Green wedges

What are green wedges?

The non-urban areas of metropolitan Melbourne that lie outside the urban growth boundary are known as green wedges. There are 12 designated green wedge areas across 17 municipalities which form a ring around the city. The use and appearance of land in each green wedge area is unique. The landscape ranges from coastline, to the open basalt plains of the west, to the highly scenic countryside of the Yarra Valley.

Green wedge areas contain a mix of agriculture and low density activities such as:

• major infrastructure that supports urban areas, including:
  • Melbourne and Moorabbin airports
  • the western and eastern water treatment facilities
• major quarries used in the building industry
• cultural heritage sites
• biodiversity conservation areas
• water catchments.

About one third of the total green wedge area is public land, including national parks, other parks, reserves, and closed protected water catchments.

Victoria’s green wedges

Green wedge land is defined under the Planning and Environment Act 1987 as land that is described in a metropolitan fringe planning scheme as being outside an Urban Growth Boundary (UGB).

A metropolitan fringe planning scheme is a planning scheme applying to any of the following municipal councils:

• 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.

Importance of green wedges

Green wedges and surrounding farmland are critical to our economic prosperity. They provide thousands of jobs in agriculture, conservation and tourism through a range of activities, and contain a rich Aboriginal and post-contact cultural history.

Protecting the features and assets in these areas is important for ongoing environmental, economic, cultural and health and wellbeing outcomes for all Victorians.

Each green wedge has unique features and serves particular functions. They require a management approach that responds to their individual values and features that promotes their diversity. Some of the features and functions of our different green wedges include:

• agricultural uses, such as market gardening, viticulture and broad acre farming
• forestry and land-based aquaculture
• rural and scenic landscapes and other environmental assets
• renewable and non-renewable resources
• infrastructure sites that support urban areas, such as sewage treatment plants and landfill sites
• extractive industries, such as sand and stone extraction
• tourism and recreation features
• built and natural heritage, including Aboriginal cultural heritage.

Some of Victoria’s most productive agricultural land is within 100 km of central Melbourne. The land is also an attractive location for urban development and rural living due to its rural scenic values. These urban uses often compete with agriculture, resulting in the permanent loss of agricultural land and associated businesses. As our climate changes and our growth areas experience a rapid pace of change, protection of agricultural land becomes even more important to Victoria’s food production.

Green wedge management plans

Green wedge management plans are used to manage change in green wedges. These plans are prepared and adopted by the relevant councils to provide a framework for the sustainable use and development of each green wedge.

Each green wedge management plan identifies:

• values and features
• preferred future land use
• environmental and natural resources that should be protected
• type, scale and form of change in the green wedge
• how those changes will be managed and facilitated.

We help councils prepare green wedge management plans by providing targeted funding, technical advice and guidance.

Green wedge management plans

Page last updated: 18/09/23