Building design & drafting in Camberwell.

What's built here

Camberwell is an interwar suburb at heart. Rail electrification and the old council's unimproved-value rating policy drove rapid growth through the 1920s and 30s, and the Californian bungalow is the characteristic result. The older layer survives in the Prospect Hill precinct — the former Tara Estate, subdivided from 1890 — which holds the most intact concentration of Victorian and Edwardian Italianate and Federation housing in the suburb. Early council by-laws mandating brick construction are why the fabric here reads differently to the timber suburbs next door.

The planning context

Camberwell Junction is a Major Activity Centre and one of the state's original ten pilot centres under the Activity Centres Program. Council's Camberwell Junction Structure and Place Plan was implemented through Amendment GC252, gazetted in early 2025, rezoning core land and introducing a Built Form Overlay for the core with the Housing Choice and Transport Zone across the catchment. Heights run 4 to 12 storeys in the core, up to 4 storeys in the inner catchment (6 on larger lots), and 3 across most of the outer catchment (4 on larger lots). The program attributes a target of roughly 7,500 to 10,100 additional dwellings to Camberwell.

Controls that actually apply in Camberwell

• Heritage Overlay and grading — Extensive. Boroondara grades properties within precincts as Significant, Contributory or Non-contributory — a system inherited from the former Cities of Kew, Hawthorn and Camberwell. The grading, not the street, sets your latitude. The Prospect Hill precinct is the notable named one here.
• The 4,500 figure, in context — Council's own number: around 4,500 heritage-listed properties, roughly 48% under Heritage Overlay — but that describes the 800-metre extended catchment around the Junction that the state proposed consulting on, not the suburb as a whole. Worth stating precisely, because the number gets misquoted.
• Built Form Overlay and HCTZ — Where you sit relative to the core boundary determines your permit pathway as much as your height. Check the BFO and HCTZ maps and the Heritage Overlay schedule for every site — a single property can carry both.

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 Camberwell

Heritage-sensitive renovations and extensions to Californian bungalows and Federation and Victorian villas; medium to high-density apartment work in the core and inner catchment; townhouse infill across the 3 to 4 storey outer catchment.

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 Camberwell 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.