Saw this on the news earlier this evening. An outer ring road to bound in the sprawl, and then sprawl will spread over, and then there will be another ring road, and sprawl...... goes on and on, we're doomed.
Melbournes sprawl to get worse
Looks like Melbourne will just keep on spreading forever.
Land released to house Melbourne boom
June 17, 2009
Article from: Australian Associated Press
THE Victorian Government has announced it will release an extra 41,000 hectares of land for new housing to accommodate Melbourne's population boom.
The extension of the urban growth boundary in Melbourne's north, west and south-east will accommodate an extra 284,000 new houses.
The draft plan also includes the proposed alignment of the outer metropolitan ring road and the regional rail link, which will include up to six new train stations in Melbourne's western suburbs growth areas.
Announcing the new boundaries today, Planning Minister Justin Madden said it was the most significant project undertaken to meet Melbourne's future housing and transport needs.
"Last December, the Government said it would expand the UGB to accommodate 284,000 more dwellings in growth areas to maintain housing affordability and manage population growth," he said.
"We need more homes to accommodate our growing population, so we must plan now and give future growths areas communities access to the transport, jobs, education, goods and services, health facilities and open space they need and expect."
The plan includes a controversial $95,000 per hectare land tax on property in the expanded boundary areas.
The tax is charged when land owners sell and the Government says it will help pay for infrastructure and services, including roads, schools and public transport.
Mr Madden said the tax would net the Government about $2 billion.
However, property values would increase 10-fold when the land was rezoned, he said.
Under the $4.3 billion regional rail link project, 50km of new track will be laid, with the first new train stations built at Manor Lakes, Wyndham Vale and Rose Grange in Tarneit.
The proposed outer ring road will create a northwest transport link through Werribee, Melton, Tullamarine, Craigieburn and from the metropolitan ring road in Bundoora to Donnybrook.
Three hundred properties are expected to be acquired to make way for the new road.
The public has until July 17 to comment on the plan.
Land released to house Melbourne boom
June 17, 2009
Article from: Australian Associated Press
THE Victorian Government has announced it will release an extra 41,000 hectares of land for new housing to accommodate Melbourne's population boom.
The extension of the urban growth boundary in Melbourne's north, west and south-east will accommodate an extra 284,000 new houses.
The draft plan also includes the proposed alignment of the outer metropolitan ring road and the regional rail link, which will include up to six new train stations in Melbourne's western suburbs growth areas.
Announcing the new boundaries today, Planning Minister Justin Madden said it was the most significant project undertaken to meet Melbourne's future housing and transport needs.
"Last December, the Government said it would expand the UGB to accommodate 284,000 more dwellings in growth areas to maintain housing affordability and manage population growth," he said.
"We need more homes to accommodate our growing population, so we must plan now and give future growths areas communities access to the transport, jobs, education, goods and services, health facilities and open space they need and expect."
The plan includes a controversial $95,000 per hectare land tax on property in the expanded boundary areas.
The tax is charged when land owners sell and the Government says it will help pay for infrastructure and services, including roads, schools and public transport.
Mr Madden said the tax would net the Government about $2 billion.
However, property values would increase 10-fold when the land was rezoned, he said.
Under the $4.3 billion regional rail link project, 50km of new track will be laid, with the first new train stations built at Manor Lakes, Wyndham Vale and Rose Grange in Tarneit.
The proposed outer ring road will create a northwest transport link through Werribee, Melton, Tullamarine, Craigieburn and from the metropolitan ring road in Bundoora to Donnybrook.
Three hundred properties are expected to be acquired to make way for the new road.
The public has until July 17 to comment on the plan.
1 - 20 of 202 Posts
My view
Has anybody else been listening to media reports? The number of new houses they say will be built is 300,000. Three hundred fucking thousand. That's a pretty big increase :bash:
Haven't seen a detailed map but according to what they had on the news it showed Melton and Wallan both falling under the UGB - the latter being almost 20km from the current end of suburbia at Craigieburn IIRC and into the Mitchell Shire.
They say Melbourne's going forward when Sydney's lagging behind (just see the arguments here) but they're doing a fair bit of densification. Our solution to population growth is a metric shitload of new housing lots for sprawl.
What happened to Melbourne 2030, or any projects for densification at all?
One ring(road) to rule them all....Saw this on the news earlier this evening. An outer ring road to bound in the sprawl, and then sprawl will spread over, and then there will be another ring road, and sprawl...... goes on and on, we're doomed.
Even Auckland has moved slightly beyond this kind of planning with the regional growth boundaries being fairly set in stone.
clearly they're expecting so much growth they cant have it all in dense forms ...
Of course, Goran! Melbourne can do no wrong!
Where is this expansion happening? If it's to the west, then have fun living out there and trying to get into the city, because according to Google maps it's already about 35km to the outer suburbs. However, if it's to the east, that wouldn't be such a bad thing would it, because the suburbs seem to stop after about 10-15km in that direction.
Oh wait yeah, I got my directions mixed up...I'm real smart like that :lol:
By the way, what drugs were the people on when they decided to name one of the suburbs in that map "Nar Nar Goon"?!
By the way, what drugs were the people on when they decided to name one of the suburbs in that map "Nar Nar Goon"?!
Yeh thats right Goran, i live in the far west of Melbourne at Caroline springs and only takes me 20 minutes tops to get to the city, Melbourne sprawls more to the south east.
I'm disappointed there's no freeway from Gisborne to Donnybrook:
![]()
Click here for full size image.
More details/discussion in Victorian thread.
Click here for full size image.
More details/discussion in Victorian thread.
So is the location of that motorway going to mark the urban boundary? That's quite a big increase!
Yeah I don't get it with Goran and his love affair for Melbourne. I don't get why these WA users are so attracted to here like it's a wonderland?Extare said:Of course, Goran! Melbourne can do no wrong!
They're not actually beefing up densities at all, anywhere.
It's a town in West Gippsland, not part of the metropolitan area.adelaidedeano91 said:By the way, what drugs were the people on when they decided to name one of the suburbs in that map "Nar Nar Goon"?!
Bunyip and Tynong are nearby towns :lol:
This all sounds very "1957".
We live in an age where sprawl is a dirty word. We should be increasing density on existing urban footprints, which I'm pretty sure most of the rest of Australia is doing.
This has good and bad effects. By promoting sprawl we are increasing the reliance on private vehicles thus increasing our carbon footprint.
(we all know outer suburbs attract bogans too) - or have we learned nothing from Casey:lol: This could catapult Melbourne into Australia's bogan capital ahead of Western Sydney.
On the other side I know the Victorian Government are doing this in an effort to keep the "Great Australian Dream" of owning a house within the grasp of the average worker - which is a good thing. It also provides a stimulus to the local economy, something the Gold Coast relied upon for most of the 90's. It will attract people from more expensive cities like Sydney, Brisbane and Perth - but is it sustainable?
A recent trip to Victoria (only a few months ago) proved to me that many of the housing estates to the north and west are very badly planned and local Council's have little or no control over environmental aspects in planning. I was shocked when I found out that nearly half the solar hot water services and solar cells in those new suburbs were installed on the southern sides of the roof "because they looked ugly". Oh the residents get a rebate, which takes ages to claw back but Council, and Government cannot dictate where they go.
Sorry about my rant but I was appalled and angry at such waste.
If this land is to be released to developers then the Victorian Government should get tough and impose rules to make these areas totally self sustaining.
J
We live in an age where sprawl is a dirty word. We should be increasing density on existing urban footprints, which I'm pretty sure most of the rest of Australia is doing.
This has good and bad effects. By promoting sprawl we are increasing the reliance on private vehicles thus increasing our carbon footprint.
(we all know outer suburbs attract bogans too) - or have we learned nothing from Casey:lol: This could catapult Melbourne into Australia's bogan capital ahead of Western Sydney.
On the other side I know the Victorian Government are doing this in an effort to keep the "Great Australian Dream" of owning a house within the grasp of the average worker - which is a good thing. It also provides a stimulus to the local economy, something the Gold Coast relied upon for most of the 90's. It will attract people from more expensive cities like Sydney, Brisbane and Perth - but is it sustainable?
A recent trip to Victoria (only a few months ago) proved to me that many of the housing estates to the north and west are very badly planned and local Council's have little or no control over environmental aspects in planning. I was shocked when I found out that nearly half the solar hot water services and solar cells in those new suburbs were installed on the southern sides of the roof "because they looked ugly". Oh the residents get a rebate, which takes ages to claw back but Council, and Government cannot dictate where they go.
Sorry about my rant but I was appalled and angry at such waste.
If this land is to be released to developers then the Victorian Government should get tough and impose rules to make these areas totally self sustaining.
J
Just going to copy from another thread:
An outer ring road? For a start it's not even a ring road, but before they have even begun the western ring road upgrade they are talking about building an outer western ring road, that's sure going to cost a fortune to build.
Though as I think of it, they're going to need some sort of freeway for all the new suburbs out west, as typically PT is going to be dead around there.
Melbourne's road network is going to be a mess in years to come, the population will grow yet people will still use cars as their main form of transport, as they don't have a good alternative.
How's Melbourne's PT going to cope at 5 million people if they are not getting serious right now on improving it?
An outer ring road? For a start it's not even a ring road, but before they have even begun the western ring road upgrade they are talking about building an outer western ring road, that's sure going to cost a fortune to build.
Though as I think of it, they're going to need some sort of freeway for all the new suburbs out west, as typically PT is going to be dead around there.
Melbourne's road network is going to be a mess in years to come, the population will grow yet people will still use cars as their main form of transport, as they don't have a good alternative.
How's Melbourne's PT going to cope at 5 million people if they are not getting serious right now on improving it?
Well a currently in a direct line Cranbourne in the south east is about 50km, Melton in the north west is about 35, Donnybrook in the north is about 40km and Werribee in the south west is about 30km.Where is this expansion happening? If it's to the west, then have fun living out there and trying to get into the city, because according to Google maps it's already about 35km to the outer suburbs. However, if it's to the east, that wouldn't be such a bad thing would it, because the suburbs seem to stop after about 10-15km in that direction.
Nowhere in Melbourne does the sprawl stop after 10-15km apart from directly south which is Port Phillip bay!
Farkk me, we're doomed. In the future when everywhere is dense we will look back on this day in horror 
This is horrendous and I will be writing a letter to Justin Madden, not that it will do much but looking at that map makes me unwell. To think a city with such potential is going to be wasted like this. No foresight whatsoever, a plan that reflects urban design principles of a bygone era.
Unfortunately I think it comes down to giving people what they want rather than what they need. The vast majority of people want to live in a detached home with a backyard because that is what they are used to and feel comfortable with.
1 - 20 of 202 Posts
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