Liam McNally
A Parwan man who had his house mistakenly heritage listed has had the status of his house changed after more than seven years.
The Heritage Overlay was placed on the Browns Lane property in 2014. Heritage listings protect sites of historical significance, but can also limit the way properties can be used or changed.
A Moorabool council meeting document said the heritage overlay was incorrectly applied to the weatherboard house on Browns Lane, and it was actually meant for a “rare” 1860’s brick farmhouse located next door.
The document said the brick farmhouse is one of the “oldest farming complexes in Parwan,” and that the error was leaving it at risk of “being lost due to future development pressure”.
An amendment to the heritage overlay was brought before the council on February 1, resulting in the heritage overlay being removed.
In a submission, the owner of the weatherboard property, Matt Woods, said he’d been working for “some years” to have the heritage overlay corrected and it was “great to see council have progressed to this point.”
“I’m very much supportive of it because it’s a rare thing where you have a heritage overlay on the wrong building and I’m sure we’d all love to know how that occurred,” he said.
“Not just as a landowner who would like to not have any encumbrances on their property, it’s also I think great to have the historical record corrected and the correct property ensured that it’s not bulldozed with a lot of the other buildings that possibly will be with the Parwan precinct.”
