Our city is home to many kilometres of historically significant landscaping called dry stone walls.
Dating back to the mid 1800s, they form some of the earliest property boundaries and agricultural infrastructure in the City of Whittlesea. The walls are protected by our planning scheme. Permits are needed to remove stones or alter the walls in any way, even on private property.
In 2024, the City of Whittlesea released a Dry Stone Wall Toolkit developed with funding provided by the Victorian Planning Authority.
Dry Stone Wall Design Guidelines
The toolkit includes the Dry Stone Wall Design Guidelines, which provides directions and recommendations on planning, designing and integrating dry stone walls in our built environment and landscapes.
Download the Dry Stone Wall Design Guidelines(PDF, 4MB)
Dry Stone Wall Management Plan
The toolkit also contains a comprehensive guide to writing a Dry Stone Wall Management Plan, along with explanations on the importance of dry stone wall protection.
Download the guide to writing a Dry Stone Wall Management Plan(PDF, 1MB)
Dry Stone Wall Mapping App
The City of Whittlesea has developed an app to assist with recording data during dry stone wall field surveys.
The app's technical guide provides a workflow and definitions for the data items, values and examples for the cells in the app.
Download the Dry Stone Wall app tech guide(PDF, 1MB)
Dry Stone Wall General User Guide
This guide shows users how to set up the Dry Stone Wall Mapping App on their smart devices and provides general instructions on navigating the app and entering data.
Download the Dry Stone Wall app user guide(PDF, 878KB)
Video 1: Introduction to Dry Stone Walls
Video 2: Dry Stone Wall Toolkit and Design Guidelines
Video 3: Heritage Compliance and a Dry Stone Wall Management Plan
Video 4: Dry Stone Wall Property Owners
Video 5: Landscape Assessments and Dry Stone Walls
Video 6: Urban Design and Dry Stone Walls
Video 7: Statutory Land Use Planning and Dry Stone Walls
Video 8: Transport Engineering and Dry Stone Walls
Video 9: Infrastructure Delivery and Dry Stone Walls
What are dry stone walls?
Historic dry stone walls (DSW) include walls and other features built from dressed and undressed stones gathered or quarried from the land by early European settlers.
They are an expression of human interaction with the volcanic plains covering Victoria from the Western District to the west side of the Plenty River in the City of Whittlesea.
Today the walls are amongst the oldest European structures in Whittlesea. We have wonderful surviving examples of DSW built predominantly by German and Scottish settlers and others built by the Irish and English.
What types of structures can I see locally?
Road and property boundary walls are the most widespread but there are also internal paddock walls and distinctive cultivation paddock walls. Some were designed to keep stock in and others to keep stock out.
A lot of the stones used are round and dense, which are challenging to build with.
You can see stony rises in the City of Whittlesea where bedrock is exposed on the surface of the land. These are also significant.
How is a dry stone wall built?
The walls were built using a combination of large boulders and small stones. Some were split to balance the structure.
What does a dry stone wall look like?
Here are two examples of the types of dry stone structures you can see across the City of Whittlesea.
Why are dry stone walls significant?
Dry stone walls are only found in some areas of Victoria. The ones in the City of Whittlesea are different from those found in other areas.
The walls offer insights into farming practices and life on the Merri-Darebin Plains stony rises in the 19th century.
Where are these walls found?
Some of our noteworthy dry stone walls can be found along roadways and on private properties. These include:
- east and west side of Epping Road
- the Boundary Road/Bodycoats Road/Summerhill Road area
- 80 Harvest Home Road
- around the Westgarthtown cemetery, Lutheran church and Ziebell’s Farm in Thomastown/Lalor
- the west side of Vearings Road
- a former boundary wall east of Epping Fruit and Vegetable Market
- ·various walls at 325D Cooper Street, Epping
- former Wollert township wall, halfway between Cooper Street and O’Herns Road, east of Merri Creek
- walls on east and west boundaries of Growling Frog Golf Course.
What are the rules around the walls?
Dry stone walls are protected as heritage assets and places in the Victorian State Planning framework and in the City of Whittlesea Planning Scheme. They are significant for their cultural, social-technical, scientific, aesthetic, educational and landscape values.
Any action that alters or damages a dry stone wall requires a permit from the City of Whittlesea and in some cases from Heritage Victoria. This includes removing rocks from any part of the walls without a permit.
What should I do if I see someone removing stones?
Damaging a historic dry stone wall attracts fines of up to $800.
If you see someone removing stones or damaging a dry stone wall, please contact us on 03 9217 2170 with as much information as possible.
If you require further assistance, please contact us on 03 9217 2170 or email buildplan@whittlesea.vic.gov.au