Fishermans Bend is Australia’s largest urban renewal project, a revitalising vision of five new precincts across two municipalities, the City of Melbourne and the City of Port Phillip.
Covering approximately 480 hectares, Fishermans Bend aims to connect Melbourne’s CBD to the bay via neighbouring areas, including the existing Docklands. The government-endorsed vision for the precinct is one of “a thriving place that is a leading example for environmental sustainability, liveability, connectivity, diversity, and innovation”, and it has a $197.7 million backing from the Victorian Government.
The Fishermans Bend Framework outlines the long-term strategic plan to guide the development of the precinct over the next 30 years up to 2055, when 80,000 residents are expected to call Fishermans Bend home. Early work on Stage 1 was completed in 2024, including demolition of vacant plant and equipment, site remediation works, service relocations, and early civil works to prepare the land for the remainder of Stage 1, which includes new roads and a public park. There is, however, a way to go.
Future key milestones
Other key milestones outlined in the framework have been supported by evidence-based research reports, strategies, and plans, alongside community engagement and collaboration with other stakeholders. This includes:
Transport upgrades
Transport is being heavily invested in across Fishermans Bend. 80% of transport movement is planned to be made by public transport, walking, and cycling, supported by an integrated transport strategy. This includes new cycle paths, as well as;
- 1,500 new weekly bus services on routes between Fishermans Bay and the city.
- $15 million in funding to support public transport planning, with the preferred route for a possible rail tunnel and station location in Docklands, Sandridge, and Innovation Precinct being confirmed in 2024.
- A $16 million investment in road safety upgrades and a $1.5 million Road Safety Plan to support safer access to schools in the area.
Housing development
To date, nearly 5000 dwellings have been built or are under construction in Fishermans Bend, with an aim to be completed by the end of 2025. The current development pipeline has a further 15,000 dwellings in train, which represents 41% of the overall growth target to house 80,000 residents. This pipeline includes almost 600 affordable housing dwellings and 100 social housing dwellings.
Maintenance of open spaces
Fishermans Bend aims to have all residents and workers within 200m walking distance of an open space. The framework has identified 25.47 hectares of new open space, which will be combined with an additional 16.8 hectares of existing open space.
Education
The Victorian government’s promise to open 100 new schools by 2026 includes three locations in the Fishermans Bend area. This encompasses schools already operating, including South Melbourne Primary School, which opened in 2018, and Port Melbourne Secondary School, which opened in 2022, and the upcoming Fishermans Bend Primary School (interim name), which is scheduled to open in 2026.
Planning for two additional schools is also already in progress, with sites in Sandridge and Larimer identified as future primary schools, and the University of Melbourne will also establish its new School of Engineering and Design here in 2026.
What does this mean for the Docklands?
To understand the potential impact of Fisherman’s Bend on the Docklands, we must first take a quick dive back through the Docklands’ contentious history.
There are arguments that the Docklands development was mismanaged from the start, which turned what was supposed to be a thriving hotspot on Melbourne’s landscape into a dead town. During the 1990s, plans were made to turn the toxic swamp and industrial wasteland into an inner-city oasis, but the government elected to withhold public subsidies from the Docklands, leaving the difficult job of building on the contaminated swamps to developers who were willing to take the risk. The land was also released to the market en masse in an attempt to orchestrate an “instant city” approach a new brand of building built by market interest with no government investment.
While this method of selling created a property boom and brought some initial economic gains, shortcomings in government planning, including a lack of amenities like parks, schools, and cultural sites, inefficient control over building heights and design resulting in less-than-stellar apartment towers and corporate offices which took up prime real estate, resulting in a postcode characterised by empty shopfronts and concrete mazes of nothing.
The suburb’s reputation was further impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic when the fabled tourist attraction, “the observation wheel”, was closed, the removal of the 100-year-old Central Pier was announced, and several popular hospitality venues were forced to close up shop.
Although there have been some successful efforts to rejuvenate the area since, including the construction of an award-winning library and the welcoming of a few large, significant businesses, Docklands is still largely defined by its failure, particularly by Melbourne locals. The urban makeover of Fishermans Bend, however, has the potential to make a far greater impact than anything previously seen, and perhaps places some hope on the horizon.
With the estimated 80,000 residents and employment opportunities for up to 80,000 people by 2055, the Fishermans Bend urban renewal project is an opportunity that should not be missed, and can help make the Docklands a gateway between the city and growing surrounds instead of nothing more than an eyesore.
With this growing population next door, and perhaps the addition of attractions that make central Melbourne so appealing, like duty-free shops that adhere to duty-free limits in Australia, or its famous laneway culture, the Fishermans Bend makeover is not only a fantastic initiative on its own, but it also has the potential to lift the Docklands’ reputation, creating a single vibrant destination to visit, live, work, and invest in attracting all types of businesses, from local startups to gift wholesalers australia looking for a new hub.
