This document summarizes planning challenges for infrastructure and housing development in Melbourne's outer suburbs. It discusses how population growth is driving demand for new housing estates, but infrastructure investment has not kept pace. Experts argue up-front government funding is needed for infrastructure to support new communities and make housing accessible, rather than relying on developer contributions after the fact. The summary also highlights innovative planning approaches being considered to better connect new suburbs with jobs and services through improved transportation.

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Field of Dreams
Planning for the future isn’t as cut and dried as providing money
for infrastructure, as NICOLE BITTAR discovers
“Melbourne’s planning for suburban
residential expansion is the envy of the nation”
I
T’S a well-worn line from a cheesy 1980s film, “If you build
it, they will come”, but it evokes fresh resonance in relation
to new housing estates. But whom is building what, whom
will come, how will they get there and why should new-
home buyers move to Melbourne’s Urban Growth Zones?
With increasing residential development in outlying
regions and an estimated population increase of 100,000 each
year according to Real Estate Institute of Victoria figures, solid
infrastructure investment is more important than ever.
This is the overriding message of outgoing REIV chief
executive Enzo Raimondo, who said “amenities investment in
suburbs more than 20km from the city is necessary for these
suburbs to remain attractive to home buyers”.
“Given the significant growth in Melbourne’s outer suburbs
in the past two quarters, improved road and rail infrastructure
will drive continued price growth in areas further from the city
and within commuting distance of the CBD,” Raimondo said.
Coupled with new Budget measures, including $2.9 billion
for Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel, $1.46 billion for the Western
Distributor, $924 million for new and upgraded schools, and
$982 million in improvements to the state’s health system, the
future looks bright for an infrastructure/new housing estate
duality in Victoria.
The Housing Industry Association said with new home
starts remaining strong (around 200,000 in 2016), it
was important to see innovative solutions to our cities’
infrastructure challenges to meet the long-term needs of
Australia’s growing and ageing population. But is this the
case?
Malcolm Turnbull’s Smart Cities plan, announced in
April, promises to eradicate the blank-cheque mentality of
bygone eras for infrastructure projects. Instead, a $50 million
budget to accelerate development planning between the
Commonwealth and private funders will be implemented.
The policy document promotes the concept of a “30-minute
city” – one in which, “no matter where you live, you can easily
access the places you need to visit on a daily basis”. Such
cities will allow people to live further from the CBD, making
new housing more appealing and affordable.
The document states that pressure is growing on “housing
affordability, access to local jobs and our natural environment,
as well as increasing congestion and traffic”. And that the
government will “prioritise projects that meet broader
economic and city objectives, such as accessibility, jobs,
affordable housing and healthy environments”.
ALBERT George Dennis, OAM, who heads Dennis Family
Corporation and is better known as Bert, is more circumspect
about the government-private practice duality.
“A major problem in funding new infrastructure in growth
areas is the timing between collecting the contribution and
building the infrastructure. While contributions are collected
progressively, infrastructure cannot be built progressively.
For example, you can’t build half a bridge if that’s all the
collected funding allows. It can’t be constructed progressively
or incrementally; it has to be built in its entirety. Therefore, we
believe governments need to fund new infrastructure up front
to allow it to proceed in a timely manner, and progressively
collect contributions from developers,” Dennis said.
Dennis recalls in the early 1980s, the Federal Government
in Australia was using its superior borrowing capability to
provide loans and grants to the states and municipalities for
the provision of infrastructure. But it opted in 1984 to head
down the “user-pays” path.
“At the time, it was providing $10 billion per annum in loans
and grants to the states. Over the next decade, this $10 billion
yearly sum was reduced to zero, which has subsequently
reduced the level of infrastructure now in the ground,” Dennis
said.
Pressure was also placed on Australia’s states and
municipalities to reduce their borrowings for infrastructure. By
the mid-1990s, municipalities started to impose development
contributions. The development industry then sought to pass
these costs back to the original landowner when acquiring
properties for future development. But when this was
hampered by shortages of broad hectare supplies, the costs
were ultimately passed on to the eventual lot purchaser.
“The infrastructure that was provided in the 1980s was
gradually used up and there is little spare capacity left,” he
said.
THE heady days of the 1980s seem a distant memory to agent
for change and chief executive officer at Woodlea Estate, Matt
Dean. As one of the largest master-planned communities in
Australia, Woodlea Estate at Rockbank - about 27km west of
the CBD - will undoubtedly be a huge asset to its area, said
Dean, with an investment of $2.5 billion into the economy and
a further $200 million into the delivery of new community
infrastructure and assets.
Woodlea will span 711 hectares and feature 7000 new
houses, which will be home to about 20,000 new residents. The
sociological benefits are equally impressive.
“New housing estates have a great responsibility to meet
the demands of Australia’s future population, including the
estimated 80,000 students across Victoria in the next five
years,” Dean said.
“This is why Woodlea is working with the State Government
to help deliver its policy of Victoria becoming the Education
State, with a provision for four future school sites within the
masterplan. Furthermore, an agreement has already been
OPPOSITE PAGE:
Airports are just one small cog of the
infrastructure puzzle
Picture: CRAIG NEWELL

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signed with Bacchus Marsh Grammar School to deliver a
private primary school (Prep to Year 6).
“Providing new infrastructure, and delivering it up front in
the development lifecycle is an invaluable facet to consider
when creating Australia’s new housing estates.”
He insists that a relationship with local and state
governments was vital to ensuring the ongoing support and
delivery of objectives to residents of these estates.
“At Woodlea, we have worked closely with the state of
Victoria across numerous initiatives from day one,” Dean said.
METROPOLITAN Planning Authority’s Victorian chief executive
Peter Seamer mirrors Dean’s views on new housing’s
popularity and proactivity.
He agreed that Melbourne’s outer suburbs were proving
to be very popular, with waiting lists needed for many new
estates.
“One large factor driving this growth is housing affordability,
with land and property prices in Melbourne’s growth
communities being about 40 per cent lower than Sydney’s
equivalent,” Seamer said. “Further to this, the abundance of
green space and well-designed new town centres that are
within 1km of 90 per cent of all houses are also driving buyer
interest in new estates.”
Planning for good transport is central to the way the MPA
designs new suburbs. Underpinning this are the Victorian
Government’s Precinct Structure Planning (PSP) guidelines,
which outline key requirements that all new suburbs must
meet. These guidelines state that adequate transport facilities
must be included in the design of new areas, allowing
residents to travel to shops, jobs, schools and other key
services safely and efficiently.
“When planning new precincts, the MPA ensures new
suburbs are appropriately connected to the arterial road
network, so residents can travel with ease to the rest of
Melbourne. The State Government collects a levy from
developers, known as the Growth Areas Infrastructure
Contribution, which has been used to fund roads. The GAIC
can pay for up to 15 per cent of state infrastructure works in
growth areas,” he said.
However, Seamer said it was worth noting one of the MPA’s
key roles was to increase jobs in Melbourne’s middle and outer
suburbs, ease congestion on roads and public transport, and
give people back precious family time. It is planning for the
growth of six National Employment Clusters, including the
existing clusters of Monash, Parkville and South Dandenong
and future clusters at Sunshine, La Trobe and East Werribee.
“By creating jobs in our middle and outer suburbs, people
living in new growth areas will have the opportunity to work
closer to their homes,” Seamer said.
THIS is a widely promoted imperative. Infrastructure
Victoria (IV), the federal statutory authority co-ordinating
infrastructure, recently supported the Royal Automobile Club
of Victoria’s calls for major transport infrastructure.
Director of Strategy Adele McCarthy said IV was
undertaking an extensive community consultation with all
levels of government, private sector and non-government
stakeholders, academics and researchers, professional
associations and interest groups, and the broader community,
to canvass all views.
IV is also running two citizen juries – one in metropolitan
Melbourne and one in regional Victoria – whereby 43 everyday
people will read evidence, hear testimony, deliberate and
eventually make recommendations.
This consultation will inform the draft and final strategy,
which McCarthy said would be submitted to Parliament by the
end of the year.
“We know that many new suburbs in high-growth areas
already suffer from a shortage of infrastructure, particularly
access to convenient public transport solutions,” McCarthy
said.
Infrastructure: the world
around us
From a global perspective, the view looks rosy.
A universal focus on implementing sustainable
infrastructure practices is on the agenda, irrespective of
sociological or economical status.
The United Nations recently issued a report on the
need for developing sustainable infrastructure for the
world’s cities. It is clear the economic benefits of healthy
infrastructure match the environmental ones.
More than 30 projects sourced globally earned
recognition for setting benchmarks in sustainable
infrastructure. Noteworthy are the proposed zero-carbon
desert city of Masdar in the United Arab Emirates, which
aims to wrap buildings in solar panels angled to capture
wind energy, as well as an electric transport system that
will be anchored around personal transit pods.
In Vaxjo, a city of 82,000 in the south of Sweden, a
fossil fuel-free program that began in 1996 aims to
decrease emissions 100 per cent by 2030. And the
Brazilian city of Curitiba is lauded for its bus-rapid
transport system, but its most impressive sustainability
measures have come through waste-management
programs. Much of this success has come from providing
the community incentives to recycle, including officials
offering bus passes in exchange for bags of waste.
More than ever, nations big and small, rich and poor,
are recognising the implicit need to implement practices
that will benefit future generations and, ultimately, the
planet. The World Commission on Environment and
Development in 1987 defined sustainable infrastructure
as “development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of the future
generations to meet their own needs”.
In the long run, the main goal of sustainable
infrastructure is to promote sustainable living among
the entire population. One such community doing exactly
that is Ashton Hayes, a village of about 1000 people in
England that aims to be carbon neutral. According to
its development plan, it hopes to return to hydroelectric
power and plant 16,000 trees, among other sustainably
meritorious initiatives.
If 1000 residents can adopt a collective carbon-neutral
footprint in their region, imagine the economical and
environmental gains if a city of 5.2 million inhabitants,
such as Melbourne, makes the long-term switch to
developing and maintaining sustainable infrastructure.
- Nicole Bittar
Buses, health facilities and trains (opposite, top)
are major infrastructure elements that planners
consider for the future in urban growth areas
Pictures: CRAIG NEWELL, images courtesy of
Public Transport Victoria
OPPOSITE PAGE
Wind energy is central to the zero-carbon city
ambitions of Masdar in the UAE
Picture: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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REVERSING the trend with infrastructure
first and land sales later, Stonybrook
Hillside is happy to buck the trend.
“Unlike a lot of new house-and-land
developments, residents coming to
Stonybrook don’t have to worry about
when all the lifestyle amenities will
be delivered, they are already here
to embrace and enjoy,” YourLand
Developments director Mark Erskine said.
Erskine knows that successful new
housing estates depend on the “ability to
create broadly appealing communities
with rich social fabric and the company
achieves this by being authentic, highly
collaborative and genuinely caring”.
He said Stonybrook has shifted the
timing for pre-selling allotments to the
later stages of the process to focus on
providing buyers with certainty on timing.
Potential residents will also benefit
from an established residential
community, with shopping centres,
schools, parks and public transport at
their doorstep. It is near Watergardens
Town Centre, arterial roads, golf courses,
wineries, national parks, schools and
many more essential lifestyle and
community services.
Stony Hill Creek, one of Melbourne’s
most significant waterways, is a key
visual element of the project and was
reconfigured to create a scenic lake in the
heart of the development.
“As well as the Stage 1 land release,
we also have a number of architecturally
designed homes for sale, suited to buyers
who want to move straight in,” Erskine
said.
“Having partnered with four key
builders at Stonybrook, we are already
experiencing a high level of interest
because the builders have clients looking
for titled land, so they can build right now.
“We have witnessed, first hand, the
huge demand for new homes across
“We also know that in the next 30 years, these outer-
suburban areas will continue to grow at a rapid rate, and that
much of the population growth forecast for Victoria will be
concentrated within these high-growth areas. As a result, we
are looking at a range of ways to address the existing gaps and
manage future demand, particularly around how to connect
communities living in outer metropolitan Melbourne with
jobs,” McCarthy said.
Measures being considered include extending rail or tram
lines, improving timetabling for better integration across
the network and extending or improving bus or mass-transit
networks. Others might include pricing mechanisms to
make the transport system – including our roads and public
transport system – more efficient.
“We also need to think more broadly about the role of
information and communications technology, flexible working
conditions and options to bring people and jobs closer
together, to reduce the need to travel.
“Public transport will be an important part of the strategy,
and we’ve heard strong support from the community for
improvements. But our infrastructure strategy does not just
look at transport; it looks at nine sectors, including education,
health and housing, information and communications
technology, justice and emergency services, energy, water
and waste, agriculture, science and environment, and civic,
cultural, tourism and recreation.
“We are preparing an options paper with nearly 300 ideas
for Victoria’s future. At this stage, everything is on the table,
but we need the community’s help to prioritise what we
proceed with.”
Victorian president of the Planning Institute Australia,
James Larmour-Reid, concurs with McCarthy.
“The focus of public attention in Melbourne has been
expensive infrastructure projects. Melbourne Metro, East-
West link, railway, road and rail-grade separation,” Larmour-
Reid said. “Few Melburnians, however, would realise that
the apparent rush to implement grade separation along the
Pakenham/Cranbourne/Frankston lines has as much to do
with rapid population growth in the south-east and the urgent
need to deliver improved rail capacity for city commuters, as it
does with rail safety and traffic movement.
“Melbourne’s planning is guided by Plan Melbourne, which
is currently being ‘refreshed’ to bring it up to date with the
latest thinking. The MPA uses this document to help develop
plans at a growth corridor level, and at an even finer level,
Precinct Structure Plans (PSPs),” he said.
“These mandate the structural form of suburbs and provide
the basis for cost calculation of development contributions
(DCPs) for specific infrastructure, including roads and
community facilities that will be the responsibility of VicRoads
or council in the future. The land developer is required to
provide DCP funds for the nominated purposes, and is also
subject to a Growth Area Infrastructure Charge (GAIC), which
is available for other state infrastructure, dependent upon
need.
“While facilities funded by DCPs are linked to specific
timing estimates, GAIC funds are controlled by State Treasury
and require a business case-like proposal for the release of
money for works.
“As a part of the development of PSPs, the MPA
co-ordinates with the planning programs of state agencies
such as Public Transport Victoria, Melbourne Water and the
water supply agencies,” Larmour-Reid said.
He added that the provision of most rail infrastructure,
recurrent costs for bus services, and major freeway works are
not included in the funding, and are the responsibility of the
state and Commonwealth.
News that the Commonwealth has created a Minister for
Cities role to develop a program for city improvement has
been welcomed. It is anticipated this initiative will continue
as bipartisan policy after the next election, and hopefully
funds will be provided for major infrastructure in a carefully
considered way.
“Both the state and land developers monitor the housing
market closely to ensure that demand does not exceed supply
– placing upward pressure on housing prices, as appears to
be the case in Sydney, for example. Melbourne’s relatively
affordable housing prices are a combination of good planning,
a land supply that meets population needs, and a competitive
market for housing delivery,” Larmour-Reid said.
“THE development of Melbourne’s suburbs has changed
dramatically in a generation. Places that were on the fringe
of Melbourne in the 1980s and ’90s are now well-established
suburbs. Long-sought-after services have generally been
provided. Although Melbourne’s boundary has extended to
accommodate its extraordinary anticipated growth towards a
city of nearly eight million residents, difficulties experienced by
this generation of young families on the fringe are different to
those experienced in an earlier era,” Larmour-Reid said.
“They are a consequence, not of poor planning, but of such
fast growth to a large city.
“Melbourne’s planning for suburban residential expansion
is the envy of the nation. Sydney and Brisbane face similar
rapid growth, but have prepared less systematically for the
delivery of amenities and infrastructure.
“Sydney in particular is still playing planning catch-up after
years of population growth-denial starting with the former Bob
Carr Labor government.
“The combination of natural population growth and
sustained high immigration has destined the nation to be
home to three of the world’s larger cities in the next few
decades,” Larmour-Reid concluded.
The final word goes to Adele McCarthy from Infrastructure
Victoria.
“Our 30-year infrastructure strategy will be a blueprint for
Victoria’s future needs, but it will be the big picture, not the
whole picture,” McCarthy said.
“Once we’ve mapped out a vision, there is still a lot of
work to be done by state and local governments and relevant
agencies, in consultation with local communities, to roll out
the necessary infrastructure.
“Our strategy will help to identify new and innovative ways
of ensuring all communities – including those living in new
housing estates, inner-city areas, regional cities and rural
areas – can access the services they need.
“During our consultation phase, we will be encouraging
people to bring forward new ideas, including suggestions for
how we can use technology to better access services. We also
invite people to point out anything that we’ve missed.”
Melbourne, and noticed that buyers are
keen to secure their future as soon as it
becomes available.
“Buying land off the plan suits those
who are happy to wait for the title to come
through. However, if you don’t, it can be
a source of frustration, and many buyers
find it difficult to plan around,” Erskine
said.
Future releases will provide options for
land and houses available, with the Stage
2 release already constructed.
YourLand Developments was
established seven years ago in Bendigo.
“We have found success by adapting
each of our unique projects to respond
to the needs and wants of each market
and Stonybrook is yet another example
of understanding the market and
responding,” Erskine said.
For more details about the development,
visit stonybrook.com.au
The MYKI ticketing system is used by millions of
people each year, something that urban planners
must consider, years in advance
Picture: CRAIG NEWELL, image courtesy of Public
Transport Victoria