High Street (Thornbury)

Reference

current

Published: March 2026

Last updated: 08 March 2026

The vision for High Street (Thornbury)

The following vision for Thornbury (High Street) train and tram zone activity centre is built from the Statement of Advice prepared by a Community Reference Group (CRG) made up of local residents.

High Street will continue to be the cultural heart of Thornbury – lively, eclectic and full of life. Independent shops, music venues and hospitality spaces will reflect the area’s strong community spirit.

New homes above shops will fit in with the street’s heritage character and bring more people to support local businesses. Buildings will be designed to bring sun and activity to the street, creating a comfortable and vibrant place to walk.

It’s important for more people to have access to housing. Given I own a home here already, I would like to have more apartments, so we have access to more amenities.

High Street Thornbury community member

What we understand about place and how we’ve addressed it

We understand heritage buildings along High Street are important to the community. This includes the Thornbury Regent Theatre and inter‑war shopfronts, which give Thornbury a distinct charm and cultural vibrancy. That's why we've applied the heritage main street typology to these sections of High Street, which allow for lower building heights and stricter design controls, recognising and preserving its significance to the community.

The CRG noted how important ease of walking and footpath design are for pedestrians using High Street. That is why we have planned for a high level of active frontages at ground level, and ensured new denser developments respect sun access for the footpaths along High Street.

We heard that the community are generally supportive of denser development, if it respects High Street’s heritage and has clear breaks in taller built forms.

Thornbury core and catchment map

A graphical representation of the scale of density within activity centre areas. — Scale of density from core to the outer catchment

Core	Inner catchment	Outer catchment
Various heights between six and 16 storeys in most centres, with potential for taller heights in some places in the larger centres	Up to four storeys, and up to six storeys on blocks larger than 1000m2	Up to three storeys, and up to four storeys on blocks larger than 1000m2

High Street (Thornbury) core and catchment explained

The core is the central part of the train and tram zone activity centre, closest to public transport, jobs and services. This area is best suited to accommodate more homes.

The catchment is the surrounding area within approximately 10 minutes’ walk of the core (around 800 metres).

As you move away from the commercial and community core of the train and tram zone activity centre, we expect that the proposed building heights will gradually decrease. This will allow a transition between the activity centre and the surrounding suburb.

For this centre, the inner catchment responds to the strong accessibility to public transport and shops along High Street. The outer catchment responds to heritage overlay precincts.

What we are doing for your community

As part of our work, we've:

applied active frontages along High Street to help maintain the vibrant and eclectic character of Thornbury, encouraging pedestrian activity
applied lower building heights for heritage areas along High Street
applied sun access protections along High Street to provide a pleasant pedestrian environment
provided for varied building heights along High Street, creating visual interest and a sense of building separation between blocks.

Refer to the following plans:

Plan 3: High Street (Thornbury) typology, activation and setbacks
Plan 4: High Street (Thornbury) building heights and sun protection

Plans

The built form outcomes and building heights for the activity centre core are set out on the following plans:

Plan 3 (above): High Street (Thornbury) typology, activation and setbacks (Note: Typology refers to a building type that is suitable for a particular set of lot types and locations. Street activation requires new buildings to provide open and inviting shopfronts to encourage lively and safe streets. A setback is the minimum distance a building must be placed away from a property boundary, road, or natural feature.)

Plan 4 (above): High Street (Thornbury) building heights and sun protection

The plans support the right types of homes being built in the places they fit best. These are some of the kinds of homes you might see more of in the future.