Melton East is no longer only a draft on a consultation website. The Engage Victoria page for the precinct says the Melton East Precinct Structure Plan and the Melton East Infrastructure Plan were approved by the Minister for Planning and gazetted on 4 September 2026, as Amendment C244melt to the Melton Planning Scheme.
That is a planning fact. It is not a new way of digging a house pad, and it is not legal advice on what you can build. The planning scheme map for the lot wins over this summary.
What was gazetted
The Victorian Planning Authority's page describes the amendment as the vehicle for the precinct: a schedule to the Urban Growth Zone, drainage infrastructure, open space, and an Environmental Audit Overlay on land identified as having a higher risk of potential contamination. The same overview, written while the amendment was in draft, refers to more than 12,000 homes and 2,000 jobs. Treat that as the planning authority's description of the precinct, not as a count of houses already standing, and not as a figure we have audited.
The page still carries earlier consultation text as well as the gazettal line. When a government project page does that, use the gazettal sentence for status and the planning scheme for the control on a title.
What Melbourne Water has published
Melbourne Water prepared a concept drainage strategy for the precinct and published it on its Let's Talk site, with a functional design report dated July 2025 for the Kororoit Creek Upper and High Street Melton schemes. The page names two Development Services Schemes: High Street (4140) and Kororoit Creek Upper (4141).
The precinct, on that page, is about 1,005 hectares, 35 kilometres north-west of central Melbourne, east of Melton township. The boundaries given are Kororoit Creek to the north-east, the Western Freeway to the south, Leakes Road to the east and the Melton Highway to the north-west.
The drainage assets described include retarding basins, constructed wetlands, sedimentation ponds, constructed waterways, swales and underground pipes. Melbourne Water's FAQ says the retarding basins are designed so that post-development 1% AEP storms, with climate change, are held back to pre-development 1% AEP storms, with climate change. The climate allowance it cites runs to 2100 under the SSP2-4.5 scenario, referring to Victorian planning provisions on natural hazards and floodplain management, and to Australian Rainfall and Runoff. Open waterways shown on the plan are not to be piped. Waterway corridors have a width set by Melbourne Water's own guidelines, not by how much yard a house would prefer.
Contributions, the page says, are paid when you subdivide or develop. If you are not doing that, you do not pay the contribution. Final scheme rates are described as a step after gazettal and after the remaining scheme consultation. The Let's Talk page still uses "draft" in places. That wording can lag the gazette. Ask Melbourne Water which rate, if any, applies to the land before you put a drainage levy into a feasibility.
What this does to a house site cut
A site cut on a titled estate lot in Melton, Rockbank or Aintree is still dug to the engineer's levels. Amendment C244melt does not rewrite those levels. Our Melton, Rockbank and Aintree guide stays the right note for those streets.
Inside the Melton East boundary, the drainage reserves and waterway corridors can take land out of the area you are allowed to build on. A cut that ignores a waterway corridor, or that assumes a constructed waterway can be piped and filled, is a planning problem before it is an earthworks problem. If an Environmental Audit Overlay is on the title, spoil classification stops being a guess. That sits with EPA's rules, which we summarise in classifying spoil before it leaves site.
If you are buying or building inside the precinct, get the current planning scheme extract and the drainage layout before you ask us for a bulk cut. We can price the excavation. We cannot tell you that a concept wetland has moved.
Gazettal fixes the planning direction. It does not, by itself, mark the pad level on your lot.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Melton East plan change the site cut on an existing house lot in Melton township?
Not by itself. The precinct described by Melbourne Water sits east of the township, inside a defined boundary. An existing lot outside that precinct is not rezoned by the sentence that gazetted Melton East. Check the planning scheme map for the title you actually own.
Are the drainage contributions final?
Melbourne Water's Let's Talk page says contributions are paid when land is subdivided or developed, and that final Development Services Scheme rates follow gazettal and further scheme consultation. Do not treat a concept layout as a tax invoice. Ask Melbourne Water or the planning authority for the current rate on that land.
Sources
- Melton East Precinct Structure Plan, Engage Victoria. The page states gazettal on 4 September 2026 under Amendment C244melt.
- Melton East PSP drainage strategy, Melbourne Water. Includes the July 2025 functional design report and the scheme names High Street (4140) and Kororoit Creek Upper (4141).
Planning schemes and scheme rates are updated after gazettal. Check the current Melton Planning Scheme map and Melbourne Water before you rely on a reserve or a contribution.