Protecting environmental, economic and cultural values in Melbourne’s Green Wedges and Victoria’s agricultural land.
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Melbourne’s green wedge land sits within metropolitan Melbourne and outside its urban growth boundary. Agricultural land consists of non-urban areas outside Melbourne’s urban growth boundary.
These areas provide thousands of jobs in agriculture, conservation and tourism, reserves land for public infrastructure and parkland, support food production and rural industries, and protect important environmental, economic and cultural values.
Green wedges and agricultural land are key to sustain our well-being and future prosperity. They provide thousands of jobs in agriculture, conservation, and tourism and host a range of activities including food production and agritourism, such as our famous wineries. They contain critical infrastructure like airports, water treatment plants, quarries and raw materials to build our houses, roads and train lines. They also include parks, wetlands and nature reserves, and contain First Peoples cultural heritage.
Green wedge land
Under the Planning and Environmental Act 1987, green wedge land is defined as non-urban areas of metropolitan Melbourne that lie outside the urban growth boundary. There are 12 designated green wedge areas located within 17 municipalities. To view the green wedge land boundaries, refer to the interactive map below the FAQs on this page.
Green wedges and agricultural land reforms
Planning reforms to the Victoria PlanningProvisions (VPP) tighten planning controls to better protect green wedge and agricultural land from overdevelopment and minimise land use conflict.
The GWAL work program responds to the Green Wedge and Agricultural Land Action Plan 2024 (GWALAP) and planning recommendations of the Inquiry into Securing the Victorian Food Supply (Food Supply Inquiry).
The reforms will come to effect once a notice is published in the Victorian Government Gazette, which is expected later this year.
Summary of the reforms
The reforms make changes to green wedges and agricultural land to:
Tighten agricultural policies to protect all productive agricultural land and declared irrigation districts.
Introduce decision guidelines for accommodation in the Green Wedge Zone (GWZ) and Green Wedge A Zone (GWAZ) to align with the Farming Zone (FZ).
Introduce new land use conditions to cap development for group accommodation, exhibition centres and host farms.
Allow councils to require a permit for earthworks in rural zones.
Remove VicSmart pathway for 2 lot subdivisions in rural zones (except Rural Living Zone).
Introduce new policy guidelines to:
Discourage sensitive development near established farms
Increase flexibility for primary produce sales
Prohibit the re-subdivision of land into lots smaller than the minimum subdivision area specified in the rural zone (except the Rural Living Zone) or schedule to the zone.
Planning for green wedges and agricultural land action plan
Victoria is home to some of Australia’s most productive agricultural land. As our state grows and climate changes, the ideal conditions of agricultural land become even more important to Victoria’s food production. Protecting Melbourne’s green wedges and agricultural land to keep farms working and producing is critical for communities now and for generations to come.
The reforms strengthen agricultural land protections to secure the food supply and improve food security, ensure critical infrastructure can be located to service those who need it, and minimise land use conflict on the urban growth boundary, including recognising the right to farm.
The Planning for Melbourne’sGreen Wedge and Agricultural Land Action Plan 2024 (GWALAP) included 20 actions to protect Melbourne’s green wedges and peri-urban land within 100 kilometres of Melbourne. The Inquiry into Securing the Victorian Food Supply (Food Supply Inquiry) recommended some changes to the GWALAP actions, including a wider application of policy changes to land beyond 100 kilometres of Melbourne to across the state. This has been addressed in the response to the Food Supply Inquiry.
Plan for Victoria directs development into established settlement boundaries and to protect productive agricultural land across Victoria.
The reforms deliver a consistent state-wide policy approach to protecting green wedge and agricultural land.
The reforms have been informed by extensive public consultation undertaken through the Planning for Melbourne’s Green Wedges and Agricultural Land Action Plan 2024 (GWALAP) and Food Supply Inquiry.
Between 2018 and 2021, consultation on the GWALAP received 879 public submissions (survey responses and manual submissions) through phone engagement, online community information sessions, workshops, an online map and two surveys. The Food Supply Inquiry received 67 submissions, 335 Victorian farmer survey responses and held five public hearings, while the Food Security Inquiry received 177 submissions and held 16 public hearings.
Extensive public consultation on the GWALAP demonstrated that respondents highly value the environmental and biodiversity features, agricultural and economic values of green wedge and agricultural land. These submissions and findings informed the scope and design of the reforms.
The reforms ensure state policy maintains a consistent approach to defining and protecting productive agricultural land. This prevents further cumulative impacts from urban encroachment and ensures no factor (such as soil quality) is given primacy to prejudice specific agricultural activities (such as animal production).
Productive agricultural land will be defined in the VPP as land which can sustain agricultural production for a local, regional or state need, including the agricultural processing sector.
The reforms strengthen planning policy and controls to prevent the loss or fragmentation of agricultural land and ensure that urban expansion into rural land is rigorously strategically justified. This approach is supported by strategic settlement boundary guidance in Planning Practice Note 99: Implementing a Strategic Settlement Boundary to use settlement boundaries as the primary tool to direct urban growth.
The reforms shift the approach from determining thresholds for ‘high quality’ or ‘strategic’ agricultural land based on limiting factors such as climate and soil type, to balance the benefits of the proposal with the loss of agricultural land in favour of net community benefit. This ensures a range of agricultural activities can be considered to determine the productive capacity of agricultural land.
Victoria is home to some of Australia’s most important irrigated agricultural land, including declared irrigation districts protected under the Water Act 1989. Irrigated agricultural land is productive agricultural land with established irrigation infrastructure required for key agricultural produce for the state and country, including cauliflower, celery and asparagus.
The policy will apply to declared irrigation districts across Metropolitan Melbourne, Gippsland, Moorabool and Murray River, and other important irrigation districts, including Maribyrnong River flats, Cora Lynn, Koo Wee Rup and Boneo. These areas will be elevated in the Planning Policy Framework (PPF) for their regional significance.
The right to farm refers to a range of policy settings that seek to better protect established farmland from land use conflict arising from urban expansion. Land use conflict can occur when land close to farms is developed for a residential use, childcare centre, school, education, residential aged care or hospital (sensitive development), constraining the production of food, fibre, and raw materials.
The reforms protect the right to farm by introducing changes to the PPF at clause 14.01 (Protection of agricultural land) to discourage sensitive development near agricultural activity. This includes a new policy guideline to discourage planning authorities from locating urban zones that facilitate sensitive development within:
300-metres of land in GWZ, FZ or Rural Activity Zone (RAZ).
Changes to the Green Wedge Zone, Green Wedge A Zone and Rural Conservation Zone will also require a planning permit application for a dwelling to include a written statement to explain how it meets the requirements of the planning scheme.
In addition, the class of VicSmart application to subdivide land into two lots will also be removed in all rural zones (except the Rural Living Zone) to ensure that agricultural matters are appropriately considered.
A host farm is an agricultural property used to provide accommodation for persons, away from their normal place of residence, to experience living on land used for agricultural purposes. Green wedges and agricultural areas are major tourism and recreation attractions, and host farms will continue to play an important role in supporting regional tourism.
The reforms introduce a new land use condition to ensure host farms operate in conjunction with an agricultural land use such as a winery. This ensures host farms support agriculture and tourism appropriate for green wedges and agricultural areas.
Primary produce sales (or farm gate sales) support agricultural businesses and improve access to locally and regionally produced food. Before the reforms were implemented, the VPP only allowed the display and sale of produce grown on the land, limiting opportunities for primary produce sales and restricting access to a broader range of Victoria’s produce.
The reforms change rural zones to allow primary produce sales a single area of 50 square metres to exclusively display and sell primary produce grown across Victoria, where a permit is required. This will increase flexibility for primary produce sales, support agricultural business and improve access to locally and regionally sourced food.
The proposed 50 square metre limit is significantly more restrictive than other commercial uses already permissible in some rural zones. It will provide sufficient protection for local food markets and from seasonal food dumping. As councils can regulate the operations further through conditions on the permit, it is not expected this will result in inappropriate commercial development or the permanent loss of agricultural land.
Moving soil or dirt on the land in quantities larger than normal gardening can be considered earthworks. Unregulated earthworks in regional areas can result in a range of potentially negative effects, including natural habitat pollution, the transmission of invasive weed species and limiting the potential of productive agricultural land.
The reforms will update Ministerial Direction Form and Content of planning schemes to enable councils to require a permit for earthworks which involve the receipt, importation, stockpiling or placement of more than 100 cubic metres of fill. This ensures the control does not capture genuine and routine farming activities of a much smaller scale.
Where earthworks involve waste soil, its transportation, deposit and retrieval are regulated under the Environment Protection Act 2017.
The reforms remove the exemption to allow the re-subdivision of existing lots across the rural zones (except the Rural Living Zone) to prevent landowners re-organising their land into rural residential configurations, while retaining the opportunity for landowners to downsize and support land succession planning. The Rural Living Zone is exempt as its purpose is to provide for residential use in a rural environment.
Planning authorities will still be required through the VPP to ensure subdivision proposals, including dwelling excisions, limit rural land fragmentation and support viable agribusiness, including rural industry, horticulture and broadacre farming.
The VPP allows the subdivision of land in the Farming Zone and Rural Activity Zone into smaller lots for private utility installations which transmit or store power of 1 megawatt or greater, supporting the rollout of electricity infrastructure and stability of Victoria’s energy grid.
The reforms will require planning authorities to include a condition on the permit to prohibit the use of accommodation on the created lot by an agreement made under section 173 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. This ensures small rural lots created for private utility installations do not inappropriately transition to accommodation.
Map of green wedge areas
Victoria’s green wedges include:
Brimbank
Cardinia
Casey
Frankston
Greater Dandenong
Hobsons Bay
Hume
Kingston
Knox
Manningham
Maroondah
Melton
Mornington Peninsula
Nillumbik
Whittlesea
Wyndham
Yarra Ranges.
Select a green wedge area to see the green wedge management plan.
The map is of Victoria and includes green highlighted areas across the map.
The government implements the GWAL reforms, responding to the Planning for Melbourne’s Green Wedges and Agricultural Land Action Plan and relevant recommendations of the inquiry into Securing the Victorian food supply.
The government tables its responses to the inquiries into Securing the Victorian food supply and Food security in Victoria to the relevant committees.
The government releases the Planning for Melbourne’s Green Wedges and Agricultural Land Action Plan and final reports to the inquiries into Securing the Victorian food supply and Food security in Victoria.
The government established localised statements of planning policy for four special areas in Victoria, including two green wedge areas: Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley.
Green wedges were formally recognised in the Melbourne 2030: Planning for Sustainable Growth metropolitan strategy, with an Urban Growth Boundary introduced to manage outward expansion and green wedges enshrined in legislation and the Victoria Planning Provisions.
Living Suburbs (1995) included objectives to protect the non-urban values of green wedge areas, while reforms to the Victorian planning system introduced a standardised framework based on the Victoria Planning Provisions.
Policies including Shaping Melbourne’s Future (1987) reinforced protection for non-urban areas, and new metropolitan planning schemes introduced in 1989 incorporated a policy statement for non-urban areas.
The Planning Policies for the Melbourne Metropolitan Region (1971) identified the need to preserve non-urban land values, followed by Statements of Planning Policy protecting key areas including the Dandenong Ranges, Mornington Peninsula, Western Port and Yarra Valley.
