Skip to main content
Freedom of information

Our documents are available to the public through the process outlined in the Victorian Freedom of Information Act.

Freedom of information is a process where you can access documents held by the Yarra City Council.

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Victoria) outlines:

  • which documents are available
  • how applications are processed
  • the privacy and other restrictions apply before documents can be released

The general principle is that all Yarra City Council documents should be available to the public.

There are certain limitations and they include:

  • ‘exempt documents’ such as internal working documents, law enforcement, legal proceedings or documents affecting the personal privacy of others
  • documents which are already publicly available or available by paying a fee under another Act
  • documents which were created before 1 January 1989
Make an application

You can apply online, by mail or in person.

To apply online, you need to:

To apply by mail, you need to:

The Freedom of Information Officer
Yarra City Council
PO Box 168
RICHMOND 3121

To apply in person, you need to:

Freedom of information request

Yarra City Council needs to notify you of a decision within 30 days of your application.

Failure to do so gives you the right to appeal to the Victorian Information Commissioner.

We try to process your application within 30 days but cannot guarantee this.

We may need to access older files from archives off-site and we need to assess the documents before releasing them to you (in accordance with the Act).

To avoid disappointment, please plan ahead.

When requesting documents, please make your application as specific or detailed as possible to help us find it for you.

For example, if you’d like a copy of a specific report, please try to tell us:

  • the date of the report
  • the title or subject of the report
  • the specific address or street the report relates to
  • the time period it relates to

If your request is too broad we may not be able to find it, our response could be delayed or in some cases we may refuse the request.

The Freedom of Information Act requires that we publish a series of statements.

These are called the " Freedom of Information Statements [ PDF, 1.14 MB] . The statements include a description of Yarra City Council’s powers, functions, documents and information that we keep and how you can access them.

The freedom of information application fee is $32.70. The fee needs to be paid before your request is processed.

There may be additional processing fees (for searches, supervision or photocopying) but we will tell you about these as needed.

For questions regarding Freedom of Information, please contact info@yarracity.vic.gov.au.