Fencing in Launching Place

A town block with no landscape overlay

Launching Place is a town of about 2,500 people strung along the Warburton Highway between Woori Yallock and Yarra Junction. Its house blocks are a small part of the locality, about 3%, and almost none of them carry a landscape overlay. That makes the town one of the simpler places in the valley to build a fence: under the state's planning provisions the scheme's building and works permits don't apply to a fence unless the scheme specifically asks for one, and on these blocks the landscape overlays don't.

The building rules still apply. A fence up to 2 m needs no building permit, but within 3 m of the street the limit is 1.5 m (1.2 m in brick or concrete). Yarra Ranges' residential zones set no front-fence height of their own. Fence permits has the full list.

Overlays are mapped block by block. A free VicPlan property report shows what is on yours.

Checked 25 October 2026 against Vicmap Planning, the state's zone and overlay maps (DataVic), measured across the suburb, Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedules to Clause 42.03 (SLO1–6, SLO22, SLO23), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 62.02 (buildings and works) and Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), authorised version 031.

Out of town, the overlay decides the fence

Nearly half the locality is green wedge farmland and another third rural conservation land, and almost all of it is under a landscape overlay. The tree site's sampling found three. On SLO6 and SLO2 country a fence needs a planning permit unless it is rural post and open-weave wire under 1.8 m. On the smaller patch of SLO4, the ranges valleys overlay, the test is different: under 1.8 m and more than 75% see-through. A solid paling fence passes neither.

The Environmental Significance Overlay, ESO1, covers more than half the locality. Its wording on fences is unclear, so ask Yarra Ranges planning before building one on land it covers. About a sixth of the locality is under the flood overlay, where a fence needs a planning permit. Farm fencing covers the farm standard between neighbours.

Checked 25 October 2026 against Vicmap Planning, the state's zone and overlay maps (DataVic), measured across the suburb, Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedules to Clause 42.03 (SLO1–6, SLO22, SLO23), Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedules to Clause 42.01 (ESO1, ESO2), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 44.04 (Land Subject to Inundation Overlay) and Yarra Ranges Council: building a fence.

Next to the river and the rail trail

The town is believed to take its name from a spot on the Yarra where cut logs were launched to float down to Melbourne's sawmills, and it is still a base for camping and boating on the river. A car park behind the general store gives access to the Warburton Rail Trail. If your boundary is with a reserve or Crown land rather than a neighbour, the Fences Act won't make the other side pay half: the Crown doesn't contribute, and a council holding a public park isn't an owner under the Act. Dividing fences explains who does pay.

Checked 25 October 2026 against Wikipedia: Launching Place and Fences Act 1968 (Vic), authorised version 072.

Along the highway either way

Woori Yallock and Yarra Junction

Town streets under SLO22, where a front fence needs a permit unless it is under 1.2 m or more than 75% see-through.

Hoddles Creek and Gladysdale

SLO6 farm country, where rural post and open-weave wire under 1.8 m is the exemption.

Checked 25 October 2026 against Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedules to Clause 42.03 (SLO1–6, SLO22, SLO23).