Help Give Our Community a Voice at VCAT

My name is Charlotte and I am a local resident on the border of Pipers Creek and Kyneton.

We need your help to give our community a strong and informed voice at VCAT. Local residents have already committed to funding 50% of the legal costs. Now we're asking our wider community to help us raise the other half.

Short Version - To get across the ask

Every donation helps. If you can't donate, please share. Help us give our community a strong voice at VCAT.

Longer Version - for those who want more

A proposed nine-lot subdivision on land adjoining Bald Hill Reserve, between Pipers Creek Road and Mt St Marys Lane in Kyneton, has been the subject of significant community concern.

Macedon Ranges Shire Council refused the planning application in December 2025. The Melbourne-based developer has appealed that decision to VCAT.

A small group of local residents have stepped forward as objectors and have spent hundreds of hours reading reports, gathering evidence, attending hearings and trying to navigate a complex planning process.

We have now reached the point where we believe we need professional legal representation.

Nine homes beside a significant conservation reserve

This isn't just about nine houses. It is about where those nine houses are proposed to go and what surrounds them.

The development would place nine residential lots on land directly adjoining Bald Hill Reserve — a 96-hectare conservation reserve that Macedon Ranges Shire Council describes as ecologically significant and home to state and nationally significant species.

This is an area where we regularly see kangaroos and wallabies moving through the landscape. Bald Hill itself is home to phascogales, sugar gliders and an extraordinary range of native birds, reptiles, frogs and plants.

It is also home to the endangered Brown Toadlet. Research at Bald Hill found the species at five locations and suggested its population there could be one of the largest remaining populations in Victoria.

Bald Hill Reserve was featured by Millie Ross from Gardening Australia.

Watch the Gardening Australia feature on Bald Hill Reserve

Council has already recognised just how sensitive this environment is, and we believe nine houses, their associated driveways, vehicles, fencing, wastewater systems, domestic animals, lighting and the inevitable increase in human activity represent an overdevelopment of this particular site.

Our concern isn't simply what happens within the boundaries of nine new residential lots.

Wildlife doesn't recognise a title boundary.

Bald Hill should not become an ecological island surrounded by increasingly intensive development. We believe the land can be developed — but it can be developed better.

We want to fight to have Council's refusal upheld and for the developer to submit a lower-density proposal.

This is bigger than a few neighbours

It would be easy to look at this as a dispute between a developer and the people who happen to live nearby. We don't see it that way.

The issues being considered include the protection of vegetation and wildlife habitat, the use of the narrow rural Mt St Marys Lane, traffic and road safety, bushfire risk, wastewater management and the character of land adjoining Bald Hill Reserve.

How we manage development in places like this matters — not just for Mt St Marys Lane, but for the future of the wider Kyneton area.

If planning protections are worth having, they need to be properly considered when difficult development decisions are made.

We are not against development

We want to be really clear about this. We are not trying to stop all development of this land.

We believe there is a better outcome.

We would like to see a lower-density development that responds to the constraints of the site, protects more of the land adjoining Bald Hill Reserve and uses Pipers Creek Road for access rather than introducing additional residential traffic onto Mt St Marys Lane.

This is about appropriate development, not no development.

Why do we need to raise money?

VCAT is a legal and technical environment. The developer has experienced legal representation and professional expert witnesses. Council has recently appointed a lawyer, but local residents still need our voice to be heard by VCAT.

Our experience of the process so far has shown us just how difficult it is for ordinary residents to present their case alongside experienced legal professionals.

We are ordinary residents trying to understand planning law, overlays, expert reports, environmental evidence and legal arguments while also making sure the concerns of our community are properly heard.

We have therefore approached an experienced Victorian planning barrister to help us with the preparation required and, if we can raise enough, to represent us at the hearing.

If we can raise enough through this campaign, we want them beside us when the case returns to VCAT on 17 November.

This is where we need our community, because we believe the principles we are trying to protect belong to a much wider community.

Why this case matters beyond Mt St Marys Lane

There are some significant development battles happening across our region. Developments such as Bunnings on Edgecombe Road and Riddells Creek are big, complex and can sometimes feel incredibly difficult for individual residents to influence.

This one feels different.

Council has already refused the development. Residents have done the work, gathered evidence and stayed involved. We believe there is a strong case for a better outcome and that having experienced legal representation could genuinely make a difference.

One VCAT decision won't determine what happens with every future development.

But wins matter.

If we can successfully defend good planning principles here, it sends a message about what we value across the Macedon Ranges — and reminds us that communities can make a difference.

This is where you can help

Two local residents have already committed to funding 50% of the legal costs. We are asking our wider community to help us find the other half.

If 100 people gave $25, that's $2,500.

If 100 people gave $50, that's $5,000.

If local residents, businesses and people who simply love this part of Kyneton get behind us, together we can give the community professional representation that would otherwise be beyond the reach of most individuals.

Every contribution helps, no matter how small.

And if donating isn't possible, sharing this page is just as valuable.

What will your donation pay for?

Funds raised will be used towards the legal costs of preparing for and representing the community objectors in the VCAT proceeding relating to this development.

We will be transparent with supporters about how the money is used and what we are able to fund.

This isn't about winning at any cost. It is about making sure the community's concerns are properly understood, properly presented and given the strongest possible voice in the room.

Why this matters

Kyneton is growing, we know that.

But growth and good planning need to go together.

The decisions we make today shape the roads we travel, the landscapes we look across, the habitat our wildlife relies upon and the character of the place future generations will inherit.

We have an opportunity to stand up for thoughtful, appropriate development and for the planning protections designed to look after places like this.

We are prepared to do the work. We're asking our community to help us have the professional voice to go with it.

Please donate if you can, share this campaign, and help us protect something that belongs to all of us.