By GRACE DOBELL
Heritage sites in the Brimbank Council will be protected under a new preservation strategy.
The three-year action plan would give the community direct help when renovating their heritage properties.
Brimbank planning manager Stuart Menzies said the strategy brought together all the council’s heritage services including the Brimbank Heritage Assistant Fund and the online heritage database of properties.
“The strategy is about supporting people with their heritage properties and getting out all the information we have here,” Mr Menzies said.
“We provide a free heritage advisory service for people who are planning renovations on their houses,” he said.
“The reason we have the advisory scheme is when people are doing new works on their properties, sometimes the works might need a specialist builder so we can give some ideas about who can help with that,” he said.
Keilor Historical Society president Susan Jennison says the strategy could go one step further and explicitly mention Keilor as an historic suburb.
“In regards to Keilor Historical Society, we applaud any action that gives greater recognition to historic buildings.”
“There was no specific mention of Keilor. The area is important to the agricultural history and the era throughout the gold rush period.”
The new strategy will detail the areas that have historic listings, including individual houses throughout the Brimbank area and larger areas of housing estates.
“The strategy is important because it’s an official document that at least gives some regulation to the sites and buildings.”
More than 400 indigenous cultural heritage places have also been identified.
