Heritage reviews for Carlton and Punt Road Oval endorsed

City of Melbourne councilors voted unanimously in favour of the Carlton Heritage Review and the Punt Road Oval Heritage Review at the Future Melbourne Committee (FMC) meeting on April 4.

Melbourne Planning Scheme Amendment C405 includes various recommendations to the Carlton review that were publicly exhibited between February and March 2022, during which 12 submissions were received.

The amendment proposed heritage protections for 24 new properties in Carlton, creating three small heritage precincts, resulting in 41 heritage category changes. Four places have also been recommended to have their heritage status removed.

The council’s director of city strategy Sophie Handley recognised that “the Carlton Heritage Review has been through a long and thorough process” since the review first came to the council in November 2021.

“This is the final step in the council’s process to secure permanent heritage controls that implement the Carlton Heritage Review under amendment C405,” Ms Handley said.

Among the properties proposed in the amendment, three were highly contested:

• the Chinese Mission Church
• the John Curtin Hotel
• Cardigan House (formerly Royal Women’s Hospital) carpark

Adoption of amendment C405 will see the Chinese Mission Church building category change from “significant” to “contributory”, the John Curtin Hotel will receive a social significance status (read our story on page 1), while a heritage overlay will be applied to the Cardigan House carpark. •

The amendment also proposed an exemption for minor works to the University of Melbourne’s Earth Sciences Building. Meanwhile, as part of the Punt Road Oval Heritage Review, a limitation of paint controls was placed on the Jack Dyer stand at Punt Road Oval (which may be reviewed again if the issuing of a demolition permit to the stand is acted on).

“The most important component of this work is the fact that it is about recognising what is important in Carlton as a whole suburb,” Cr Davydd Griffiths said at the April 4 meeting.

“There has been an enormous amount of work and thought go into what it is that we are considering.”

Amendment C405 marks the first comprehensive heritage review of Carlton since the 1980s.