The City of Casey and property developer Balcon Group have agreed to propose an amendment to the current heritage overlay at the Fernlea homestead on Tuckers Road in Clyde.
According to the City of Casey, the developer has requested the amendment in order to accurately reflect the items of heritage significance while removing land from the overlay that does not hold any significant heritage value.
The homestead is a recognised heritage site in the Casey Planning Scheme.
The council moved a recommendation at Tuesday 17 May’s Council meeting to request a Planning Scheme Amendment to correct the boundaries.
The proposed curtilage will add protection to the long driveway approaching the farmhouse and the mature English Trees along it, but remove protection for the outbuildings to the south west of the farmhouse.
“There are some, I understand, anomalies within the current mapping of the site which do not include aspects of primary and secondary heritage that are sufficiently within the current planning scheme amendment to protect the setting and cultural value of the place in the future,” Administrator Cameron Boardman said during the council meeting.
“While this is a statutory process, there is a requirement and expectation from Council that we will protect the heritage associated with the Fernlea homestead which will include the farmhouse in its current form.
“Its materials in detailing the farmhouse representing the form and its construction at the time, the long driveway, the below-ground domed water tank which features a hand-pump, the well to the rear of the house, and a number of other matters that are listed in the public documents.
“The overall intent is to ensure the planning scheme amendment is undertaken to correct the boundary to ensure that all of those aspects of primary and importantly in those proposed amendment, the secondary heritage considerations are protected, and the developer undertakes their commitments to do so, commensurately.”
Fellow administrator Tony Belmar was pleased that the trees along the driveway will be protected.
“In many respects it’s the approach to a building of this type which is just as important to protect as the building itself,” he said.
The council will submit the amendment proposal to the Department of Environment, Water, Land and Planning.
The future of the outbuildings, which will no longer be protected under the proposed new overlay, was not addressed in the meeting.
Heritage consultant Ray Tonkin prepared a report for the Victorian Planning Authority that outlined all items of primary and secondary significance which contribute to the historic setting and importance of Fernlea in the 2014 Clyde Creek Precinct Structure Plan.
His recommended heritage protection area included the driveway and the “corrugated galvanised iron clad outbuildings located to the south west of the house“.
“The ownership by the Manks family and their chaff cutting and threshing businesses makes it an important link to the twentieth century agriculture of the district,” Tonkin wrote
“It is likely that the corrugated galvanised iron sheds to the south west of the house are remnants of this activity.“
In a statement, the council said that the outbuildings were not mentioned in the agenda report due to their designated insignificance.
“The Ray Tonkin report of 2014 identifies the two-outbuildings south-west of the heritage dwelling as contributing to the significance of the heritage setting, but a more recent review of this heritage site was undertaken in 2021 with the preparation and endorsement of a Conservation Management Plan (CMP) in which the two-outbuildings in question were reassessed as having little or no significance,” Acting Manager for Growth and Investment, Kaitlyn Zeeck said.
“They were therefore not included in the proposed Heritage Overlay.”
