Climate resilient infrastructure

Climate change impacts pose risks to Council facilities, assets and infrastructure, which can include buildings, roads, bridges, street furniture and footpaths.

Extreme weather events caused by climate change can increase maintenance costs and reduce asset lifespans. Failing infrastructure can reduce Council's ability to deliver valuable community services.

We're focusing on reuse and recycling

• We have a strong focus on reusing and recycling existing road materials where possible.
• We've enhanced the lifespan of unsealed roads by improving the quality of existing pavement materials. We've achieved this by mechanically mixing existing materials using specialised equipment and adding in supplements where needed, such as dried clay binders.
• This ultimately reduces the frequency of grading required to keep our roads maintained and avoids the need to import natural resources extracted from nearby quarries.

We advocate for climate-resilient buildings and development

• We prepare strategies, plans and studies that consider the impacts of climate change, and address ways the community can respond.
• This includes preparing settlement plans that direct population growth to the most low-risk bushfire areas in the shire.

We're focusing on heritage and future growth

• We recently updated the Maldon Design Guidelines to allow for design that is responsive to climate change, while respecting the heritage significance of Maldon.
• The planning scheme amendment, which implements the recommendations of Plan Harcourt (2020), proposes requirements for the design of subdivisions in future growth areas to consider environmentally sustainable design measures, and ways to protect land for food production.
• A key objective of the Housing and Neighbourhood Character Strategy for Castlemaine, Campbells Creek and Chewton is to encourage growth around existing activity centres/infill residential development, considering development hazards such as bushfires and flood risk.