Our structure

Fair Growth Thornbury began as a grassroots initiative led by James and Sarah — two local residents determined to ensure Thornbury’s future growth is both fair and community-driven.

With the help of dedicated volunteers, the group’s first major effort saw nearly 5,000 pamphlets hand-delivered across Thornbury, raising awareness about the government’s proposed Activity Centre plans and their potential impact on our neighbourhood.

Since then, James and Sarah have been joined by six other passionate community members to form the Fair Growth Thornbury Strategy and Activities Committee, which now coordinates the group’s advocacy, events, and community engagement initiatives.

We also have other community volunteers who assist with the day to day campaign activities.

Our Mission

Fair Growth Thornbury exists to give our community a real voice in shaping Thornbury’s future.

We aim to empower residents with the facts, tools, and confidence to make informed submissions, challenge misinformation, and engage meaningfully in the planning process — while also presenting a clear, united community position that reflects the authentic local voice on how Thornbury should grow.

Our Asks

Grounded in the Phase 1 community feedback and the Community Reference Group’s Statement of Advice, we stand for a vision of fair, place-sensitive growth that respects Thornbury’s unique character:

Protect residential streets

Maintaining their liveable scale, green character, and sense of community by keeping excessive height and bulk out of quiet neighbourhoods.

Cap High Street at 6 storeys

Preserve its low-rise, human scale and village character while still allowing appropriate growth along the corridor.

Direct higher density to St Georges Road, using it as a focus for urban renewal, infrastructure investment, and better design outcomes, rather than overloading High Street and surrounding residential areas.

Deliver more housing in the right places

Strong design protections for High Street

Safeguard its historic, not just heritage-listed, character, ensuring future development reflects its established low-rise rhythm and local identity.

Ensure new housing is supported by adequate drainage, traffic, parking, public transport, green space, and community services before rezoning proceeds.

Proper infrastructure planning and budgeting

Our Activities

Letter box drop campaign

During the Phase 2 consultation period, Fair Growth Thornbury designed and hand-delivered nearly 5,000 tailored flyers to homes across both the inner and outer catchments of the Thornbury Activity Centres. Each flyer was customised to the property’s location and explained how the draft plans would affect that area, including clear links to FGT’s petitions and the State Government’s consultation materials and survey, ensuring residents were properly informed and able to have their say.

Fair Growth Thornbury isn’t just about opposition — we’re about action.

Since the draft Thornbury Activity Centre plans were released, our volunteers have worked tirelessly to inform, organise and advocate on behalf of the community.

Every step we’ve taken has been focused on one goal: ensuring Thornbury’s growth is done well — grounded in evidence, respectful of local character, and supported by infrastructure that keeps our suburb liveable.

State Government Engagement

Fair Growth Thornbury emailed our submission and petitions to the Minister for Planning, Hon Sonya Kilkenny, on 19 October 2025, and followed up on 5 November 2025 with a detailed letter seeking confirmation that community submissions were being genuinely considered, outlining why Darebin Council’s submission did not represent local views and providing an updated evidence-based community plan. We are in ongoing discussions with the Minister’s office and the Department of Transport and Planning regarding these issues.

Council Engagement

On 9 October 2025, Fair Growth Thornbury wrote to Mayor Kristine Olaris, urging Council to back the community’s petitions and explore heritage and overlay protections for key streets. Our letter was passed between offices without action, and by 24 October, Council advised its response was “complete,” leaving FGT’s views to be raised only at the 27 October meeting. We then sent our submission to all Councillors and attended the meeting, asking questions and making an oral submission. Despite this, Council endorsed its draft response with only minor, last-minute edits — token references to housing targets, insufficient High Street height caps, and “further street by street analysis” that did very little to reflect the community’s position.

Local member engagement

During the Phase 2 consultation, Fair Growth Thornbury engaged extensively with local MP Kat Theophanous — meeting in person, by phone, and through multiple written submissions between 6 October and 7 November 2025. We shared our petitions, formal submissions to the Minister for Planning and Darebin Council, and sought her help in influencing Council and arranging a meeting with the State’s lead planner. On 7 November, Kat confirmed she was following up with the Planning Minister and Department of Transport and Planning on our behalf, our most recent correspondence to date.

Media

On 4 October 2025, FGT was featured in a news article on the Daily Mail relating to the Thornbury Activity Centre.

GoFundMe

On 29 October 2025, FGT submitted an FOI request to the Department of Transport and Planning requesting documents relating to the Thornbury Activity Centre. We are awaiting the response.

To fund its ongoing campaign activities, FGT launched a Go Fund Me on 21 October 2025.

Freedom of Information Request