Community to have its say on draft Royal Park Master Plan 

City of Melbourne councillors are expected to vote in favour of endorsing the draft Royal Park Master Plan for community consultation at their September 10 Future Melbourne Committee (FMC) meeting. 

The Royal Park Master Plan outlines a long-term vision for the park's management and development, proposing a stronger role for the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Traditional Owners and addressing challenges such as population growth and climate change.

Formulated from a discussion paper released in November 2023 which received feedback from around 1900 participants, the draft plan both builds on previous master plans and seeks to create a new, standalone framework for managing the parklands. 

It also emphasises a new approach to enhance collaboration with Traditional Owners.

The plan is structured around six key themes:

• Celebrating Aboriginal culture and furthering self-determination
• Caring for nature
• Recreation and community wellbeing
• Visitor experience
• Movement to and through the park
• Parking, roads and transport

Under each theme, the plan includes specific actions designed to tackle both opportunities and challenges while meeting community expectations.

To address concerns surrounding lighting improvements around the park, the plan proposes a darkness strategy that focuses on reducing light pollution that aims to balance environmental, ecological, and user experience benefits while still maintaining safety.

A community engagement period is planned from November 2024 to January 2025. This will feature a survey and interactive elements on Participate Melbourne, workshops with stakeholders, pop-up events in the park, and targeted outreach to children and young people.

An implementation plan detailing the costs and timeline for the master plan will be developed following the draft’s approval. 

The final master plan, incorporating community feedback, will be presented to the FMC for adoption in mid-2025. •