With Melbourne’s population on the rise, its urban growth boundary is set to expand. A strategic assessment will help to protect the biodiversity of these growth areas and ensure that any development follows national environmental laws.
Strategic assessments are a collaboration between the Australian Government and an assessment partner. This collaboration allows for a big-picture approach to safeguarding protected matters from the impacts of development over a long time.
The Melbourne Urban Growth (Vic) strategic assessment on this page is finalised. This means the Environment minister agreed to areas where development is allowed. The partner must now implement the environment activities and is restricted to agreed developments in the program.
The partner must also continue to report to the Australian Government that the policy's requirements are being implemented.
Overview
On 2 December 2008, the Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development released the Melbourne @ 5 million report. This report:
- forecast Melbourne’s future population growth
- outlined the need for 600,000 new homes over the next 20 years within a revised urban growth boundary.
The Commonwealth Environment minister and the Victorian Government agreed to a strategic assessment of the expansion of Melbourne’s urban growth boundary. The assessment would help to protect nationally threatened plants, animals and ecosystems found in and around Melbourne’s growth areas.
The strategic assessment was carried out according to section 146 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
Find out more about the Melbourne strategic assessment.
Signed agreement
The strategic assessment agreement was signed on 4 March 2009.
The agreement describes the:
- process to follow for assessment
- requirements under national environmental law.
Strategic assessment agreement with the finalised terms of reference (PDF 1.63 MB)
Strategic assessment agreement - Attachments (PDF 232.37 KB)
Strategic assessment agreement - Attachments (RTF 3.11 MB)
Terms of Reference
The terms of reference for a strategic assessment detail how the strategic assessment partner is to assess the impacts of their proposed development activities.
On 16 June 2009, the assessment agreement and terms of reference were amended to more accurately reflect the intention of this assessment.
The finalised terms of reference are attached to the assessment agreement.
Draft reports
From 17 June to 17 July 2009, the Victorian Government released a series of draft reports for public comment. Titled Delivering Melbourne's Newest Sustainable Communities, these reports described the:
- urban growth boundary expansion
- regional rail link
- outer Melbourne ring road
- impacts on protected matters under the EPBC Act for the strategic assessment.
Approved development
On 2 February 2010, the Commonwealth minister endorsed the Delivering Melbourne's Newest Sustainable Communities Program Report (December 2009). This was the first strategic assessment in Australia to reach the endorsement stage.
Signed Endorsement Notice - Signed Endorsement for the Melbourne Urban Growth Boundary (PDF 19 KB)
Under the endorsed Program, the Commonwealth minister approved urban development for:
Regional rail link project (PDF 898.73 KB)
Melbourne 28 precincts (PDF 1.23 MB)
Melbourne's Northern, North Western and Western Growth Corridors (PDF 973.26 KB)
Melbourne's Northern, North Western and Western Growth Corridors (DOCX 203.7 KB)
Melbourne's South Eastern Growth Corridor (PDF 1.47 MB)
Melbourne's South Eastern Growth Corridor (DOCX 91.24 KB)
A condition of the approvals for Melbourne's growth corridors was paying habitat compensation fees to the Victorian Government. Payable in the event of an environmental impact, these fees were used to fund conservation programs.
However, from 1 July 2020, the Melbourne Strategic Assessment (Environment Mitigation Levy) Act 2020 came into effect. This legislation imposed a levy on developers to offset any impacts on biodiversity.
To simplify regulatory requirements, from 1 July 2020 the condition to pay habitat compensation fees was revoked from the 2 approvals.
Revocation of condition attached to approval - Melbourne's Northern, North Western and Western Growth Corridors (PDF 140.56 KB)
Revocation of condition attached to approval - Melbourne's Northern, North Western and Western Growth Corridors (DOCX 72.93 KB)
Revocation of condition attached to Approval - Melbourne's South Eastern Growth Corridor (PDF 185.88 KB)
Revocation of condition attached to Approval - Melbourne's South Eastern Growth Corridor (DOCX 71.29 KB)
Find out more about the Melbourne Strategic Assessment Act 2020.
Conservation strategies
As part of the endorsed Program, the Victorian Government agreed to prepare conservation strategies for the 4 growth corridors. These included the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy, as well as sub-regional strategies for threatened species such as the:
- growling grass frog
- golden sun moth
- southern brown bandicoot.
The Commonwealth minister approved the following strategies:
- Biodiversity Conservation Strategy for Melbourne's Growth Corridors (Victorian Government Department of Environment and Primary Industries, June 2013) - approved 2 August 2013
- Sub-regional Species Strategy for the Golden Sun Moth (Victorian Government Department of Environment and Primary Industries, May 2013) - approved 2 August 2013
- Sub-regional Species Strategy for the Growling Grass Frog (Victorian Government Department of Environment and Primary Industries, May 2013) - approved 2 August 2013
- Sub-regional Species Strategy for the Southern Brown Bandicoot (Victorian Government Department of Environment and Primary Industries, January 2014) - approved 7 August 2014
- Supplement: Habitat Connectivity (Victorian Government Department of Environment and Primary Industries, July 2014) - approved 7 August 2014.
Prescriptions for protected matters
On 16 April 2010, the Commonwealth minister approved prescriptions to protect the listed threatened species and listed ecological communities identified in the Melbourne strategic assessment.
These prescriptions detail the protection requirements for preparing precinct structure plans and undertaking individual developments.
The Commonwealth minister approved prescriptions for the:
- natural temperate grasslands of the Victorian Volcanic Plain
- grassy eucalypt woodland of the Victorian Volcanic Plain
- golden sun moth
- striped legless lizard
- southern brown bandicoot
- growling grass frog
- matted flax-lily
- spiny rice-flower
- migratory species.
The Biodiversity Conservation Strategy identified 36 conservation areas by applying the requirements of approved prescriptions. The Strategy incorporated requirements for:
- offsetting
- salvage
- translocation
- conservation management plans.
Changes to Melbourne's urban growth boundary
The expansion of Melbourne's urban growth boundary passed through the Victorian Parliament (amendment VC68). This amendment put in place Public Acquisition Overlays for the 15,000 ha Western Grassland reserve.
The Victorian Government gazetted this amendment on 6 August 2010.
In 2011, the Victorian Government identified an additional 6,000 ha of land for 'logical inclusions' in the growth corridors. The endorsed Program doesn't cover these 'logical inclusions'. Any actions that have a significant environmental impact in these areas will require separate EPBC Act referral, assessment and approval.
Find out more about these changes on the Victorian Government's Melbourne Strategic Assessment website.
Get in touch
Contact our Referrals Gateway team:
- Email: epbc.referrals@dcceew.gov.au
- Phone: 1800 423 135 between 9 am and 5 pm Canberra time.