A Better Plan for Thornbury’s Future
Fair Growth Thornbury has developed a practical, community-backed proposal for the Thornbury Activity Centre, one that supports more housing, sustainability, and local growth without sacrificing the character, liveability, and heritage that define our suburb.
Our plan draws directly from the feedback of over 1,000 residents across two major petitions. It presents a balanced approach that increases housing supply where it makes sense — along transport corridors and renewal areas — while protecting our quieter residential streets and heritage pockets. This is a positive, evidence-based alternative that delivers fair growth for everyone who calls Thornbury home, now and in the future.
Community backed
Solving the housing crisis, protecting Thornbury
Our solution proves that Thornbury can help solve Melbourne’s housing crisis without sacrificing the very things that make it special. We all recognise the need for more homes but how and where we build them matters. By planning with care and foresight, we can grow in a way that strengthens our community rather than fragments it.
Our proposal focuses new housing and mixed-use development in logical, sustainable areas while protecting the character and liveability of surrounding residential streets. It’s a practical, community-led approach that delivers fair growth: more homes, better infrastructure, and a Thornbury that continues to feel like home for generations to come.
Our Three Pillars for Fair Growth
Our proposal is built around three core pillars that enhance Thornbury’s identity while delivering fair, sustainable growth. Together, they ensure we meet housing needs without losing the qualities that make Thornbury such a distinctive and loved suburb.
Protecting residential streets
The residential areas east and west of High Street are the backbone of Thornbury’s liveability, peaceful, diverse, and human-scaled. Our plan keeps these streets low-rise and in character, protecting them from inappropriate development pressures while ensuring new growth is focused in the right places.
Preserve High Street’s village charm
High Street’s low-rise streetscape, historic (not just heritage) shopfronts and eclectic mix of local businesses create the heart and soul of Thornbury. Our solution safeguards its human scale and vibrant street life - protecting not just the facades, but the feel. We support modest, design-led evolution that retains its walkable, village-like character.
Activate St Georges Road as a true urban renewal corridor
Rather than crushing High Street with density while leaving St Georges Road under-utilised and underwhelming, our plan redirects growth to where it belongs. St Georges Road has the space, transport links and renewal potential to accommodate higher-density, mixed-use development that genuinely supports Thornbury’s future. By leveraging the Activity Centre Program here, we can create a vibrant, walkable boulevard with improved pedestrian connections, greenery, and modern commercial spaces — a thriving corridor that complements High Street’s charm and becoming a destination in itself.
How We Shaped a Plan That Fits
Our model is built on what makes Thornbury liveable and unique. We’ve looked closely at what makes sense and what works: the practical realities of our streets, services, and community fabric. Every element of our approach reflects a careful balance between growth, character, and the things people value most about living here.
Community Input & Empirical Observation
Ensure the plan reflects genuine community consensus and lived experience, not top-down assumptions.
Topography & Elevation
Ensure height controls respond to terrain to preserve liveability, reduce wind and visual impacts.
Direct growth away from flood-prone areas and align zoning with flood overlays and water-sensitive design principles.
Flood Risk & Drainage
Neighbourhood Character & Heritage
Protect and strengthen Thornbury’s “village” character and prevent demolition or consolidation that erodes identity.
Zoning & Overlays
Ensure rezonings respect current overlay protections and zoning intent while identifying strategic infill potential.
Maintain integrity and reasonable internal consistency of the Council’s own strategy, housing growth yes, but in the right locations.
Council Housing Strategy Alignment
Transport & Access
Concentrate higher-scale development where transport and road capacity can support it – reduce local traffic and parking pressure.
Infrastructure & Services
Ensure density aligns with infrastructure delivery – “growth with amenity.”
Enable genuine urban renewal precincts, not piecemeal infill; create a new commercial–residential destination.
Urban Renewal Potential
Economic & Local Business Impacts
Protect Thornbury’s independent retail economy and maintain affordability and diversity in the local business mix.
Achieve housing supply increases while maintaining urban balance and liveability.
Housing Supply & Density Distribution
Get involved today for a better tomorrow
Together, we can shape a better plan, one that builds homes without breaking our community.
Contact
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Fair Growth Thornbury acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the unceded lands on which we live and work. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.