Thirty-one of the 121 places in Kingston’s Heritage Overlay have a Mentone address, more than any other suburb in the municipality. That puts heritage on the checklist for EV charger installation Mentone homes, because on a heritage-listed property, a charger in view of a street or public park needs a planning permit. The other local factor is the housing mix. The 2021 Census counted only 44.0% of Mentone’s occupied dwellings as separate houses; 37.2% were townhouses or similar, 18.2% flats or apartments, and almost a third of households were renting.
Our Beaumaris premises at 125 Charman Rd is about 1 km from the middle of Mentone, close enough that we look at the switchboard, the parking spot and the street frontage in person before we quote. Our A-grade electricians, working under our Victorian registration REC 35838, install chargers we supply as well as units bought through a car dealer.
EV charger installation Mentone, from Como Parade to Beach Road
Mentone packs a lot of variety into a small area. The heritage schedule alone runs from Comber’s Buildings and the Abbott Buildings on Mentone Parade to bayside places on Beach Road and listed places in the streets with Italian names: Venice, Milan, Palermo, Naples, Brindisi and Cremona. Add the townhouses, units and apartments that make up more than half of Mentone’s occupied dwellings, and no two charging jobs look quite the same.
Each type creates a different charging problem. A period house might keep its car in a garage at the rear, a long way from a meter box on the front verandah. A townhouse often has a single garage close to its own meter, which keeps the cable short but may leave little wall space. An apartment space in a shared car park depends on the owners corporation and the building’s spare capacity. We work out which of those you have on the first visit, then design around it.
Thirty-one heritage places and one rule about visibility
Clause 43.01-1 of the planning scheme requires a permit for an electric vehicle charging station on a heritage place when the charger is visible from a street (other than a lane) or a public park. Kingston’s schedule lists the Mentone places individually, and a quick look shows how spread out they are: the Como Parade East precinct, Kilbreda at 118 Mentone Parade, Glen Court at 74 Beach Road, the Mentone Hotel at 95 Beach Road, Riviera on Palermo Street, Killara on Harkin Avenue, and houses on Milan Street and Cremona Street. The full list is in the Kingston Heritage Overlay schedule, and the council’s heritage and planning page explains how the overlay works.
Two of those places are also on the Victorian Heritage Register: the Mentone Railway Station and Gardens on Balcombe Road, and the Nicholson pipe organ at St Patrick’s Church. Works on registered places fall under the Heritage Act 2017 rather than the overlay. One more detail matters for anyone planning solar and a charger together: Kingston switches on solar energy system controls for 29 of the 31 Mentone entries, so visible panels on those properties need their own permit check.
Keeping a charger out of the heritage conversation
Most of the time the cleanest answer is placement. A charger inside a garage, partway down a side wall, or on a wall that faces only a lane is usually out of view from the street, which is what the test turns on, and on many properties one of those spots is close to the switchboard anyway. We run the cable through the roof space or underfloor where we can, and in conduit painted to match where it has to show.
Sometimes the only practical spot is visible from the street, such as a carport facing the road. Then a permit application is needed, and we provide the drawings, photos and product details council asks for. The upside is that clause 43.01-4 exempts these applications from public notice and third-party review: nothing is advertised to the street, and objectors have no review rights.
Townhouses, units and rented homes
With almost a third of Mentone households renting, plenty of EV drivers here will be tenants whose landlord has not yet thought about chargers. Our rule is simple: we need the owner’s written go-ahead before we fit a charger to a rented home. We are happy to send the owner a written scope so they can see exactly what is proposed. In our view a charger is fast becoming the kind of fixture good tenants look for, and a clear scope makes that conversation with an owner much easier.
Townhouses bring a different question, which is who owns the wall and the driveway. Where a small development has common property, the owners corporation has a say, and a significant change to that common property generally needs a special resolution under the Owners Corporations Act 2006. Our strata EV charging for unit blocks service covers that process. If a charger came with the property and has stopped working, our EV charger repairs and servicing team can diagnose it.
Not every renter needs a wall box on day one. United Energy’s rule of thumb is that an ordinary power point can be enough for up to 200 km of driving a week; between 200 and 500 km it recommends a dedicated unit, which fills a modern EV in eight to 12 hours. If the owner is undecided, we can test whether the existing socket circuit is fit for long, continuous loads as an interim step.
Older switchboards and the United Energy paperwork
In an older Mentone house the switchboard, not the charger, is usually where the work is. A board with no spare ways, old-style fuses or a safety switch of the wrong type has to be dealt with before the new 32 A circuit is added. We match the residual current protection to the charger: a Type AC device is no longer allowed in new work and can miss pulsating DC faults. When the board needs replacing, upgrading an older switchboard is part of the same quote.
Mentone is on the United Energy network, which expects a registered electrical contractor to install home chargers and record them in myEnergy, the portal its page for electrical contractors describes as the place for connection and alteration requests. We do that lodgement for you. Homes that need a bigger supply are assessed by United Energy, and a supply of 170 amps or more is typically handled as a negotiated connection.
Charging close to the bay on Beach Road
Mentone’s south-western edge meets Port Phillip Bay along Beach Road, and salt air changes how we specify an outdoor charger. For a sheltered bay like this one, the National Construction Code’s steel-corrosion grades step down with distance: high within 50 metres of the water, medium beyond that, and low once a site is more than 1 km back. Those grades were written for structural steel rather than chargers, yet they give a sensible guide when we pick brackets, fixings and enclosures.
Close to Beach Road, a garage or carport wall beats a bare outside wall, and we check the charger’s ingress protection rating against where it will actually sit and use stainless or suitably coated fixings. Cable glands and conduit joints get extra attention, because that is where moisture finds its way in. None of it adds much to the job, and it beats replacing a corroded unit years early.
A taller Mentone around the station
Mentone is one of the 23 centres in stage 2 of the state’s Train and Tram Zone Activity Centres Program. The new Built Form Overlay for the Mentone centre includes a “Heritage Main Street Core” where heritage façades are retained, and for some other parts it says new buildings should be medium-rise, up to 27 metres (8 storeys). That points to more apartments within walking distance of the station.
Any new apartment building there will need EV-ready car parking under the National Construction Code. The harder cases are existing apartment blocks, where a charger means finding capacity in a supply that was never sized for cars. That is a load-assessment job first and an installation second, and we would rather tell a committee honestly what fits than promise a charger in every bay.
Frequently asked questions from Mentone owners and renters
Does a heritage permit for a charger get advertised to my neighbours?
No. Clause 43.01-4 exempts applications for an electric vehicle charging station from the notice and third-party review provisions. Council still has to decide the application, so allow for that step.
My charger would only be visible from a rear lane. Is a permit needed?
The heritage permit trigger is visibility from a street other than a lane, or from a public park. A charger seen only from a lane does not trip that test, although we still check the property’s other controls.
I’m renting near the station. Is a charger still possible?
Yes, with the owner’s written approval. We can send the owner a scope and quote so they know exactly what is being installed and where.
How close is DUKE EV to Mentone?
125 Charman Rd, Beaumaris is roughly a kilometre from the centre of Mentone, which makes a quick look at your switchboard easy to arrange.
Can I add solar later on a heritage-listed Mentone house?
Possibly, but most Mentone heritage entries have solar energy system controls, so panels visible from the street need a permit check. We can choose a charger now that is able to follow solar output if panels are added later.
From a lane-side garage to a shared car park near the station, we will give you a clear plan and a firm quote. Ring 1300 003 853 between 7am and 7pm, Monday to Saturday, or send the details through our contact page. Neighbours can also read about charger installs in Cheltenham, townhouse charging in Mordialloc and our Beaumaris premises.