Melbourne
Your City of Melbournemagazine
August –September 2015
Contents
Lord Mayor’s Message
Spending wisely and investing in our city
Queen Victoria Market renewal update
Your say
Letter of the month
Email rates notices
Participate Melbourne
Reconcilliations Action Plan
City Road master plan
City laneways go smoke-free
Safety first for kensington community
Building a stronger connected Docklands
New haven for boating visitors
A creative solution for empty spcaes
Free winter firewords
Robyne Latham: The Aborigine is Present
The fine art of creating creativity
Access all areas: Melbourne Open House
New MPavilion designer announced
Winning indeas from wonderful writers
Elm tree anniversary
Events calendar
Sport
A sweet story for community programs
Making the most of every opportunity
Great grants and sponsorships: Applications dates
Grand music dreams come true
In brief
IBM Smarter Cities
Green light for Urban Forests
Blackbox showcases Melbourne innovation in Milan
Plau On: AFL club songs
Stay healthy this winter
Your Council
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor Robert Doyle
Deputy Lord Mayor Susan Riley
Cr Richard Foster
Cr Rohan Leppert
Cr Kevin Louey
Cr Stephen Mayne
Cr Cathy Oke
Cr Ken Ong
Cr Beverley Pinder-Mortimer
Cr Jackie Watts
Cr Arron Wood
Postal address for all councillors
Council meetings June 2015
Council meetings July 2015
Lord Mayor’s Commendations
Mackay Branson Design
Contact
National Relay Service
In person
Postal address
Feedback
Audio version
Lord Mayor’s Message
This time next year, work will be underway on the biggest project in Melbourne City Council’s history, the Queen Victoria Market Precinct Renewal Project.This project will forever connect the market to the city and its heritage.
Over the last year we have achieved a number of exciting project milestones. We’ve completed four rounds of community consultation, approved a planning scheme amendment to guide development in the precinct, which is currently on the Victorian Planning Minister’s desk for consideration, settled on the $76 million purchase of the ‘Munro’ site and released the master plan.
Our planning scheme amendment will eradicate the ad-hoc, hodgepodge approach that has been applied to development in the area until now. There will be certainty. There will be consistency. The city will be brought right up to the market’s door, creating a new sense of vibrancy and connectivity.
The master plan will retain what we all love about the market, such as the fresh meat and produce and speciality shops, while facilitating a contemporary retail offer and the realignment of Franklin Street to create an important east-west connection.
Our growing community of inner-Melbourne residents will have a new public open space to enjoy when it replaces the current car park. It will become the jewel in the crown of the market: a new meeting place where people can socialise, enjoy their wares purchased from the traders or just relax and absorb the atmosphere.
Our vision is for the market precinct to play an active role in the life of the city from first thing in the morning right through into the evening. That doesn’t mean that stallholders will have to work 24/7, but that there will be an ever-changing, seasonal offer using interchangeable spaces that can be shared by permanent and short-term traders over the course of the day and the week.
Shoppers won’t need a timetable: during the day, in the evening and even into the night you’ll go down to the market and the lights will be on.
I am also committed to maintaining the market’s connection to our history which is imperative considering it is the site of Melbourne’s first cemetery.
Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt has nominated the Queen Victoria Market for inclusion on Australia’s National Heritage List. This is the first step towards UNESCO World Heritage Listing.
The market has traded continually as a market since 1878 and predates Melbourne’s only current UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Royal Exhibition Building and its surrounding Carlton Gardens.
In the last 30 years alone, half the city has been rebuilt or redeveloped, but for 137 years QVM has been a constant in the story of our society and economy, a story which will continue well into the future.
Great Cities are Connected Cities
Melbourne is one of Australia’s fastest growing municipalities. More than 850,000 people move through the city every day and this figure is expected to increase to almost 1.2 million by 2030. More people means more movement in and around the city as people go to work, to university, to sporting events, or any of the city’s many retail and hospitality options.
The City of Melbourne’s Transport Strategy acknowledges this anticipated growth and encourages the increased uptake of walking, cycling and public transport. The new Melbourne Metro Rail Project willopen up a range of new transport options for residents, commuters and visitors, and when finished, will alleviate the pressure continued growth puts on the existing public transport network.The project will see the construction of two nine-kilometre underground rail tunnels that stretch from South Kensington in the inner-west, though to South Yarra in the south-east.
New underground stations, located at Arden, Parkville, CBD North, CBD South and Domain, will improve access to public transport and provide users with more options to interchange with other modes of transport such as trams and buses.Major improvements in capacity, reliability and frequency of services on Melbourne’s busiest train lines will be achieved through the project, with space created for anadditional 20,000 passengers in peak hour.
The project’s delivery is being overseenby the Melbourne Metro Rail Authority,with the State Government of Victoriacommitting $1.5 billion to the project in the2015–16 State Budget to progress planningand development for the project.The City of Melbourne will work inpartnership with the State Government tohelp communicate the project’s rollout overthe coming years.
For more information, visit theMelbourne Metro Rail Project[1].
Your say
Letter of the month
I just wanted to write and let you know how much I enjoyed the tour of the Melbourne Town Hall. The fabulous volunteer guide, Ray was extremely knowledgeable and had an obvious love for the building and its history. The concierge on duty that morning, another charming gentleman, was also extremely helpful. It was a great experience in a great city.
Anne Rout, Apollo Bay
Where can I find a map of taxi rank locations in Melbourne?
For an interactive map of taxi rank locations in the City of Melbourne visit maps.melbourne.vic.gov.au and select ‘City Explorer’ from the menu on the left, then click on ‘Taxi Ranks’. A map of the municipality, pin pointing taxi rank locations, will be created to match your request.
If you need a taxi late at night, the City of Melbourne also runs four Safe City taxi ranks. Each rank is staffed by a security officer in uniform and is monitored by security camera. They run from 11pm Friday to 5am Saturday and 11pm Saturday to 5am Sunday.
Safe City taxi rank locations:
Queen Street (between Little Collins and Bourke streets)
Flinders Street Station (on Swanston Street)
190 Bourke Street (near Russell Street)
8 King Street (near Flinders Street)
Participate Melbourne
Have your say online atParticipate Melbourne[2].
Join the conversation
Participate Melbourne makes it easy for people to learn about and join the conversation on some of our most important projects. Register your interest on Participate Melbourne to stay informed.
Last kilometre freight
A growing city needs more deliveries to fill shops and offices with the things people need. Following our first phase of consultation in March, a draft plan for last kilometre freight was developed. Consultation on this plan will take place in August.
Rail Project Takes a Look Underground
Site investigations for the Melbourne Metro Rail Project are now underway.
Information gathered on ground conditions and soil quality will help inform the alignment, depth and design of the new rail tunnels, tunnel entrances and underground stations.
The investigation program includes approximately 140 boreholes at locations across the central city and along the proposed rail line. The first stage began in April with the drilling of boreholes in the Arden and Lloyd Street areas, central city and Swanston Street, Domain parkland and the Domain interchange.
The date and scope of the second stage of site investigations will be decided following the findings of the initial investigations.
For more information, visit the Melbourne Metro Rail Project[3].
Next Step for Market Precinct
Plans to revitalise the Queen Victoria Market precinct are now well underway.
To realise the vision outlined in the Queen Victoria Market Renewal Master Plan and meet our obligations set out in the agreement with the State Government for the future of the market precinct, the City of Melbourne has proposed a new planning scheme amendment.
The current planning controls for the area surrounding the market were created many years ago. Since then the city hasundergone significant change and new development has taken place in and around the area. Development controls need to be updated to recognise that the market precinct is now very much a part of the central city.
Planning Scheme Amendment C245 will help guide the use and development of the Queen Victoria Market precinct, based on current and future needs.
The proposed amendment is respectful of the heritage and cultural significance of the Queen Victoria Market, while acknowledging that the city will continue to grow up to and around the edge of the precinct.
To view the amendment, visit the City of Melbourne’s online engagement hubParticipate Melbourne[4].
Why Walking is Big Business
Walking is often overlooked as a major mode of transport, but in the central city, walking is how most people get to where they need to go.
In 2010, the Department of Transport found that walking accounted for 66 per cent of all trips in the City of Melbourne. This figure was even higher in the central city where 86 per cent of trips are on foot.
Councillor Cathy Oke, Chair of the Transport Portfolio said, ‘The main reason people come into the city is for work and in the busy central city environment, walking is the easiest way to get around’.
According to research by SGS Planning and Economics, improving the City of Melbourne’s walking network by 10 per cent would add $2.1 billion to the local economy.
The City of Melbourne’s Walking Plan highlights the contribution walking makes to the municipality and the economy, and outlines a practical plan to improve the pedestrian network and encourage more walking.
‘Melbourne’s current pedestrian network has many links through city blocks and more are being created as the city grows.
Places like the historic Block Arcade have been echoed in recent developments like Goldsborough Lane on the corner of Bourke and William streets, and Southern Cross Lane at 121 Exhibition Street, which runs across the site of the old Southern Cross Hotel,’ Cr Oke said.
An intricate pedestrian network increases the amount of street frontage for businesses, which leads to increased business and job opportunities generated by the increased number of potential customers walking past.
The new Melbourne Metro train stations will also generate more walking trips. As new routes are established the Walking Plan will help guide the development of walking in these areas.
For more information, visit the transport in the City of Melbourne[5].
30 Years of the City Loop
This year marks 30 years since the completion of the City Loop, when Flagstaff Station opened on 27 May 1985.
Planning for the City Loop dates back as early as 1929. At the time Flinders Street was one of the busiest railway stations in the world and suffered from high levels of congestion as the chief gateway to the city.
The depression and World War II saw interest in a loop wane, but the idea was revived in the 1960s and 70s when Flinders Street Station recorded just 10 trains passed through the station per platform, per hour – or roughly 1,700 trains a day.
The opening of the Melbourne Underground Rail Loop in 1985, provided capacity for increased passenger numbers which underpinned jobs growth and opened up the northern end of the central city for high rise commercial and residential development.
The number of jobs in central Melbourne has nearly doubled since 1985 and the City Loop is now at capacity as the number of people catching public transport to work continues to grow.
Mapping the future of cycling in the city
An interactive map has captured the attention and the feedback of thousands of Melbourne cyclists.With the Bicycle Plan 2012–16 almost at an end, work has begun to develop a new four-year bicycle plan for the period 2016–20.
The first phase of public consultation took place in April and May, with an overwhelming response from the community. More than 7000 contributions were made via an interactive Crowd Spot map on Participate Melbourne – the largest response on the City of Melbourne’s online platform to date.
Participants were invited to highlight areas on an interactive map where they liked to ride and where they felt conditions for cyclists could be improved.
One-thousand spots were identified, 1460 comments posted and 4700 indications of support made for other comments. These contributions are now being analysed even further to uncover patterns, themes, gaps in the bicycle network and priorities for the next bike plan.
Transport portfolio chair, Councillor Cathy Oke said: ‘Over the last three years there has been a significant investment in our cycling infrastructure in line with the actions of the Bicycle Plan 2012–16. Improvements include new on-road and off-road cycling routes, improved links and transitions between paths and increased bicycle parking.
‘This growing network of safe and connected bicycle-friendly routes can only get better as we analyse and respond to the feedback from those using the network’.
A draft of the new plan will be available for formal community engagement later this year.
For more information, visit cycling at the City of Melbourne[6].
Good homes for lost bikes
Abandoned and unclaimed bicycles were given a new lease of life as part of a road safety initiative late last year.
Bicycles abandoned in the municipality are held by the City of Melbourne for three months. Those which remain unclaimed are sent to Good Cycles, a not-for-profit mobile bike repair service, to be reconditioned.
Good Cycles then works with cycling advocacy organisation Squeaky Wheel, on behalf of City of Melbourne, to deliver Good Wheel, a program for local residents with limited access to bikes or knowledge of cycling.
Good Wheel participants were provided with a bicycle, which was theirs to keep upon completion of the program, along with a helmet (donated by Nutcase), a lock (donated by Knog) and lights. The program taught basic bike maintenance, road safety and travel planning.
Jette Achleitner, the Acting Executive Director of Squeaky Wheel said: ‘with this bicycle they get an affordable form of transport, they gain mobility and the ability to connect with their community. The program also gives participants the skills to ride safely in traffic’.
Behind the seams, MSFW: Designer runways
For fashion designers and fashion-conscious consumers alike, Melbourne Spring Fashion Week (MSFW) is the premier consumer fashion event of the season.
Presented by City of Melbourne, MSFW showcases our thriving fashion and retail scene with a unique program of shopping, entertainment and hospitality experiences.
Every year the Melbourne Town Hall provides a dramatic backdrop for the annual MSFW: Designer runway series. The runways are an opportunity for Australia’s design elite to showcase their spring/summer collections, highlighting key colours and styles for the coming season.
For Kristy Barber, the creative force behind Melbourne based womenswear label Kuwaii, 2015 will be her fifth time down the MSFW runway.
‘It’s always a lot of work. The days and the weeks leading up are always incredibly stressful; running around procuring last minute samples, adjusting fits and tweaking looks and watching and analysing the dress rehearsal. By the time the show comes around, I have had a champagne or two and I am pretty excited to watch the show’.