Cornerstone is a building surveying practice working across Melbourne and all of Victoria, issuing building permits across Victoria for every class of building work: homes and extensions, sheds and outbuildings, and commercial and industrial buildings. We work in the City of Greater Geelong, Surf Coast Shire, Macedon Ranges, the City of Ballarat, the City of Greater Bendigo, Greater Shepparton, Mitchell Shire, Baw Baw and Latrobe. Under the Building Act 1993 a registered building surveyor can be appointed anywhere in the state, so you can appoint us for a site in any of these councils.
Permits: the same process across the state
A building permit is a document exercise. Drawings, engineering, the soil report, the 7-star energy rating report and title information arrive as files, the assessment happens against the National Construction Code and the Building Regulations 2018, and the permit is issued electronically with a copy to your council. A new home in Armstrong Creek or a shed outside Shepparton gets the same process and the same fixed fee as a job anywhere else in Victoria.
What changes is what the land adds. Bushfire prone area designations cover much of the Macedon Ranges, the Surf Coast hinterland, the Bendigo fringe and the Gippsland foothills; a new home or extension there needs a bushfire attack level assessment, and where a Bushfire Management Overlay also applies, council planning usually comes first. Flood is the other common one: low-lying land along the Goulburn at Shepparton, the Barwon at Geelong, and Traralgon Creek and the Latrobe at Traralgon is often mapped as liable to flooding, either through a flood overlay in the planning scheme or by council’s own designation. Under the Building Regulations 2018 that brings in council report and consent for a new house or most extensions (sheds are outside the rule), unless a planning permit already controls the floor level, and council can set a minimum floor level. We check both before we quote.
Inspections: scheduled in regional runs
Mandatory inspections need the surveyor on site. We work across these regions every week and run inspections by corridor: Geelong and the Surf Coast; Ballarat; the Macedon Ranges and Bendigo; Kilmore, Seymour and Shepparton; and Warragul through to Traralgon. A booked stage goes on the next run through your area. Book as soon as a stage is in sight and plan the pour or frame around the run date. Our guide to the mandatory inspections explains what each stage covers.
Rural lots, farm sheds and outbuildings
Much of our regional work is on rural and rural-living land: farm sheds, machinery sheds, workshops and garages, and verandahs and carports. Most need a building permit. A small freestanding shed can be exempt (the key threshold is 10 m², with height and siting conditions on top). The farm-building exemption that shed suppliers quote is not automatic. Under regulation 280 of the Building Regulations 2018 the council can exempt a Class 10 building on farm land used for farming from all or any of the Regulations. Councils decide that case by case, usually on a written application and with their own limits on size, use and siting. Without that exemption in writing, the shed needs a permit like any other. Our guide on whether a shed needs a permit goes through the exemption in detail.
On a rural lot the boundary setback problems of suburban sheds mostly fall away. What matters instead is the engineering for wind region, the slab design for the soil (reactive clays in Gippsland, basalt and clay around Ballarat, river silt at Shepparton), and vehicle access for the inspection. If the property is not on sewer, the wastewater system needs its own council permit under environment protection law. The building permit does not cover it: we need the wastewater permit (or council’s consent) before the building permit issues, and council’s approval to use the system before the occupancy permit, so a late application holds up both.
What’s in demand
New homes in the growth areas at Armstrong Creek, Torquay North, Lucas and Alfredton, Huntly and Strathfieldsaye, Kialla, and Warragul and Drouin. Knock-down rebuilds and extensions on older town blocks in Geelong, Ballarat and Traralgon. Sheds on lifestyle lots around Gisborne, Kilmore and Seymour. Retaining walls on sloping Surf Coast and Macedon Ranges sites. Demolition permits ahead of rebuilds, and warehouses, offices and shop fit-outs in the regional centres.
Nearby
Wallan and Beveridge, where this region meets the growth corridor, are on our Northern Melbourne page. Werribee, Melton and Bacchus Marsh are on our Western Suburbs page, and the Pakenham end of the Gippsland run is under South-East Melbourne.