This is the final 48 hours to have your say on the Victorian Government’s draft plans for the Thornbury Activity Centre.

If you haven’t already, please take these three simple actions before Sunday night:

1️⃣ Complete the Government’s official survey
Feedback provided by the Government survey will be prioritised by government and will directly inform the State’s final plans. Please ensure that you share your voice through this survey:
👉 https://engage.vic.gov.au/project/activity-centres-program/survey/6142 

2️⃣ Sign our sister petition
Add your name to our sister petition. Fair Growth Thornbury will be writing to the Minster for Planning on Monday sharing these petitions.

🖊️ https://change.org/fairgrowththornbury

3️⃣ Email Kat Theophanous MP
Let our local representative know about your concerns with the Activity Centre.
✉️ kat.theophanous@parliament.vic.gov.au

Every voice matters and these three steps together send a powerful message.

 
🏛️ Our Meeting with Kat

We recently met with Kat Theophanous, Member for Northcote, to discuss the community’s strong response to the draft plans. Kat acknowledged the depth of concern across Thornbury and indicated some sympathy for key issues, though it’s clear she remains under pressure to align with the government’s housing targets.

We made it clear that Thornbury residents want more housing but it must be done the right way: thoughtfully, transparently, and with respect for the suburb’s unique heritage, character and infrastructure limits.

 
🧭 Next Steps

Following our meeting with Kat, we’ve taken several formal steps to ensure community voices are represented in the decision-making process:

1️⃣ Letter to the Mayor of Darebin
We’ve written to the Mayor of Darebin, urging Council to:

• Reflect community feedback in its submission to the State Government;
  Advocate for planning overlays, heritage, neighbourhood character and design-based, to protect Thornbury’s distinctive streetscapes; and
• Ensure new development delivers the right housing types and mix, not just raw height or density.

2️⃣ Letter to the Minister for Planning
On Monday, once consultation closes, we’ll send a detailed letter to the Minister for Planning.

Our letter will set out:

• The petition asks across both of Fair Growth Thornbury’s petitions, together with copies of the petition signature lists calling for fair, responsible and evidence-based growth that supports housing supply while protecting Thornbury’s liveability, infrastructure and unique character.
• The failings of the consultation process, including inadequate notice, confusing and incomplete maps, restrictive survey design, poor communication and limited transparency, all of which have left many residents unaware of the scale and impact of the proposed changes or unable to meaningfully participate.
• The lack of supporting evidence behind the proposed zoning, particularly around infrastructure, flooding and topography, with no impact assessments, sequencing plans or data demonstrating that Thornbury’s existing systems can sustain the level of density proposed.
•  The disconnect between the draft plans and on-the-ground reality, including the Government’s failure to consider existing zoning, the Darebin Council Housing Strategy, neighbourhood character, heritage overlays, topography, flood risk, and infrastructure and services capacity. The plans ignore both the Phase 1 community feedback and the Community Reference Group’s recommendations, which consistently called for growth that protects the suburb’s established character and directs higher density to appropriate corridors.
• The erosion of public trust, caused by a consultation process that has felt more like performance than participation, with decisions appearing pre-determined and community voices sidelined.
• The urgent need for evidence-based, community-led planning that balances housing supply with liveability, heritage, sustainability and good design, ensuring growth enhances Thornbury’s identity rather than undermining it.

We’ve made it clear that Thornbury residents are not resisting change, we are demanding better planning.

 💪 The Campaign Continues

This is not the end of the campaign.
Fair Growth Thornbury will keep both petitions open until the final plans are released, and we’ll continue campaigning right up until the moment the plans are gazetted into law.

This is a long process, but our message is consistent and united:
Thornbury supports growth, but growth done right.

Thank you to everyone who has signed, shared, walked the streets and spoken up. Together, we’re proving that community-led, evidence-based planning isn’t just possible, it’s essential.