Heritage significance explains what, how and why a place is important to the City of Melbourne community. This explanation is documented in a written Statement of Significance, the product of a rigorous assessment carried out in the heritage study and which becomes an integral part of the Melbourne Planning Scheme.
There are three levels of significance for heritage places in the Melbourne Planning Scheme: significant, contributory and non-contributory.
Significant places may be in their own Heritage Overlay or sit within a precinct. The levels of significance are described below.
A collection of buildings can be significant in their own right and is known as a significant streetscape.
Most places in the City of Melbourne are in a heritage precinct and the precincts have Statements of Significance. Individually significant heritage places are being reviewed over time and a Statement of Significance will be produced as part of this process.
You can find out the significance level of your property by checking the Heritage Places Inventory in the Melbourne Planning Scheme. If your property is not listed in the inventory, it is likely to be non-contributory.
A significant heritage place is individually important at state or local level, and a heritage place in its own right. It is of historic, aesthetic, scientific, social or spiritual significance to the municipality. A significant heritage place may be highly valued by the community; is typically externally intact; and/or has notable features associated with the place type, use, period, method of construction, siting or setting. When located in a heritage precinct a significant heritage place can make an important contribution to the precinct.
A contributory heritage place is important for its contribution to a heritage precinct. It is of historic, aesthetic, scientific, social or spiritual significance to the heritage precinct. A contributory heritage place may be valued by the community; a representative example of a place type, period or style; and/or combines with other visually or stylistically related places to demonstrate the historic development of a heritage precinct. Contributory places are typically externally intact, but may have visible changes which do not detract from the contribution to the heritage precinct.
A non-contributory place does not make a contribution to the cultural significance or historic character of the heritage precinct.
A heritage precinct is an area which has been identified as having heritage value. It is identified as such in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay and mapped in the Planning Scheme Heritage Overlay maps.
An individual heritage place is equivalent to a significant heritage place. It may be categorised significant within a heritage precinct. It may also have an individual Heritage Overlay control, and be located within or outside a heritage precinct.
Significant streetscapes are collections of buildings outstanding either because they are a particularly well preserved group from a similar period or style, or because they are a collection of buildings significant in their own right.
