ResidentialLeon Della BoscaWed 17 Jun 26
Adaptive Reuse Scheme Revealed for Heritage Orphanage in Melbourne
A proposal to redevelop the former St Joseph’s Home for Destitute Children in Melbourne’s inner east has been revealed.
The application by VJ1KR Pty Ltd, an entity linked to Melbourne-based developer Antipodean Land Developments, was filed under the state’s planning scheme.
It proposes adaptive reuse plans alongside new buildings that would deliver 76 apartments and duplexes across the 9158sq m site at 1 Kent Road and 24 Durham Road, Surrey Hills.
For more than a century, the Sisters of St Joseph, founded by Mary McKillop, ran the home for destitute children on the edge of suburban Surrey Hills, 11km east of the Melbourne CBD.
A permit recommendation from the Minister for Planning for the site is now being sought by the developer. The Department of Transport and Planning issued an eligibility letter in May.
Woods Bagot and Kerstin Thompson Architects are leading the design, supported by Oculus on landscape, heritage specialists Lovell Chen and planning by Tract Consultants.
The site is under a Neighbourhood Residential Zone Schedule 3 designation and Heritage Overlay 670, covering the Surrey Hills English Counties Precinct.
The application said that the site was one of the largest underutilised privately held residential parcels in the area.
Two new four-storey buildings would contain 65 apartments across a mix of one, two, and three-bedroom configurations, including seven penthouses.
Another 11 duplex units would be created through the adaptive reuse of the original heritage buildings. These comprise the main St Joseph’s structure dating from 1889, a chapel built in 1903 and an interwar infirmary.
The heritage chapel would be converted into 268sq m of indoor communal amenity space.
An affordable housing cash contribution of 3 per cent to the Social Housing Growth Fund has been proposed.
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Basement parking would provide 124 car spaces and 32 bicycle spaces.
Sustainability measures include an all-electric design, a 15kW solar photovoltaic array, a 35,000L rainwater harvesting tank and EV charging infrastructure. The proposal targets an average NatHERS rating of 7.0 stars and a 66 per cent BESS score.
The landscape strategy proposes 42 per cent garden area, 28 per cent deep soil and 26 per cent canopy cover across the site. Bricks from demolished non-contributory structures would be recycled into hard landscaping.
The development would proceed under a two-stage construction program, with the new buildings to be completed before heritage adaptation works commence, though the stages may run concurrently.
Youth With a Mission Church, which held the site from 1999, listed the property in 2020 with a $25-million guide before eventually selling at around $20 million in a deal brokered by Stonebridge Property Group. Antipodean founder Vali Valibhoy had placed a legal caveat on the property prior to the transaction.
Antipodean Land Developments has delivered two award-winning projects in recent years—Balfe Park Lane and Neighbourhood—comprising 72 and 89 apartments respectively.
Both were listed as exemplar projects under the Victorian Government's Great Design Fast Track pathway and the recently released Mid Rise Code.
The firm has since commenced construction on Thornbury House, a ministerial permit project comprising apartments above a mix of commercial, retail and food and beverage tenancies.
Antipodean also has several projects in various stages of planning, including a 76-apartment scheme at Deepdene, an eight-storey 13-unit project at 11–13 Spring Street, Fitzroy, and a 21-apartment scheme in Fitzroy North.
