Victoria Street Heritage Precinct (HO33)

Victoria Street was part of the Folkestone Estate, a late nineteenth-century speculative subdivision the citation associates with two well-known Williamstown figures, AT Clark and John Morgan. It was not fully developed until the mid-twentieth century.

What got built is mostly picturesque Federation and Interwar villas and bungalows, with Victorian villas that relate to them in siting, scale and materials. The street’s width and its visual link to the sea give it, in the citation’s words, “a sense of openness that is not evident in other more closely, subdivided areas of Williamstown”.

What applies here

External paint controls apply in HO33, so repainting the outside of a building can need a planning permit. Tree controls apply too, and the schedule doesn’t limit them to street trees here, as it does in some precincts. Only Verdon Street (HO32) shares that combination. Internal alterations aren’t controlled; solar energy systems are, as everywhere in Hobsons Bay.

Why this precinct is protected

The citation finds HO33 of local historic, social and aesthetic significance to the City of Hobsons Bay, though it gives reasons only for the historic and aesthetic grounds. It defines the precinct as:

The Victoria Street Heritage Precinct, which comprises all land within HO33 and generally includes properties with a frontage or side boundary to Victoria Street, Williamstown.

The aesthetic paragraph is the one to design against:

Aesthetically, it is significant as a cohesive late nineteenth and early twentieth century residential street that is notable for the relatively intact groups of larger and predominantly single storey, single detached villas on generous allotments, which are enhanced by mature garden settings and mature street trees. There are also distant views to the sea and the railway station at either end of the street.

The citation’s key characteristics:

• generous, relatively consistent front and side setbacks, with mature gardens and canopy trees
• predominantly single storey, with a few notable two-storey houses, including 51, 72 (‘Pevensey’), 80, 115 and 119
• complex hip and gable roofs in terracotta tile, slate or iron
• mostly double- and triple-fronted forms, often asymmetrical
• a higher proportion of brick houses than other parts of Williamstown, including a rare asymmetrical rendered brick Victorian Italianate villa at No. 37

The street trees are ash. They replaced a once notable World War One memorial palm avenue and don’t date from the street’s development, but the Statement still counts them.

The garden is part of what’s protected

The Statement of Significance names garden settings, street trees and views alongside the houses, and the generous setbacks are what made room for the gardens. So the space around a house matters here, as well as the house.

That changes where an addition can go. The 2006 municipal guidelines already strongly discourage side additions; they allow a garage at the side only if it sits at least 2 m behind the façade. Here the citation also credits the gardens and setbacks, so anything that takes them over deserves care. And because the tree controls aren’t limited to street trees, a canopy tree in your garden can be a permit question before it is a design one. Plan around the trees and setbacks first.

The guidelines also ask new work to respond to views, vistas, significant vegetation and landmarks. Here that means the sea to the south, Williamstown North Railway Station to the north, the canopy, and the landmark Rifle Club Hotel at the northern entry.

The streets in HO33

The schedule describes the precinct as: Victoria Street, Williamstown.

The citation takes in properties with a side boundary to Victoria Street, and lists 106 Esplanade as contributory, so an address on another street can be in HO33. Check your address rather than going by the street name.

The contributory properties (buildings that add to the precinct’s significance), as the citation lists them. “Odd” and “even” mean only those numbers in each range. A property that isn’t listed is still in the overlay if it is inside the mapped boundary.

• Esplanade: 106
• Victoria Street, odd: 1, 3, 9, 13, 15-23, 27, 31-37, 43, 49-53, 61-71, 75, 79, 83-119 and 121
• Victoria Street, even: 22-34, 38, 44-50, 54, 56, 60-66, 70-80 and 94-104

The citation notes that 53 Victoria Street is not the original dwelling: it was reconstructed in accordance with the ICOMOS Burra Charter.

The rules that decide your application

Hannan’s Farm (Ramsgate Estate) and Williamstown Beach Heritage Precincts Heritage Design Guidelines 2020 applies here. It is an incorporated document, listed in the schedule to Clause 72.04, so it forms part of the planning scheme and council's planners assess applications against it. The schedule applies it to the Williamstown Beach (HO34), Hannan’s Farm (HO13) and Railway Crescent (HO28) precincts too.

The municipal Guidelines for Alterations and Additions to Dwellings in Heritage Areas in Hobsons Bay (2006) and Guidelines for Infill Development in Heritage Areas in Hobsons Bay (2006) apply as well. Avoid changing the front of the house or a significant roofline visible from the street, unless you are restoring an earlier appearance. A rear addition that can’t be seen from the street is preferred. Match the existing roof pitch and cladding with smaller massing, and simplify details rather than copying them. A new house should keep the street’s front and side setbacks and reflect its neighbours’ height and proportions.

Can I add a second storey?

The 2006 guidelines set no specific height. The concern is minimal visibility from the street, tested with a sight line from eye level (1.7 metres above ground) on the opposite side of the street, drawn over your existing roof. Below that line and behind the roof is the envelope for an addition. A second storey should also sit well back from the façade, behind the main ridgeline, in from the side walls, and no higher than adjacent buildings.

Victoria Street is wide and its front setbacks are generous, which puts the viewer further from your roof. The further away the eye, the flatter the sight line, and the more of a rear addition shows above the ridge. Corner sites have more sight lines again.

Check for an attic first: the guidelines suggest checking roofs of 30 degrees or more, and call Federation houses particularly suitable.

Fences, garages and the details

• Tree controls apply without a street-trees-only limit. Talk to council before removing or cutting back a tree anywhere on the property.
• External paint controls apply. The guidelines ask for colours suited to the house’s period and style, fences included, and for previously unpainted surfaces to stay unpainted.
• Few front fences are original; most are low, many in a reproduction period style such as timber pickets. Original or early fences survive at properties including No. 78 (Interwar) and No. 63 (Victorian). No new fence should exceed 1300 mm.
• New crossovers are discouraged, and here one would also cut the bluestone kerb that runs the length of the street.
• Garages in the front setback are not favoured. At the side, set them at least 2 metres behind the façade, as a separate structure. Double garages are not favoured.
• Don’t sandblast paint off masonry.

What gets approved here

This section will carry the local permit record — application volumes, approval rates, what refused applications were attempting, and any VCAT decisions. That analysis is in progress and will be published with its method and limits stated.

What to do next

Ask council for pre-application advice. A free call with a planner, before anything is drawn — the most useful hour in the process.

Then check your address to confirm which precinct you are actually in. A Clarity Consultation is a focused session on your specific house; Confidence to Buy applies the same thinking before you bid.

Browse every Hobsons Bay heritage precinct.

Sources: control table and precinct extent transcribed from the Hobsons Bay Planning Scheme, Schedule to Clause 43.01 (C133hbay, gazetted 11/02/2026), read 27 October 2026. Significance, description and contributory properties from the Hobsons Bay Heritage Study 2006 citation for the Victoria Street Heritage Precinct (Victorian Heritage Database place 22467). Design guidance from Hobsons Bay City Council’s Guidelines for Alterations and Additions to Dwellings in Heritage Areas in Hobsons Bay (2006) and Guidelines for Infill Development in Heritage Areas in Hobsons Bay (2006). This is a plain-English summary written by a registered architect. It is not planning advice and the planning scheme governs.