October 20th, 2025Residents’ Group

A new Hepburn Shire Residents Association will be formed at a public meeting to be held at the Victoria Park Pavilion, Daylesford on November 13 from 7.30pm.

Resident and convenor Tim Anderson said it was time for residents to organise themselves into a formal group to fight for their future.
“The association is aimed at giving the residents a vehicle that can engage with the Hepburn Shire Council and its councillors, providing a constructive path for community consultation, but also to lobby and campaign against any decision from the council that is counter to community values and expectations,” he said.
“HSRA will not be limited to pursuing its agendas at the shire level but also at the state government level if it believes it needs to have higher intervention or is being ignored by the council. The association is for Hepburn Shire residents, resident property owners, renters, and residents forced to live in their cars, tents or couch surf because there is no affordable housing available.”
Tim said the shire had a high number of absentee property owners with many using their properties as holiday houses and short-term accommodation businesses.
“What these owners expect from our shire is not necessarily in line with that of full-time residents. The association will not be there to push commercial interests.”
An early aim for the association is a skills and experience audit of its members and to use this for a forensic audit of the shire’s finances and expenditure.
Meanwhile, a number of residents have used social media, and contacted The Local, to express their concern about Future Hepburn plans for Daylesford’s east.
Resident Shai Tabassi said the change of farming zones for residential use, with no new roads, schools, supermarkets or doctors’ clinic, made it hard to understand “how this town can handle another 200 houses with an average of four people per house”.
“Already the traffic in Vincent and Raglan streets is shocking. To get an appointment at the clinic takes weeks, our roads are in so much stress and need upgrading. Simply put, there has been almost no improvement in the infrastructure of the town. We must make sure this project is done with the utmost attention to our environment and infrastructure.”
Submissions on Future Hepburn plans close on Friday, October 24 and can be sent to strategicplanning@hepburn.vic.gov.au