by Cam Lucadou-Wells
The state’s planning tribunal has halted a plan to partially demolish a century-old former farmstead and its mature garden and trees in Dandenong North.
Applicant Gavin Keane had appealed against Greater Dandenong Council’s rejection of his eight townhouse proposal on the ‘Ferring’ property at 82-88 Carlton Road.
The site is covered by a heritage overlay – which aims to conserve and enhance a place of natural or cultural significance.
The Edwardian-period timber-clad house and outbuildings with high-pitched gable end roofs and verandahs as well as the trees are cited in the council’s heritage study.
Ferring was said to have symbolic links to the area’s farming history gradually taken over by suburbia.
Its prominent residents included Lady Doris Mary Luxton and former Melbourne City Council mayor William Luxton.
The grounds – once comparable to other farms between 10 and 50 acres – had since been subdivided to 4276 square metres.
In a decision on 5 March, VCAT senior member Bill Sibonis stated the proposal would “not conserve or enhance the heritage place”.
It would have partially demolished the weatherboard dwelling and garage, and removed the outbuildings, swimming pool and some trees.
About half of Ferring was “unsalvageable” due to damage from a 2015 fire and vandalism, the developer’s heritage consultant argued.
What would be retained was the original homestead’s form as of 1920 – four rooms and a central hall, she contended.
Demolition would be confined to the “most severely damaged” part as well as the later additions which had “no heritage value”, the applicant’s heritage consultant argued.
Sibonis agreed with the council that the planned townhouses’ impact on the garden “substantially erodes their setting”. More space and landscaping were required.
“The siting of the proposed dwellings proximate to the heritage buildings unacceptably erodes the setting of these existing structures and impacts unacceptably on the property’s heritage significance as remnant of area’s farming origins.”
The applicant proposed to remove the tallest trees were a pair of cypress trees up to 30 metres high – which were said to be a high risk during storms, with split stems and falling branches.
The council argued for a more appropriate replacement species to re-establish the site’s tree canopies.
Sibonis said a permit was required to remove any of the trees due to the heritage overlay.
