Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage

Boroondara Loses More of Its Bluestone Heritage Under Council’s Road Materials Policy

Boroondara advocacy group Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage and local Glen Iris residents were disappointed to discover that during recent road reconstruction works in Station Avenue, Glen Iris, Council decided to replace historic Interwar-era bluestone pitcher channels with plain concrete — drastically diminishing the historic character of the streetscape.

Boroondara residents support Council’s ongoing street maintenance program, but that does not mean the municipality’s bluestone heritage fabric should be lost in the process. Bluestone kerbing and channels are among the defining physical reminders of Boroondara’s early history and deserve to be preserved for future generations to enjoy.

Just as residents expect Council to protect heritage-listed buildings, they expect the same care for Boroondara’s historic bluestone streetscape elements — kerbs, channels and laneways — that quietly tell the same story of our past.

When contacted by Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage, Council’s Manager Capital Projects, Anthea Kypreos, confirmed the works were carried out in accordance with Council’s Road Material Policy. She advised that the hundred-year-old bluestone channel in Station Avenue had been covered by asphalt for many years, and that under the policy, reconstruction of a channel in bluestone only applies where a street falls within a Heritage Statement of Significance.

By contrast, when the City of Melbourne encountered original bluestone laneway pitchers buried under decades of asphalt in Parkville, it took a different approach. As a heritage initiative, the asphalt was stripped back and the bluestone relaid as it originally stood — proof that bluestone heritage infrastructure can be restored rather than removed, where a council has the will to do so.

The Station Avenue incident comes at a critical time for bluestone heritage in Boroondara. Council is currently considering funding for a future Bluestone Roads and Laneways Heritage Study, following the removal, despite strong resident support, of a dedicated municipal-wide bluestone study from the core Draft Heritage Strategy late last year,

Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage has welcomed Council’s willingness to keep this work on the agenda but has raised concerns that a study which is merely ‘received and noted,’ without a funding commitment in the 2027/28 council budget, risks becoming yet another unfunded recommendation left unimplemented — leading to further loss of the municipality’s unprotected historic bluestone heritage.

Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage is a community group formed by residents concerned about the ongoing loss of the municipality’s historic bluestone kerbs, channels and laneways. Across Boroondara, historically significant bluestone infrastructure is increasingly being replaced with concrete or losing its heritage integrity through unsympathetic alteration during routine road works — quietly erasing a physical link to the area’s Victorian, Edwardian and Interwar-era history.

We believe our bluestone heritage is a vital part of Boroondara’s character – not merely ‘road material,’ but tangible remnants of the streetscapes our suburbs were built around. Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage works to raise awareness of this ongoing loss, engage with councillors and council officers, and advocate for a properly funded Bluestone Roads and Laneways Heritage Study — one that identifies, protects and restores the municipality’s remaining bluestone heritage before it disappears for good.

We believe residents have a right to a say in how their historic bluestone streetscapes are treated, and that heritage protection needs to extend to the bluestone that has been a part of the story of Boroondara’s history from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century.

If you are a resident passionate about preserving Boroondara’s bluestone heritage, please consider signing up for heritage updates or becoming a member via our email at saveboroondarasbluestoneheritage@yahoo.com

Boroondara’s hundred-and-fifty-year-old historic bluestone laneways and bluestone gutters will only survive if residents make clear to Council that the preservation of our bluestone heritage matters to us and deserves to be protected.

George Demetrios

Convenor Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage

Mont Albert Village Gardening Group (MAVGG)

Mont Albert Village Gardening Group (MAVGG) cares for the cottage-style gardens at Mont Albert Village Plaza and in Hamilton Street, along with replanting native trees and vegetation adjacent to the rail corridor passing through Mont Albert.

A member of Landcare Victoria, the group involves some 50 listed volunteers and holds working bees on the 4th Saturday of every second month. New gardeners welcome, no experience needed.

Email bruce.harvey88@bigpond.com Ph. Bruce 0408 949 182