Building design & drafting in Surrey Hills.

What's built here

Late-Victorian, Federation and interwar. Development intensified from the 1880s after the railway reached Surrey Hills in 1882, then again after the tram extended along Whitehorse Road to Union Road in 1916 and Chatham station opened in 1927. The Boroondara-side Surrey Hills North Residential Precinct is notably intact across two eras — late Federation from 1910 to 1915, and interwar through the 1920s and early 40s.

The planning context

Overwhelmingly residential heritage character on both sides, with strong community sentiment behind it. The recent physical change has been the level crossing removal — the rail line dropped into a trench and the new Union Station opened in May 2023, with a civic plaza above it. That is a change to the public realm rather than a density uplift; there is no activity centre structure plan here.

Controls that actually apply in Surrey Hills

• The council boundary — Surrey Hills genuinely sits in two municipalities. Roughly the western two-thirds is City of Boroondara; the eastern third is City of Whitehorse, with Union Road broadly the dividing line. Two planning schemes, two heritage overlay schedules, two sets of permit exemptions. Your address decides which — and it must be confirmed before anyone quotes you an overlay number.
• Heritage Overlay HO243 — Windsor Park Estate — On the Whitehorse side. Notably, no external paint, internal alteration or tree controls apply to this precinct — which matters, because those exemptions are not universal.
• Surrey Hills North Residential Precinct — On the Boroondara side, from the 2011 heritage study. Boroondara grades properties within precincts as Significant, Contributory or Non-contributory — and the grading, not the street, sets your latitude.

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 Surrey Hills

Heritage-sensitive extensions to Federation and interwar houses; determining which council and scheme actually applies before design starts; character-area infill.

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 Surrey Hills 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.