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1300 366 244Wellington Shire Council identifies land affected by flooding, and plans for and manages the potential coastal impacts of climate change.
State Planning Policy (Clause 13 - Environmental Risks) requires Council to identify land affected by flooding in the Wellington Planning Scheme. These issues are particularly important in the Wellington Shire given the extensive areas of the municipality which are subject to riverine and coastal flooding.
In terms of existing areas subject to flooding, the Land Subject to Inundation Overlay and Floodway Overlay are currently applied to flood prone land in the municipality through mapping contained within the Wellington Planning Scheme. You can determine if either of these Overlays currently affect your land by generating a free Planning Property Report through the state government’s Department of Transport and Planning.
When a Planning Permit is required by these Overlays, Council relies on the specialist technical advice of the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (WGCMA) as the local floodplain manager.
The WGCMA provides referral advice to Council on individual Planning Permit applications, which will typically result in matters such as specified heights of building floor levels on any approved Planning Permit and associated plans.
Prior to lodging a Planning Permit application (and/or purchasing land), free flood advice can be obtained directly from the WGCMA website.
Update September 2026:
Given the recent direction by the State Government to all Victorian councils, Wellington Shire Council resolved at its meeting on 17 March 2026 to commence a planning scheme amendment process to update the Wellington Planning Scheme with the most up to date flood mapping and data.
As required by the State Government, Wellington Shire Council is updating flood mapping through proposed Planning Scheme Amendment C125well, replacing outdated information with the latest flood data. Based on the most up-to-date modelling from the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority, the amendment will guide future development and improve community resilience to natural hazards. Accurate flood mapping supports safer planning decisions and helps protect people, homes and infrastructure. The changes will also streamline planning processes through new permit exemptions and expanded approval pathways.
Community consultation is now underway until 2 November 2026.
Your Wellington Your Say (YWYS) is the official community engagement platform for Wellington Shire Council. It serves as a centralised hub to find out more information about and provide feedback on, different Council projects. The YWYS page can be found here.
The YWYS page for Draft Amendment C125well includes:
For more information about the updated flood mapping and data, please phone our Planning Department on 1300 366 244.
State Planning Policy (Clause 13 - Environmental Risks) requires Council to plan for and manage the potential coastal impacts of climate change. Various tools are available to better understand potential climate change risks, such as rising sea levels. For example, the website links below allow potential sea level rise risks to be shown at a local level.
More specifically, in March 2008 a report titled Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Implications: Ninety Mile Beach and Lake Reeve and Honeysuckles to Paradise Beach was completed (please refer to attachment below).
In 2014, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning also completed the Gippsland Lakes/90 Mile Beach Local Coastal Hazard Assessment Project as one of four pilot studies prepared across Victoria.
In response to this information, when coastal development is approved Council may require the Planning Permit holder to prepare a Climate Change Response Plan (CCRP). When a condition of a planning permit requires a CCRP to be prepared, the guidelines (below) should be used as a reference for its preparation.
Upon the satisfactory completion of the CCRP, Council will endorse the CCRP and require it to be complied with on an ongoing basis via a Section 173 Agreement under the Planning and Environment Act 1987.