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
Boroondara Council’s Road Materials Policy: an update on progress
George Demetrios
The City of Boroondara is responsible for maintaining and renewing Council-owned roads to ensure they are safe. It also works to protect the distinct character of Boroondara’s neighbourhood streets. To guide the materials they use to repair, renew and replace these local roads, Council officers are currently drafting a new iteration of the Road Material Policy.
As part of the policy development process, Council officers undertook a survey in April 2024 of residents’ views. They are now considering those responses. When they finalise the policy, the officers will present it to Councillors at a Council Meeting for adoption.
Boroondara Mayor, Cr Sophie Torney recently reported back to the Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage group on progress in the development of the new policy. She said the Road Materials Policy will consider Council’s approach and incorporate heritage considerations and the results of our consultation with the community.
While a specific policy on heritage kerb and channels and laneways is not currently proposed, Council is preparing a new Heritage Strategy this year which will cover Conservation Development Plans for Council-owned heritage assets.
For more information about the Road Materials Policy, go to the City of Boroondara website here.
Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage: a progress report
George Demetrios
Whilst other Councils (Stonnington, Whitehorse, Merri-bek, Yarra, Glen Eira, Port Phillip, Hobsons Bay) treat their bluestone laneways and bluestone kerb and channels as heritage, and conserve them accordingly, Boroondara still treats its bluestone heritage as an engineering issue.
Council views Boroondara’s historic bluestone laneways and bluestone kerb and channels as ‘road material’, ignoring the heritage significance that Boroondara’s bluestone laneways and bluestone kerb and channels hold for the local community.
Petitioning the City of Boroondara
The group Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage has created a petition on this issue. It calls on Council to undertake a bluestone heritage study, prepared by a qualified heritage expert, to identify, document and protect the aesthetic, social and historical values of Boroondara’s original bluestone kerb and channels and bluestone laneways. It is available at https://www.change.org/p/save-boroondara-s-heritage-bluestone-kerb-channels-and-laneways-30ecb034-d213-4c73-b7f4-3e350f8f8ca3
This petition will be presented to Council as part of the consultations on Boroondara’s Draft Road Materials Policy. At this stage, the group plans to present it at the June 24 Council meeting.
Have your say on heritage matters in Boroondara
Boroondara Council recently opened community consultation on their new Heritage Strategy. Many residents consider protection of the City’s historic bluestone laneways, bluestone kerb and channels and bluestone crossovers a necessary part of the City’s future heritage work program.
An online survey on the Heritage Strategy is available via Boroondara’s Engage website at https://engage.boroondara.vic.gov.au/. Boroondara Council officers will also hold pop-up meetings to discuss the new Heritage Strategy on:
- Tuesday 11 June 2024, from 11am to 1pm Ashburton Library, 154 High Street Ashburton;
- Monday 17 June 2024 from 4pm to 7pm Camberwell Library, 340 Camberwell Road Camberwell.
George Demetrios is Convenor of Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage
Save Boroondara’s bluestone kerb and channels
George Demetrios
Boroondara City Council owns and manages many historic bluestone assets, including original bluestone kerb and channels in streets and pitcher bluestone within laneways.
These bluestone kerb and channels and bluestone laneways are an integral part of the amenity and heritage of Boroondara, giving our streetscapes a distinct aesthetic that plays an important role in forming the municipality’s historical identity for residents.
The local community is now fighting Council to preserve the municipality’s nineteenth and early twentieth Centuries bluestone heritage, which is under threat from Council’s recently released Draft Road Materials Policy.
Under Council’s proposed Draft Road Materials Policy, there will be no ability for residents to retain Boroondara’s original historic bluestone kerb and channels, stretching back to the 1850s, which will be progressively removed and replaced by standardised one pitcher wide gutters, that will be of no heritage or aesthetic value.
Residents have already made clear to Council in the past that they want to retain their bluestone heritage, with the residents of Neave Street, Hawthorn East, in 2007, mounting a successful campaign to stop Council implementing a ‘one pitcher kerb one pitcher channel’ profile in their street, and ultimately preserving their historic nineteenth century bluestone spoon drains. Now Boroondara Council is ignoring the wishes of the local community again and is attempting to implement a policy that is not needed and which the community does not want.
In response, Boroondara residents have started a petition (https://www.change.org/p/save-boroondara-s-heritage-bluestone-kerb-channels-and-laneways-30ecb034-d213-4c73-b7f4-3e350f8f8ca3), calling on Council to undertake a bluestone heritage study, prepared by a qualified heritage expert, to identify, document and protect the aesthetic, social and historical values of Boroondara’s original bluestone kerb and channels and bluestone laneways.
A number of other Councils, including the Melbourne City Council, the Cities of Yarra, Port Phillip, Glen Eira, Bayside, Merri-bek, Whitehorse and Maribyrnong, have already undertaken this approach, conducting bluestone heritage studies that reflect best practice in cultural heritage assessment, using the heritage criteria set out in the Australian ICOMOS Burra Charter, which has allowed these Councils to put in place active policies and guidelines that conserve and restore their historic bluestone kerb, channels and laneways.
The preparation of a bluestone heritage study, undertaken by expert heritage consultants, will provide an opportunity that will allow Council, for the first time in its thirty year history, to identify, document and provide protection for Boroondara’s historic original bluestone kerb, channels and laneways, that are highly valued by the Boroondara community as existing community assets, linked to the history of our City and its predecessors – the Cities of Kew, Hawthorn and Camberwell.
Boroondara Council must hear the voices of the Boroondara community on this important heritage issue, as expressed in the submissions written, the petitions signed, the emails sent and calls made, by residents in response to Council’s flawed Draft Road Materials Policy, and take the steps needed to recognise the importance of Boroondara’s historically significant bluestone kerb, channels and laneway heritage, by ensuring their future preservation.
Please sign the online petition and help save Boroondara’s historic kerb and channels.
George Demetrios is Convenor of Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage Campaign
Boroondara’s new Road Materials policy
George Demetrios
Boroondara Council has recently released a Draft Road Materials Policy, found at https://engage.boroondara.vic.gov.au/maintaining-council-roads, with residents having until the 12 April 2024 to provide submissions.
This new policy, if passed as is, has two points of concern for those residents passionate about wanting to preserve heritage in their local area.
Firstly, under this policy, Council will be replacing, with asphalt, 85% of the concrete roads located in Boroondara. These concrete roads are of local historical significance, having been constructed during the 1920s and 1930s.
Secondly, the policy will also remove heritage protection from the vast majority of Boroondara’s historic bluestone kerb and channels, which if implemented, will have a devastating impact, leading to the eventual loss of an estimated 90% of Boroondara’s heritage bluestone gutters.
What is just as concerning is that a heritage report undertaken by the then Hawthorn Council in 1993, actually found a number of the blues
tone kerb and channels warranted heritage protection, which they subsequently received, when Hawthorn Council found the bluestone gutters were of statewide significance:
Apart from being uploaded to the Boroondara website, Council has undertaken no advertising regarding the opening of submissions, with the February/March edition of the Boroondara Bulletin, which every Boroondara resident receives, not containing any information about the Draft Road Materials Policy, and particularly the closing date for submissions, leading to many Boroondara residents being unaware that they only have until 5pm on Friday 12 April 2024 to provide a submission to Council on what they want to happen to their historically significant concrete roads and bluestone kerb and channels.
George Demetrios is the convenor of Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage, a group trying to protect Boroondara’s bluestone kerb and channels. For further information, or if you are interested in joining the campaign, please email saveboroondarasbluestoneheritage@mail.com or call on 0478259296.