Rates freeze rejected, heritage row erupts, and a $4.2m road fix finally gets the green light: Bendigo's week at council

City of Greater Bendigo councillors voted 6-3 on Wednesday night to adopt a 3.1 per cent general rate increase for 2026-27, brushing aside a last-minute push from three elected members to freeze rates for a second consecutive year. The decision lands on households already watching grocery bills and mortgage repayments climb, and it means the average residential ratepayer in Greater Bendigo will pay roughly $47 more annually from the August billing cycle.

The vote matters beyond the hip pocket. The council is sitting on a ten-year infrastructure backlog it internally estimates at $218 million, and chief executive officers across regional Victoria have been warning state government for months that cost-shift pressures — particularly on waste management and maternal and child health services — are eating into discretionary capital budgets. Bendigo's Finance and Governance Committee flagged in its June briefing paper that without the 3.1 per cent increase, two bridge inspection programs and the Kangaroo Flat Community Hub upgrade would need to be deferred past 2028.

Heritage overlay triggers sharp debate at Ulumburra

The sharpest exchange of the night had nothing to do with dollars. A proposed Cultural Heritage Sensitivity Overlay — developed in consultation with Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation over the past 14 months — came before councillors for a preliminary endorsement ahead of a formal planning panel process. The overlay would require heritage impact assessments for any earthworks deeper than 300 millimetres across 43 nominated sites, including sections of the Calder Highway corridor north of the city and land adjacent to Lake Weeroona.

Three councillors argued the overlay as drafted was too broad and would delay residential subdivisions already in the pipeline around Strathdale and Jackass Flat. Dja Dja Wurrung representatives, who addressed the chamber at Ulumburra Theatre before the formal session, have described the overlay as a minimum threshold, not a veto mechanism. The preliminary endorsement passed 5-4, sending the proposal to a planning panel which is expected to sit before October.

Separately, councillors signed off on a $4.2 million contract for the resurfacing and drainage upgrade of Hargreaves Street between Mitchell Street and Williamson Street — work that has been on the deferred list since 2023. The successful tenderer, a Ballarat-based civil contractor, must complete the stage-one works between the intersections by March 2027 to avoid clashing with the Bendigo Easter Festival precinct setup.

Health precinct parking and the La Trobe question

Off the formal agenda but dominating the foyer conversation beforehand: pressure on council to respond to Bendigo Health's capital expansion project on Lucan Street, which is now entering its second construction phase and is projected to add roughly 400 staff to the Bendigo CBD catchment by mid-2028. Traders from the Hargreaves Mall precinct have written to council twice this year arguing the parking strategy around the hospital campus is inadequate, and that overflow is already pushing into Rowan Street and Williamson Street on weekday mornings.

A transport demand study commissioned jointly by council and Bendigo Health is due to report in September. It will also examine active-travel connections between the hospital campus and La Trobe University's Edwards Road campus, given the two institutions share significant staff and student populations. La Trobe Bendigo enrolled approximately 4,800 students in semester one this year, and both organisations have flagged interest in a shared shuttle arrangement if the study supports it.

Council's next ordinary meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, 15 July, at the Bendigo Town Hall on View Street. The draft Council Plan 2026-2030, which flags a new arts infrastructure fund tied to the Bendigo Art Gallery's planned northern wing expansion, is expected to be tabled for community consultation at that session. Residents can make written submissions to the council via its Engage Bendigo portal until 25 July.