The Macaulay “complexatron”: council’s latest push for more open space along Moonee Ponds Creek

The City of Melbourne has taken fresh steps to unlock long-promised parkland along Moonee Ponds Creek, as councillors grapple with what has been dubbed the Macaulay “complexatron” – a tangle of drainage funding gaps, fragmented land ownership and rising development pressure in the fast-growing urban renewal area.

At the December 2 Future Melbourne Committee meeting, councillors backed two linked agenda items: one on drainage infrastructure and open space planning in Macaulay, and another on securing control of VicTrack land along the western bank of the creek between Macaulay Rd and Arden St.

The Macaulay urban renewal precinct covers about 90 hectares across Kensington and North Melbourne and already has more than 1300 new dwellings completed, under construction or planned, with thousands more residents expected in coming years.

Deputy Lord Mayor Roshena Campbell said the stakes for liveability were high.

“The provision of adequate open space in our municipality has to be right up there,” she said. “We know this is going to be a densely populated community, but particularly in a community like that, public open space must not be a luxury. It has to be part of the essential social and environmental infrastructure.”

Cr Campbell said the abandonment of Melbourne Water’s Urban Renewal Cost Recovery Scheme (URCRS) had “created a significant gap” in the funding model for drainage in Macaulay, with key parks and drainage land still uncertain while a replacement mechanism is developed.

The Department of Transport and Planning and Melbourne Water are now preparing an updated drainage strategy and a new drainage Development Contributions Plan (DCP) for Arden and Macaulay, intended to replace URCRS. As part of that process, the council is seeking full reimbursement of the $10.5 million it has already spent on the Smith St No. 1 and Stubbs St No. 2 pump stations, which had been assumed to be funded under the scrapped scheme.

The report also revealed the scale of developer funds now available. Since an interim Macaulay DCP overlay was applied in 2017, the city has collected about $31.6 million in development contributions – $24.4 million from the Kensington side and $7.2 million from North Melbourne – with a priority list and cashflow modelling now being prepared.

One of the most contentious pieces of the puzzle remains the “drainage land” known as Macaulay Terraces, owned by VicTrack and earmarked for a future drainage park along the creek. Council officers reiterated that final drainage requirements must be confirmed before the land’s design and acquisition pathway are locked in, and that Melbourne Water is expected to ultimately acquire it once the drainage DCP is in place and Planning Scheme Amendment C417 is approved, likely in 2026.

In the meantime, councillors endorsed a recommendation to investigate a separate planning scheme amendment to apply a public acquisition overlay (PAO) over other key open space sites in Macaulay that are not currently owned or managed by council, in a bid to avoid further delays while drainage issues are resolved.

Cr Campbell said the Moonee Ponds Creek corridor was “one of the most significant linear open space opportunities in inner Melbourne” but warned that progress had been hampered by overlapping responsibilities between VicTrack, Melbourne Water, transport agencies and the state government.

As one clever resident referred to it, it has turned into a ‘complexatron’, she said, calling for a coordinated roundtable of agencies and the long-awaited release of the state’s Moonee Ponds Creek Implementation Plan.

The second agenda item sharpened the focus on the creek itself, setting out options for council to obtain control of VicTrack-owned Lots 72 and 110 on the western bank between Macaulay Rd and Arden St – the only section in Kensington with public access to the waterway.

Management has applied for a community lease over all of Lot 110 and the unleased portion of Lot 72, which currently sits beside Vision Australia’s Seeing Eye Dogs training centre and abuts the future Chelmsford St park. A previous lease bid in 2019 was rejected, but officers say recent negotiations tied to Chelmsford St have prompted VicTrack to invite a new application.

Parks and city greening director David Callow told councillors the lease would be a “cost-effective interim arrangement” that would allow short-term activation, safer access over the creek levee from Bent St and better visibility of the corridor, while longer-term tenure and drainage issues are resolved.

Purchase of the land, estimated at $2.8 million at its “highest and best use” value, is not recommended due to its encumbered status – including flood management and electricity transmission functions – and the absence of state funding.

The council’s general manager of strategy, planning and climate change Evan Counsel stressed that the proposed community lease for the two lots south of Macaulay Rd would not impede any future acquisition or transfer of the drainage land to council or Melbourne Water.

“The community lease applications do not impede in any way council’s ability to advocate for acquisition or transfer of government-owned lands … for the purpose of realising future open space,” he said.

Under the resolution, the council will move to finalise the lease and, once executed, progress works to formalise access along the western bank, including over the levee from Bent St.

A full linear park concept plan for the creek between Macaulay Rd and Arden St will begin after Amendment C417 is settled and Melbourne Water’s updated flood modelling and drainage designs are complete.

Environment portfolio chair Cr Davydd Griffiths said the measures showed the council was “putting in the work” to deliver a continuous green corridor in an area where moving vans and new residents were already a daily sight.

“This is not a future endeavour,” he said. “It’s a population which is moving in now … and we know that they want access to open space.”

Cr Andrew Rowse said new open space along the creek – next to what he described as “Melbourne’s narrowest bike lane” on the Macaulay Rd bridge – would be “an exceptionally positive thing”.

Lord Mayor Nick Reece said the maze of agencies, regulations and leases along Moonee Ponds Creek had made what was “self-evidently a crying need” in Kensington unusually hard to deliver.

“But we are a council on a mission,” he said, reiterating a vision for a four-kilometre green corridor from Royal Park to the Yarra River. “We are looking at every option available to us to realise the vision of this amazing green corridor along the Moonee Ponds Creek. And tonight, we are voting to take another step forward with that plan.” •