General News
23 October, 2025
Making sound plans for future growth of our towns
Structure plans for Inglewood and Wedderburn ... what are the visions?
By CHRIS EARL
LET’S get ready! Organic and planned lifts in population of key central Victorian towns within half an hour of a regional capital are happening.
Inglewood and Bridgewater for years have been identified in government documents as key Calder towns for future growth.
They are on the state’s major northern road corridor and even have a rail line, albeit unused for decades, a hospital and many other services with some capacity to meet the needs of more residents.
Decisions made 20, 30 and even 50 years ago have, in some cases, proven to have been framed within a prism where contraction of population and country towns was the norm.
How wrong that has turned out to be? Loddon’s population decline was halted and there is now small, but nonetheless important and steady increases in people choosing to live in southern towns on the Calder corridor.
The beginning of consultation on structural plans for the future of Inglewood and Bridgewater has begun -a process to look beyond today, use yesterday to understand where our communities are currently and look to the future.
Getting planning zones right will be crucial to creating the vision of these two towns. Areas that will become economic hubs to grow industry and jobs, the right areas for commercial and retail trade, setting land use for expansion of service delivery.
As regional capital Bendigo heads towards a population of more than 180,000 within 20 years, Inglewood and Bridgewater will surely see more people living locally.
Even those living in the outer Bendigo suburb of Marong will probably find it easier to access care and treatment at Inglewood and Districts Health Services in 2046 than heading into the Bendigo hospital.
Government policies and documents say that access to transport is a key consideration when people choose where to live.
Does that mean revival of the dormant railway line - track in disrepair, a bridge crossing the Loddon River at Bridgewater unlikely to pass even the most basic of engineering tests after being hammered by pulsating floodwaters over the last decade? Probably.
Consideration of transport links and access to essential services like health has a place in developing town structure plans.
So, too, being prepared for more housing estates. New homes have started to appear and welcome families at Bridgewater Rise, more will come.
Where do our communities see the next housing estate? Just putting it out there: will golf links become housing courts?
Structural plans are about getting the nuts and bolts right, a framework that is planned, co-ordinated and appropriate.
But the process is also a time to dream within the realms of reality where logic and modelling shows what is happening down the road of the big neighbour and Blind Freddy can already see there will be flow-on further along the Calder Highway.
It will be no good applying a generic zoning to what should be regarded as the shopping strips of towns ... or putting industry next to a school.
Good planning usually has a 20-year timeline. If growth in Bendigo is a guide, by then Inglewood and Bridgewater could have a combined population well above 10,000.
Dreaming, you say? Only time will tell.
But instead of good planning, the structural plan process for these two Loddon towns can be elevated to a great level.
Foresee the challenges of tomorrow by using experiences of the past and those faced by neighbours as a guide to make sure Loddon gets its right.
Yes, a great structural plans can be the best legacy for future generations.
Read More: Inglewood, Bridgewater