Carlton Heritage Plan Passed Up to Minister

The John Curtin Hotel and other significant buildings in Carlton are one step closer to stronger heritage protection after the City of Melbourne council adopted the Carlton Heritage Review.

At its meeting on Tuesday night, the council voted unanimously to endorse the independent planning panel’s recommendations and adopt the Carlton Heritage Review and Punt Road Oval Heritage Review, which now form Amendment C405 to the Melbourne Planning Scheme.

It will now go to Victorian planning minister Sonya Kilkenny, who will make the final determination.

“We have now done the Hoddle Grid heritage review, the North Melbourne heritage review, the South Yarra heritage review and Parkfield heritage review in recent meetings,” City of Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp said.

“This was part of a commitment to our community to ensure that we had an active agenda of addressing these issues across our municipality.”

While 24 new properties will be added to the heritage overlay as part of this review, four will be removed as well as 41 category changes made and three small precincts created.

One of those will be the Former Carlton Union Hotels Precinct at 1 to 31 Lygon Street, which will include the John Curtin Hotel at 27 Lygon Street; the former Dover Hotel at 1-7 Lygon Street; two shops at 9 and 13-15 Lygon Street; the former BLF office at 11 Lygon Street; and the former Australian Council of Trade Unions offices at 17-25 Lygon Street.

In 2022, the John Curtin Hotel was sold to a private developer with union members and others in the community concerned that the site would not be sufficiently protected from development.

A green ban, prohibiting construction workers from working on any development on the property, was proposed in May 2022.

Green bans have been used in the past to save several of Melbourne’s heritage buildings from demolition or development before they could be listed and protected.

The John Curtin Hotel has long been a gathering spot for trade union activists, politicians and musicians, and was one of the first places where First Nations musicians were allowed to perform.

It is also being assessed as part of a separate process to determine if it can be considered to have state significance.

▲ Former Victorian premier Steve Bracks, former opposition leader Bill Shorten and current Victorian premier Daniel Andrews celebrate former PM Bob Hawke at the John Curtin Hotel. Source: The John Curtin Hotel

The recommendations from the independent planning panel said it could not be given social significance at the local government level.

Lovell Chen’s Carlton Heritage Review November 2021 (updated February 2023) and GML Heritage’s Punt Road Oval Heritage Review 2021 (updated February 2023) reports were part of the independent planning panel’s consideration. 

Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas announced as part of the recent state Budget, an allocation of $2 million to, in part, help implement a planning overlay change that would better protect local live music venues. 

The City of Melbourne is undertaking heritage reviews to address a gap in local government level protections for interwar, post-war and post-modern period buildings which have been previously left off the heritage register and therefore had no protection.

Most recently, The Tote hotel, at 67-71 Johnston Street in Collingwood was facing closure after previous owners Jon Perring and Sam Crupi decided to sell up after trying twice to save it.

▲ Community members and music lovers raised $3 million in a crowd-funding campaign organised by Shane Hilton and Leanne Chance to buy The Tote Hotel in Collingwood.

But a crowd-funded campaign called “Save the Tote” raised $3 million to help Shane Hilton and Leanne Chance buy The Tote and keep it operating as a live music venue.

Hilton and Change also operate the Last Chance Rock and Roll Bar near the Queen Victoria Markets. 

The Carlton heritage review now goes to the Victorian planning minister for final approval.