.32, 36-37).
- Informed by: The HO525 correction is informed by the council’s finding that the six resulting lots from the recent subdivision do not contain an item of heritage significance relating to HO525 and by the Statement of Significance: 12 Weir Court, Kangaroo Flat (May 2019), which the amendment proposes to incorporate (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.107, 109).
- Implements: The correction implements Planning Practice Note 1 principles about accurate correlation between the Heritage Overlay schedule and Heritage Overlay map, as described in the explanatory report (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.123).
- Conflicts with: The available source identifies no direct policy conflict or unresolved submission specific to the HO525 Hope Park mapping correction (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.34-36, 109).
Cross-Jurisdictional Links
No cross-jurisdictional infrastructure, agency servicing, or adjacent-council dependency is identified for the HO525 Hope Park mapping correction in the available source (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.105, 109). The broader amendment did receive agency input, including a Goulburn-Murray Water no-objection response and a Head, Transport for Victoria no-objection response, but those responses address Amendment C285gben generally rather than the HO525 correction specifically (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.96-98).
Gaps in This Analysis
The manifest provides only one extracted source: the 20 April 2026 council agenda and its attachments (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf). The analysis is therefore limited by the absence of the separate Statement of Significance: 12 Weir Court, Kangaroo Flat (May 2019), which is the key heritage document needed to understand the actual significance, fabric, extent and curtilage of Hope Park (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, p.107).
The available source also does not include the exhibited HO525 map sheet, the final amendment instruction sheet, the panel report, the council adoption report, the ministerial approval decision, or the gazettal notice (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.32-39, 101). Those missing documents limit confirmation of the final statutory wording, final mapped curtilage, and whether the apparent “12 Weir Park” versus “12 Weir Court” inconsistency was corrected before approval (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-april-20-2026-agenda.pdf, pp.106-107, 109).