Building design & drafting in Blackburn.

What's built here

The electrified railway reached Blackburn in 1923 and the suburb carries a genuine stock of Californian bungalows and weatherboard homes from the 1910s to 30s on generous allotments, particularly around Blackburn Lake — with 1950s and 60s brick infill from the postwar boom layered through it.

The planning context

The Blackburn Neighbourhood Activity Centre sits under the MegaMile (West) and Blackburn Activity Centres Urban Design Framework, adopted in July 2010 — note that it is an urban design framework rather than a structure plan. And then the tension: draft maps under the state's Activity Centres Program, consulted on in early 2026, show potential for up to 16 storeys on some sites in the Blackburn activity centre core. Not gazetted at the time of writing, but the tallest outcome proposed anywhere in Whitehorse.

Controls that actually apply in Blackburn

• Significant Landscape Overlay — Blackburn is the most SLO-dense suburb in the municipality. Schedule 5 covers nominated large sites — 1 Lake Road, and parts of Central Road among them — and Schedule 9 protects the Bush Suburban tree canopy. Whitehorse has twelve SLO schedules in total and they concentrate here.
• Neighbourhood Character Overlay Schedule 1 — Blackburn Early Settlement — One of only two NCO schedules in the entire municipality. Where it applies, character is the assessment.
• Design and Development Overlay Schedule 8 — Applies fencing and setback controls along major roads including Blackburn Road and Mitcham Road — a frontage control rather than an activity centre one.
• The tension — Blackburn is the sharpest conflict in Whitehorse. Multiple landscape overlays and a character overlay exist precisely because of the bungalow-and-canopy character — and the state is proposing sixteen storeys at the core. Which side of the activity centre boundary your site falls on is, right now, the single most consequential fact about it.

Check what sits over your own title in two minutes, free: search your address on the Victorian Government's planning property report. Send it to us and we can usually tell you whether a permit is likely from one conversation.

What we typically do in Blackburn

Heritage and character-sensitive renovations and second-storey additions inside the Blackburn Early Settlement NCO; tree-constrained knockdown rebuilds under SLO5 and SLO9, where canopy retention and setbacks from significant trees drive the plan; nominated large-site redevelopment.

Whatever the type, the documentation is the same discipline: architectural drafting drawn to be built, town planning drawings council can assess first time, and working drawings a builder can price without padding.

Planning controls change — amendments are gazetted regularly. Everything above was accurate at the time of writing, but confirm current controls for your specific address before relying on them.

Talk to us about your Blackburn project

Send us the address and the planning property report and we will tell you what applies — before you commit to anything. Get in touch, or see everywhere else we work.