Back yard blitz: are Australia’s heritage laws thwarting housing density?

Abstract

Sam Gravanis, 37, lives with his mother in a California bungalow in Sydney’s inner west with a huge back yard. His family’s 900-square-metre property includes 700 square metres of grass which is currently home to a small flock of chickens. Gravanis’s brother and young family are shortly returning from overseas and would like to build a new dwelling on the Dulwich Hill property.

But the local council is moving to put the house and three neighbouring properties on the heritage list. Gravanis, who is against the listing, says the family are struggling to get clarity on what that will allow them to do.

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