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title: Bacchus Marsh Urban Growth Framework 2018 / Amendment C81 council: moorabool state: vic category: growth-area classification: MAJOR status: approved-gazetted-policy-framework last_compiled: 2026-05-31 source_docs:

  • bacchus-marsh-ugf_final-august-2018_adopted-by-council_20180919.pdf
  • moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf
  • att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf
  • att.-8.1c-amendment-c81-attachment-3.pdf
  • att.-8.1d-amendment-c81-attachment-4_0.pdf

Bacchus Marsh Urban Growth Framework 2018 / Amendment C81

Production Classification

This is the canonical growth-area overview for the Bacchus Marsh UGF system. It is a completed MAJOR production page because it carries the same mechanism-level substance as the C81 amendment page, with growth distribution, sequencing preconditions, infrastructure dependencies, buffer logic, submissions, downstream pathways and unresolved implementation gaps in one place.

Amendment C81 - Bacchus Marsh District Urban Growth Framework

Amendment C81 is a strategic planning amendment rather than a direct rezoning: it inserts the Bacchus Marsh District Urban Growth Framework into the Moorabool Planning Scheme and sets the policy pathway for later PSPs, development plans, overlays and infrastructure contribution mechanisms. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, p.2) Its practical effect is to make future growth at Merrimu, Parwan Station, Hopetoun Park North and the Parwan Employment Precinct conditional on further technical planning, particularly the Eastern Link Road, buffers to existing industry and wastewater assets, reticulated servicing, activity centres, schools and open-space networks. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.119-123)

Background

The amendment applies to about 140 square kilometres of land in the Bacchus Marsh district, including Bacchus Marsh, Darley, Maddingley, Pentland Hills and rural fringe areas at Merrimu, Parwan, Hopetoun Park, Coimadai, Long Forest and Rowsley. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, p.1) It was prepared by Moorabool Shire Council with the Victorian Planning Authority to implement the 2017 UGF and to update the Municipal Strategic Statement, including Clauses 21.01, 21.02, 21.03, 21.04, 21.05, 21.07 and 21.11. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, p.2)

The amendment was authorised as A03644 on 22 September 2017, exhibited for six weeks from 2 November to 15 December 2017, and received 56 submissions including one late submission. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, p.5) The Panel hearing occurred across 31 May, 1 June, 4 June, 8 June and 12-14 June 2018, and the Panel report is dated 9 August 2018. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, p.5) The Panel recommended that Amendment C81 be adopted as exhibited, subject to replacement of the MSS with the Panel-recommended version, clarification of the Eastern Link Road planning-study notation, and use of post-exhibition UGF plans except where otherwise recommended. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.6-7)

Analysis

Statutory Mechanism and Sequencing

C81 does not itself turn the growth areas into urban land; it changes the policy map and MSS so that later statutory tools can do that work. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, pp.2-4) The UGF explicitly requires PSPs for Merrimu and Parwan Station, a development plan for Hopetoun Park, and future development or infrastructure contributions plans for growth precincts. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, pp.8-9) This means the amendment functions like a planning instruction manual: it identifies where growth may be investigated, but it leaves the binding land-use budget, lot yield, road hierarchy, community infrastructure land take, servicing design and contribution rates to later instruments. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.120-123)

The Panel-recommended MSS would apply the Urban Growth Zone to Merrimu and Parwan Station at a later stage, while Hopetoun Park would be considered for Low Density Residential Zone or Neighbourhood Residential Zone with a Development Plan Overlay. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, p.123) The different tools matter because Merrimu and Parwan Station are treated as large master-planned precincts needing PSP-level coordination, while Hopetoun Park North is treated as a smaller and more locally connected residential expansion where future density and zoning remain unresolved. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.65-70)

The UGF also creates a dependency chain: strategic policy first, corridor and buffer studies next, then PSPs or development plans, then rezoning and infrastructure contribution mechanisms. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.116-123) The amendment should be treated consistently with the Bacchus Marsh UGF page and council overview: C81 is the approved/gazetted policy framework for the Bacchus Marsh District Urban Growth Framework. This amendment page remains useful for Panel reasoning and sequencing, but it is not a live unknown-status page. (Source: bacchus-marsh-ugf_final-august-2018_adopted-by-council_20180919.pdf; Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.5-7)

Growth Distribution and Settlement Structure

The UGF plans for Bacchus Marsh to accommodate more than 20,000 additional residents by 2041, with some growth inside the existing urban area and the balance in adjoining master-planned precincts at Merrimu, Hopetoun Park and Parwan Station. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, p.119) The background report identifies an estimated total 2041 population of 32,000 for the district context considered in the community infrastructure assessment. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, p.234) This is not a conventional single-frontier growth model: the Panel described Bacchus Marsh as becoming a multi-nodal settlement with a core around Bacchus Marsh, Darley and Maddingley and separate growth nodes around the valley. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, p.119)

The map attachment shows the proposed spatial logic: existing Bacchus Marsh sits near the Ballarat-Melbourne rail corridor, with Merrimu and Hopetoun Park to the east, Parwan to the south, Maddingley investigation areas near the coal, landfill and waste hub, and the Eastern Link Road planning study area connecting the northern and southern growth fronts. (Source: att.-8.1d-amendment-c81-attachment-4_0.pdf, pp.1-8) The mechanism is physical separation plus managed connection: the framework keeps growth away from the Bacchus Marsh Irrigation District and major extractive/resource uses, but still tries to connect new communities to the core settlement by road, rail, bus and activity-centre planning. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.119-121)

The Panel supported retaining the Merrimu growth precinct subject to removing land within the Bushfire Management Overlay on the eastern side and undertaking ecological assessment for matters including Golden Sun Moth through the PSP process. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.55-60) For Parwan Station, the Panel accepted the concept of a mixed residential and commercial precinct based around a potential future rail station, but only with PSP controls, buffer management and sequencing tied to the Eastern Link Road and wastewater plant constraints. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.61-64) For Hopetoun Park North, the Panel supported the extension proposed by the amendment, rejected including land north of the Western Freeway, and left the final zoning to later detailed planning. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.65-70)

Infrastructure Dependencies

The Eastern Link Road is the central enabling item in the framework. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.47-52) The Panel-recommended MSS says any new urban growth precincts at Merrimu, Parwan Station or Parwan Employment Precinct will require the Eastern Link Road, with connections to Gisborne Road, the Western Freeway and Geelong-Bacchus Marsh Road. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, p.119) The road is not just a traffic improvement: it is the structural spine that allows separated growth nodes to function as part of Bacchus Marsh rather than isolated estates. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.116-121)

The Panel recommended that the Clause 21.07 plan and UGF Plans 1, 6, 7 and 8 clarify that the Eastern Link Road Planning Study notation relates to land on both the north and south sides of the Western Freeway. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.6-7) The MSS also requires future PSPs for Merrimu and Parwan Station to identify the maximum number of lots that can be developed before the Eastern Link Road is constructed, and the local road upgrades needed to support any early development. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, p.116) That requirement is important because it prevents the growth areas from relying on a future arterial road while allowing only a bounded amount of development, if traffic modelling shows the existing road network can carry it. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.56-58)

Rail is a secondary but significant dependency. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.52-54) The UGF identifies a potential medium-to-long-term park-and-ride train and bus station in Parwan Station precinct, park-and-ride bus stations in Merrimu, and a park-and-ride bus station near Darley Plaza. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, p.117) The background report records a 2017 announcement of a $518 million Ballarat line upgrade and notes regional rail network investment, but the source set does not show a committed Parwan station project. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, p.249)

Servicing is another hard constraint. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.120-123) The MSS directs work with state government and servicing authorities on Parwan Employment Precinct, with particular emphasis on reticulated water and gas. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, p.121) The background report states that Western Water expected in 2017 to install 8 kilometres of sewer main between Grant Street, Maddingley and Parwan, and it records that limited sewer reticulation existed in Merrimu while no sewer reticulation existed in Long Forest. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, p.244) This makes later servicing strategies decisive, because policy support for growth does not create developable urban land unless water, sewer, gas, electricity and drainage can be delivered at the required scale. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, pp.244-245)

Community infrastructure is already under pressure in the source material. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, pp.234-237) The background report records that about 75% of eligible local students attended government primary schools, the government school network was enrolled to nearly 90% of its maximum capacity, and the Department of Education and Training owned a 3.2 hectare site south of Connor Street for future primary school use. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, p.236) The Panel-recommended MSS requires a community infrastructure framework, a planning study for an integrated education precinct in Maddingley, review of the need for a fourth government primary school, and a medical services precinct study. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.117-118)

Buffers as the Main Land-Use Control

The dominant contested planning issue was not whether Bacchus Marsh should grow, but how close sensitive uses could move toward existing industrial, waste, wastewater, extractive and agricultural activities. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.6, 22-49) The Panel recorded buffer issues around the Maddingley Waste and Resource Recovery Hub, Bacchus Marsh Recycled Water Plant, Darley Sand Quarry area, other industrial uses and the Parwan Employment Precinct. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.22-49)

The Maddingley Brown Coal landfill site is identified as a state-significant hub in the Statewide Waste and Resource Recovery Infrastructure Plan. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, p.18) The Panel accepted that the Maddingley buffer should be an amalgam of a 2,000 metre composting buffer from the existing composting area and a 1,000 metre coal mining buffer, with the southern and western extension affecting the Maddingley Investigation Area and part of the Parwan Employment Precinct. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, p.38) The practical effect is that the UGF preserves the resource and waste function first, and then forces later residential or employment planning to work around the buffer rather than treating the buffer as a negotiable line on a concept plan. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.37-39)

The Bacchus Marsh Recycled Water Plant creates a separate constraint on Parwan Station. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.40-43) The Panel recorded evidence that the existing plant buffer was 1,400 metres at 20,000 population equivalent and that a 2,000 metre buffer would apply at 40,000 population equivalent, but the Panel considered a 2,000 metre buffer inappropriate because current capacity had not reached that future level. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.41-42) The Panel-supported pathway requires Parwan Station PSP work to place sensitive uses beyond the Western Water-determined buffer, with any reduced buffer needing to be at least 1.4 kilometres and tied to treatment plant upgrades. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.61-64)

The Darley sand quarry area also imposes a buffer logic on Merrimu and nearby land. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.43-46) The post-exhibition documents were updated to show a 500 metre buffer associated with the Darley sand quarry investigation area, and the Panel supported the relevant plan treatment. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.45-46) This means the northern and eastern growth structure must be read with extractive-industry protection in mind, not only housing capacity. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.43-46)

Submissions and Contested Issues

The 56 submissions raised implementation timing, buffer protection, transport, the growth investigation areas, the Parwan Employment Precinct, sand and stone resources, hydraulic infrastructure, environmental issues and bushfire. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.5-6) The submission table shows that concerns were not abstract: submitters sought mixed-use treatment instead of employment designation in Parwan, road upgrades before growth, stronger buffers to the Bacchus Marsh Irrigation District, revised Merrimu boundaries, clarity on quarry and waste buffers, and better sequencing for Hopetoun Park access. (Source: att.-8.1c-amendment-c81-attachment-3.pdf, pp.1-20)

Agency submissions materially changed the amendment architecture. (Source: att.-8.1c-amendment-c81-attachment-3.pdf, pp.17-40) Sustainability Victoria and EPA-related issues led to clearer recognition of the Maddingley Waste and Resource Recovery Hub and a single 2 kilometre sensitive-use buffer for the composting-related constraint. (Source: att.-8.1c-amendment-c81-attachment-3.pdf, pp.25-40) Transport for Victoria supported public transport integration but warned against relying on the Eastern Link Road as a single solution, which is reflected in the PSP requirement to identify maximum pre-ELR lot numbers and local road improvements. (Source: att.-8.1c-amendment-c81-attachment-3.pdf, pp.214-219; Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, p.116)

The Panel accepted the broad UGF but treated later detailed planning as the safeguard. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.20-21) In mechanism terms, this shifts risk from C81 into subsequent PSPs, development plans and contribution plans: the amendment establishes direction, while unresolved questions about yield, staging, buffers, land acquisition, servicing and funding remain to be solved before development can proceed. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.116-123)

Current Status

The available source set establishes that the Panel reported on 9 August 2018 and recommended adoption of Amendment C81 with changes. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.5-7) The corpus provided for this page does not include a Council adoption report after the Panel report, a Ministerial approval decision, a gazettal notice, or the final incorporated UGF as approved. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.5-7) For production use, the status is approved/gazetted; the remaining uncertainty is not C81 itself but the downstream PSP, DCP/ICP, Eastern Link Road, servicing and buffer packages that C81 requires. (Source: bacchus-marsh-ugf_final-august-2018_adopted-by-council_20180919.pdf; Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.116-123)

Dependencies

  • Blocks: Urban rezoning and detailed subdivision-scale planning for Merrimu, Parwan Station and Hopetoun Park until PSPs, development plans, technical assessments and appropriate contribution mechanisms are prepared. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.120-123)
  • Blocked by: Eastern Link Road corridor planning, traffic modelling of pre-ELR lot thresholds, wastewater and industrial buffer resolution, reticulated servicing strategies, and future statutory amendments for zones and overlays. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.116-123)
  • Informed by: Bacchus Marsh Integrated Transport Strategy 2015, Moorabool Industrial Areas Strategy 2015, Moorabool Shire Retail Strategy 2041, Moorabool Shire Economic Development Strategy 2015, Parwan agribusiness work and buffer evidence tested through the Panel. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, p.2; Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.17-18)
  • Implements: The Bacchus Marsh District Urban Growth Framework 2017 through MSS changes and a new Bacchus Marsh UGF plan in Clause 21.07. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, p.2)
  • Conflicts with: No direct conflict is resolved in the source set, but the amendment manages tensions between residential growth, the Bacchus Marsh Irrigation District, state-significant waste/resource functions, extractive industries, wastewater treatment and transport capacity. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.6, 119-121)

The amendment depends on state and regional agencies because the UGF relies on VicRoads or its successor transport functions for the Eastern Link Road corridor, Western Water for wastewater and servicing constraints, EPA for buffer methodology, and state education agencies for school planning. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, pp.244-249; Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.40-43, 116-118) The background report records a water infrastructure meeting involving DELWP, Southern Rural Water, Western Water, Melbourne Water, Moorabool Shire Council and the VPA on 22 July 2016, showing that the UGF was not only a council land-use exercise. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, p.284) The framework also sits on the Melbourne-Ballarat rail and Western Freeway corridors, which means transport decisions outside Moorabool directly affect the practicality of the Parwan Station and Merrimu growth structure. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.116-119)

Gaps in This Analysis

The source set is strong on amendment intent, submissions, Panel reasoning and high-level spatial structure, but it is thin on final statutory outcome and delivery data. The missing approval or gazettal material prevents confirmation of the amendment’s final approved form. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.5-7) The absence of PSPs, DCPs, ICPs, servicing strategies, detailed land budgets and road costings prevents quantified analysis of net developable area, lot yield, contribution rates, road land take, drainage land take and per-lot infrastructure burden. (Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.116-123) The Parwan station and Eastern Link Road remain identified as planning and advocacy items in the available documents rather than committed delivered infrastructure. (Source: att.-8.1b-amendment-c81-attachment-2b_1.pdf, p.249; Source: moorabool-c81-panel-report.pdf, pp.116-119)

Growth-Area Reading Rule

For officer use, C81/UGF is the completed parent framework. Merrimu/C109, C103 Hopetoun Park North and C108 Ballan Precinct 5 have separate substantial pages. Parwan Station, BMELR and VGED are deliberately treated as CRITICAL_GAP nodes until their primary PSP, road, EES/referral, biodiversity and contribution packages are harvested.

Graph View