What to know about Ocean Grove
- In the Ocean Grove Significant Tree Residential Area (SLO15), any Australian native tree 3 metres or taller is a significant tree and needs a permit to remove, destroy or lop. Buildings and works avoid a permit only if no more than 60% of the site is buildings and hard surfaces and at least 40% stays free for soft landscaping.Source: Greater Geelong Planning Scheme, Schedule 15 to the Significant Landscape Overlay
- The threatened Bellarine Yellow-gum, endemic to the Bellarine Peninsula and Surf Coast, grows in Ocean Grove streets and private gardens.Source: Greater Geelong Planning Scheme, Schedule 15 to the Significant Landscape Overlay
- Parts of Ocean Grove are in the Bushfire Management Overlay. Schedules 1 and 2 require defendable space for 30 metres around a new dwelling, or to the boundary if closer, with tree canopies at least 2 metres apart.Source: Greater Geelong Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to the Bushfire Management Overlay
- In the Goandra Estate (DDO49) a permit is needed for most fences. Front fences should be at least 50% transparent, and fences facing the Yellow Gum Bushland Reserve should be post and wire or rail with a 200 mm gap at the bottom for small wildlife.Source: Greater Geelong Planning Scheme, Schedule 49 to the Design and Development Overlay
- Ocean Grove had 8,668 private dwellings in the 2021 Census, of which 6,567 were occupied on Census night. 93.4% of occupied dwellings were separate houses.Source: ABS 2021 Census QuickStats, Ocean Grove
What to know before landscaping in Ocean Grove
Ocean Grove has some of the region's most detailed garden rules. In the Significant Tree Residential Area, any Australian native tree 3 metres or taller counts as a significant tree and needs a permit to remove, destroy or lop. Buildings and works avoid a permit only if hard surfaces such as driveways, paving, decks, crushed rock and pools, together with buildings, cover no more than 60 per cent of the site, leaving at least 40 per cent for soft landscaping, with no works within the drip line of a significant tree (SLO15). That rule shapes any plan for a big paved entertaining area.
Yellow Gums and Moonah
The threatened Bellarine Yellow-gum grows in Ocean Grove streets and gardens, and the hillside south of Orton Street holds remnant Moonah and Coastal Tea-tree (SLO7). Around Thacker Street, a vegetation overlay protects remnant Yellow Gum and Coast Manna Gum woodland (VPO2). A good landscaper will design around these trees and keep digging out of their root zones.
Bushfire and fences
Parts of Ocean Grove are in the Bushfire Management Overlay, which for a new home requires defendable space of 30 metres, or to the boundary, with canopies at least 2 metres apart. The CFA's landscaping advice applies to every coastal garden: break up fuel, keep flammable material away from the house and use paving, gravel or lawn close to it. In the Goandra Estate, most fences need a permit and front fences should be largely see-through.
Salt winds shape coastal planting; the City of Greater Geelong's coastal plant guide lists dune species that cope with them.
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