Council
4 June, 2025
Subdivision denied as shire vows agriculture protection
IN an effort to protect agricultural land in the region, Corangamite Shire Council issued a notice of decision to refuse to grant a permit for a subdivision in the Cooriemungle area.
The subdivision was sought to facilitate the sale of a farmland and enable the owner, Darren Blaine, to retain the small lot with the dwelling.
The new lots would be approximately 4.5 hectares and 67.5 hectares, with the smaller lot consisting of the dwelling and several buildings including machinery, a hay shed and a calf rearing shed.
The larger balance land consisting of the dairy would be decommissioned, also containing dams and an effluent pond.
Mr Blaine’s planning permit application was put to council for a decision at last week’s Ordinary Meeting, where council voted to follow the officer’s recommendation to issue a notice of decision to refuse to grant a permit.
The report before council provided an assessment of the permit application which led to the recommendation.
It referred to council’s Planning Scheme and Municipal Planning Strategy and Planning Policy Framework, which provide guidelines on Farming Zones, where Mr Blaine’s lot resides.
The Planning Scheme discourages the creation of small rural residential lots in productive agricultural areas which have the potential to impact on the continuation of agriculture and cause land use conflict.
Mr Blaine provided a deputation at the Ordinary Meeting and said his intentions with the subdivision were to keep the land for use in agriculture.
He said while the entire property was too small to be retained as a dairy farm, only able to milk about 150 cows, it could serve as a separate paddock while Mr Blaine used the smaller lot for calf rearing.
“The subdivision allows the land to be sold as an out paddock at a reduced price,” Mr Blaine said.
“This is to make it affordable as an out paddock and it will remain in pasture-based agriculture.
“There are a lot of farmers in trouble so if the dire circumstances do not improve with the drought conditions that are going on and the lack of water, there will be a lot of farms that will be sold.
“As we’ve already seen the farmers have sold out, one of those companies is to tree companies and while council has refused subdivisions on them before, almost all of them are abandoned and there are reportedly squatters occupying at least one of them.
“Unfortunately, there’ll be a lot of farms ending up in the same predicament if circumstances don’t change.”
Councillor Ruth Gstrein moved the recommendation and said while she sympathised with Mr Blaine’s circumstances, council had to consider the Planning Scheme.
“The smaller lot does not have any direct contact or connection with the adjoining larger lot, which could be sold off separately,” she said.
“Here in Corangamite we just submitted our Grow Corangamite planning amendment to the Minister for Planning and this is to protect agriculture in the southern part of the shire.”
Councillor Geraldine Conheady seconded the recommendation and said these decisions were “never easy”.
“Ultimately these decisions must always come back to planning and we must look through the lens of planning,” she said.
“Over time we’ve seen that long-term fragmentation in the Farming Zone has proven to be a poor planning outcome and my knowledge is that’s one of the reasons our Municipal Planning Scheme has evolved in the way it has – to manage these kinds of applications.”
Council has been hitting back at subdivisions in an effort to prevent agriculture land from being sold to plantation companies.
Councillor Jo Beard said, however, they couldn’t consider “speculation” in their decision.
“We can have speculation around whether the land being subdivided could potentially be provided to trees, which was one of the arguments,” she said.
“Then there’s also the speculation around if the land being held onto would still be used for agricultural purposes.
“It’s all speculation which we can’t take into account when making these decisions.
“It’s really important that we respect our Planning Scheme and the work and effort that not only us as council have put in but we have had community feedback around this and we’re guided by community feedback around how they want to see our Planning Scheme being adhered to.
“Planning is pretty black and white – we have to look at the bigger picture and that’s why we have a rule book in front of us.”
The motion was moved on a vote four-to-one, with councillor Jamie Vogels voting against and councillor Kate Makin and Nick Cole absent due to conflict of interest.
Cr Vogels said he foreshadowed an alternative motion which had been shared, disagreeing with the idea planning is “black and white”.
“I don’t think planning is black and white, I think it’s very variable and up for a lot of interpretation,” he said.
“It’s a very static document and it’s a very dynamic situation that we live in in agriculture.
“Certainly, we don’t want subdivisions of houses all over the place but some incidences in specific locations are very valuable to agriculture.
“These are things that you cannot speculate on who’s moving in, but you can provide the opportunities, and I think this is an opportunistic spot for this type of thing.”
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