Wurundjeri cultural heritage

Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elder, Uncle Dave Wandin, shares the importance of understanding an Acknowledgment of Country and how to deliver it with respect.

Find out more about Melbourne’s Traditional Owners and Aboriginal peoples’ deep connection to Country.

Monday 13 February marked the 15th Anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. As part of the ongoing work towards reconciliation, we are in the process of acknowledging, recognising and paying tribute to the Stolen Generations by establishing a marker within the municipality. The Victorian Aboriginal Community – including those who are part of the Stolen Generations and their families – are invited to provide feedback on three potential shortlisted marker locations.

From the Heart: Enshrining a First Nations Voice in the Australian Constitution was a talk celebrating the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the 2021/22 recipient of the Sydney Peace Prize. Presented by The University of Melbourne and the City of Melbourne, partnering with the Sydney Peace Foundation, it included a keynote address from Professor Megan Davis, followed by a panel discussion with Professor Davis, Pat Anderson AO and Noel Pearson, facilitated by Jon Faine AM, with music from University of Melbourne Indigenous musicians Jonathan Watling and Shauntai Batzke.

Apartment living

Owners Corporations and management companies are looking at ways to bring residents together for social activities, including Essential Community which invited residents from various high-rise buildings in the CBD and Southbank to meet their neighbours for a Trivia Night in December.

Residents 3000 hosted an Owners Corporation forum for residents to discuss strata related issues and ask questions around changes to legislation.

Affordable and inclusive

We are continuing our mission to alleviate period poverty with the extension of its free period care pilot program until 30 June 2023. Since the launch of the trial in September 2021 more than 6,700 period care products were dispensed from vending machines across six Council-owned facilities including the City Library and the Melbourne Town Hall public toilets on Collins Street.

We are embedding equity of access and inclusion across our tourism services, programs, events and information. We have worked with Guide Dogs Victoria to implement virtual beacon technology to aid people with vision impairment in navigating Swanston Street and Bourke Street. We are also investigating improvements to our tactile street signage across the city.

The Melbourne Conversations: Homes for All event was held on 15 February at the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre. The complexity and extent of the housing crisis needs a comprehensive, targeted response. This panel explored affordable housing options available now and in the near future, along with ways to create pathways out of homelessness – at pace and scale. Experts discussed their roles in innovating, advocating and collaborating to invest in our housing future.

A new Family Services Pop-up has been established in a central location next door to the Elizabeth St Pop-up Library to promote health, education, learning and development. These Maternal and Child Health services to support our families in the CBD will be run by appointment only.

Pop in to our Bourke Street Lounge, City of Melbourne Libraries' latest pop-up library offering a comfortable space to meet, study or just relax. The collection caters for a broad range of readers.

Accessible and easy to navigate

We are renewing and upgrading infrastructure to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act, predominantly Tactile Ground Surface Indicators (TGSIs). This program of works is running ahead of schedule and at the end of January approximately 20 projects have been delivered, equating to over 70% of the program.

Our libraries have recently launched their own Disability Inclusion and Accessibility Plan with action to improve accessibility to our libraries, services and resources.

A forum to mark the 30 year commemoration of the Disability Discrimination Act was held on 24 November at Melbourne Town Hall. This was an opportunity for community members to come together to hear and share on how the Disability Discrimination Act has enabled greater access and inclusion for people with disability.

Local and fresh food

We are in the process of reviewing the City of Melbourne Food Policy and during March will be seeking community feedback on the draft food policy via the Participate Melbourne page. We encourage you to have your say in City of Melbourne supporting and promoting a food system that provides good food for all.

We are launching the Grow It Local program in early 2023 for all City of Melbourne community members to get involved in growing food at home. As part of the program, Grow it Local have launched the latest Autumn Seed Service, a patch-to-plate adventure that makes free heirloom seeds and instructional content available to local residents. This free offer is available to the first 100 participants who register to receive a package containing heirloom seed varieties including kale, rainbow chard and spinach. Participants will learn to grow from seed-to-spanakopita with Costa Georgiadis via online videos for each stage of the growing journey and support is also available from Grow it Local’s garden guru.

Decarbonising transport

Melbourne Conversations held an event The Electric Vehicle Revolution on 19 October at Sustainability Victoria. Electric Vehicle (EV) technology is speeding towards new possibilities. The question is, what do we want all this to look like in our cities? Our expert panel considered how all this new EV tech can lead to more accessible and inclusive transport options. They delved into the urban design and infrastructure upgrades needed to support EV uptake, and how to encourage diverse socio-economic access to electric transport.

Greening the city

We recently hosted two successful Canopy Green Roof Forum workshops at the Library at the Dock. These workshops were facilitated by Melbourne’s emerging horticultural star Jac Semmler, who provided residents from Docklands, CBD and Southbank with practical planting advice and design tips to beautify their rooftops and balconies with biodiverse flowers and year-round blooms.

Community participants were delighted to partake in the planting session with Councillor Hakim, and take home a special potted creation.

We are renewing our Urban Forest Precinct Plans, starting with East Melbourne, Melbourne CBD, South Yarra and Carlton. Consultation for these neighbourhoods will begin in March. The precinct plans outline what is going to be planted where, when and why over the next ten years. We are delivering workshops in the neighbourhoods and asking community members to provide feedback to us from March to May this year. This is an exciting opportunity for local residents to have their say on the future of street trees within their neighbourhood.

Through our Urban Forest Fund, we’re supporting five new greening projects that will beautify and cool our neighbourhoods, creating 1000 square metres of new green cover. Tram stops will be transformed into lush eco-installations and community gardens will pop up in unlikely places through $500,000 in matched-funding to create a greener, more sustainable city.

Yarra Trams will deliver a pilot project, installing green roofs at four popular city tram stop shelters. The initial trial of four tram stops is being jointly funded by the City of Melbourne, Department of Transport and Yarra Trams, with the tram stop rooftop planters expected to be installed by mid-2023. Two of the central CBD stops for the trial will include Stop 3 on Routes11, 12, 48 and 109 (Collins and William Streets) and Stop 5 for Route 58 (William and Bourke Streets).

We have launched the trial of the Floating Wetlands project on the Yarra River - Birrarung. Three large wetlands have been towed onto the river, occupying prime locations at Yarra’s Edge near Webb Bridge and Victoria Harbour Promenade in Docklands. The Floating Wetlands trial is a joint initiative of the City of Melbourne and the State Government. The project has been funded through a $700,000 grant from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and was first identified by the City of Melbourne’s 2019 Yarra River Strategy.

The Greenline Project’s Birrarung Marr Precinct Site One concept design was endorsed by the Future Melbourne Committee on Tuesday 6 December 2022. We will now progress the detailed design and program planning for Birrarung Marr Precinct Site One, working towards construction commencing in 2023. Thank you to everyone who contributed their feedback. Consultation took place from 2 August to 12 September 2022. View the final concept design and learn more about what we heard on the community consultation page. You can also access the meeting notes and watch a livestream from the Future Melbourne Committee meeting.

Sustainability and resilience programs

We’ve become one of six cities around the world to appoint dedicated Chief Heat Officers to raise awareness about extreme heat risk, provide local leadership and collaborate to deliver solutions. We’re currently delivering Heat Health Preparedness seminars with a range of community groups across February and March. We're also working on developing a plan to make the city safer from the impacts of heat and will be engaging with people who may be vulnerable to the experiences of heatwaves across each neighbourhood.

Renewable energy

We're working to make it easier to access affordable renewable energy. Our Power Melbourne project will install a network of neighbourhood batteries around the city to help renters, people living in apartments, and those running small businesses access more affordable renewable electricity. Late last year we consulted with community on ideas for where neighbourhood batteries should be installed and how we design retail plans with an energy retail partner. Keep an eye on the Power Melbourne page for opportunities to get involved in the next stage of engagement activities, opening soon.

Waste and circular economy

We continue to provide a wide range of services for reusing, recycling or disposing of unwanted household items and materials. 11,400 combined tonnes were collected from various sources including communal recycling bins, cardboard bins and residential collections between October 2022 and January 2023.

We continue to roll out the Food Organics Service to high-rise residential apartments across Melbourne. Selected buildings are undertaking a 12-month pilot program to collect and process food scraps using an on-site organic processor. For more information on the pilot, visit Food Organics High-Rise Pilot.

An information session was held with residents and stakeholders for Little La Trobe Street precinct in February proposing options for greening including drain gardens, window planting and recycling hub.

Distinct neighbourhoods

As the Munro development is nearing completion, it's now time to upgrade the streetscape along Therry Street. Early works have commenced, with the majority of work to take place from mid-February until mid-2023. The upgrades will greatly improve safety and define new spaces for locals and customers to enjoy the Market atmosphere. The shops along Therry Street will remain open, please follow the signage in place.

Small business support

We’ve launched the Melbourne Economy Snapshot, a free seasonal activity guide designed to help businesses make data-led decisions by understanding Melbourne’s new rhythm.

The first edition shows a sky-high December, with a record $1.1b spent across the city. Friday and Saturday remain the busiest days in Melbourne, while our night-time economy continues to flourish. Delve into the nitty gritty and explore weekday, weekend and night-time activity.

Dusk 2 Dawn applications were open throughout November and December. Applications are currently being reviewed, with successful activations commencing in May.

The City of Melbourne’s social enterprise grants program supports social enterprise businesses to thrive in Melbourne. The program supports start-ups and existing enterprises which are expanding or developing new products or services with a distinctly social purpose. Applications are currently open and close at 2pm Friday 10 March 2023.

Between October 2022 and January 2023 our Business Concierge service have had 5000 interactions with businesses across the municipality. The range of enquiries have been simple support requests over the phone and email, face to face interactions and supporting new businesses in their start up.

Lunar New Year celebrations were hosted by the Melbourne Chinatown Association on 22 January 2023. Over 50,000 people attended the area on the day, an increase from the last event (which was held in 2019) by 19%.

The Christmas Collective program is an initiative as part of the Christmas Festival. One of the objectives is to increase visitation and spend supporting the economy. A total of $74,726.00 in funding was allocated to 15 businesses/groups to deliver an event or activity.

To support local businesses, we lifted the holiday spirit with our Christmas Decoration program, including the Melbourne CBD which remains a focus in driving visitation and connection to the city’s core retail and hospitality offering.

The Collins Street Precinct provided pop up gift wrapping during the Christmas period.

The Melbourne City North Precinct Association hosted the Little Korea Christmas Festival held December 17 & 18 2022 in Healeys Lane.

The Greek Precinct hosted the Lonsdale Street Greek Festival/Antipodes on 22 and 23 October 2022, with an estimated attendance of 100,000. Christmas in the Precinct was held on 18 December 2022.

Coworking and improving digital literacy

Book-A-Librarian has kicked off again for 2023 where people can book one on one time to get some digital literacy support with online platforms and use of digital devices.

We've published live data dashboards which are updated four times daily to share information with the community. The Micro-Labs data dashboard shows visitor activity, equipment usage, popular book themes and noise levels. The data collected through different sensors in this pop-up coworking space is useful as we plan and operate city spaces like parks and libraries.

Heritage protection

Built in 1888 as a gateway into Melbourne’s central city, Princes Bridge remains one of the Yarra River – Birrarung’s most iconic crossings. We are restoring the bridge to ensure it can continue to support residents, workers and visitors into the future. The works will include renewing the road asphalt, installing bicycle lane separator kerbs, waterproofing the road surface and general repairs.

The final stage of heritage restoration works has commenced in H and I Sheds at the Queen Victoria Market. The program will start with in-ground works, including trenching to install essential trader services and then progress onto the restoration of the shed frame and roof.

For the duration of shed restoration and ensuing market infrastructure works, you can find your favourite fruit, veg and organic traders from H and I Sheds across Queen Street in the newly restored C and D Sheds.

Over at the Food Hall at the market, the butterfly roof, brickwork and high-level painting are complete. Other progress includes the installation of the structural steel for the canopy over the entrance on the corner of Victoria and Elizabeth Streets. Upcoming works include glazing of the windows and skylights and installation of internal walls within the amenities.

While there will be changes to the way you navigate the Market, it remains open for business with the best fresh produce and shopping in Melbourne. For more information about what’s happening at the Market, visit the Queen Victoria Market website.

The Royal Exhibition Buildings and Carlton Gardens World Heritage Management Plan is currently open for consultation through Engage Victoria and closes on 3 March. The Strategy Plan for the World Heritage Environs Area will be subject to a Heritage Council hearing in May 2023.

Creative city

New Year’s Eve attracted approximately 475,000 visitors into the city to celebrate the new year and enjoy the dazzling fireworks and laser displays from 30 CBD rooftops. The night also featured popular celebration zones at Docklands, Flagstaff Gardens, Treasury Gardens and Kings Domain with free family-friendly entertainment, food trucks, performances and fireworks at 9.30pm and midnight.

Christmas Festival delivered a festive decoration, lighting installation and activation program across the city for the enjoyment of families and visitors to the city. Highlights of the 2022 program included Christmas Square at Federation Square, a 16.5 metre LED Christmas Tree, lighting projections on the Melbourne Town Hall, a Christmas carnival in Birrarung Marr and a Christmas Maze in Docklands. There were also a two new activations in 2022; Argyle Square Carlton featured a Christmas themed roller rink and large Christmas Tree and Queensbridge Square featured a pop-up playground featuring bell swings, a giant dance floor and an interactive orchestra. City of Melbourne also made funding available to the precinct associations to deliver their own localised festival activations.

Melbourne Awards Gala Ceremony was held on 12 November 2023 at the Melbourne Town Hall and celebrated the inspirational Melbourne organisations, projects and Melburnians who are dedicated to making the city a thriving, forward-thinking capital city in the categories of community, sustainability, Aboriginal Melbourne, arts and events, hospitality, knowledge and innovation, urban design and LGBTIQ+

Melbourne Fashion Week ran from 10-16 October and featured a city wide dispersed program celebrating and supporting the best in Australian fashion including runways in unexpected and impressive locations, talks with experts, hands on workshops, pop up fashion moments and immersive experiences. Unique Melbourne venues and spaces across the city were showcased including runways in Shed 21 Docklands, Wesley Place, Queen Victoria Market Dairy Hall, 333 Collins, the State Library Victoria, Emporium Melbourne, the Meat Market and Walker Lane.

The following events were sponsored via the annual Event Partnership Program and the City Reactivation Event Support Program between October 2022 and February 2023:

• Time • Rone –Immersive Exhibition – ongoing to 23 April
• SalamFest World Cup edition
• Lonsdale Street Greek Festival
• Victorian Festival of Diwali
• Melbourne Harmony Festival
• Melbourne Cup Parade
• Night Noodle Markets
• Polish Festival
• No-so-silent Cinema
• Firefly Zipline
• Vida Melbourne Latin Festival
• Australian Open
• Midsumma Festival
• Chinese Lunar New Year
• National Sustainable Living Festival
• Antipodes Festival

“Reinventing” the city

The Greenline Project’s Birrarung Marr Precinct Site One concept design was endorsed by the Future Melbourne Committee on Tuesday 6 December 2022. We will now progress the detailed design and program planning for Birrarung Marr Precinct Site One, working towards construction commencing in 2023. Thank you to everyone who contributed their feedback. Consultation took place from 2 August to 12 September 2022. View the final concept design and learn more about what we heard on the community consultation page.

Local community connection

Since opening in May 2022, Micro-Labs has had more than 11,000 visits and hosted 150 diverse events. From entrepreneur meetups, community imagination exercises and sewing classes to car mechanics workshops, clothes swaps and movie nights – Micro-Labs has been a space for community members, students, visitors and small businesses to connect, share, learn, create and develop this city hub together.

Safety in the street

We are working with members of the Alcohol and Drug Foundation - Local Drug Action Team to develop a Drug Safety in the City of Melbourne flyer. Consultation has been undertaken with broader members of the Melbourne Alcohol and other Drug (AOD) Services Network as well as residents and small business owners in the Melbourne CBD, Carlton, East Melbourne and South Yarra. The flyer is currently in final production and will be distributed to residents and small business owners.

As part of Victoria Police's Neighbourhood Policing initiative, a Local Safety Committee meeting was held for Melbourne West and North on 9 December 2022, and included representatives from Carlton, Parkville, Docklands, Kensington, North Melbourne, West Melbourne and the western part of the Melbourne CBD.

Homelessness support

We are boosting our support for Melburnians experiencing homelessness, partnering with the Salvation Army to offer meals and outreach services at a night-time café in the CBD.

The renewed City East Hub, based at the Salvation Army’s Project 614 site at 69 Bourke Street, will make it easier for some of Melbourne’s most vulnerable people to access essential services.

The service will introduce twilight meals and support 7 days a week throughout January, as well as further support including:

• After hours outreach, 5 days a week
• Housing and homelessness advice
• Showers, lockers and information

We are also working with the Living Room to establish storage and locker services at their Hosier Lane Service, which will allow people experiencing homelessness to store their personal belongings safely and access a wide range of support.

Street cleanliness

We continue to expand our Rapid Response Clean Team to fast-track graffiti removal, dumped rubbish, cigarettes, street sweeping and syringe collection across the city. Residents, workers and visitors continue to play an important role in reporting graffiti and rubbish across the city using Council’s QR code reporting system.

Between October 2022 and January 2023:

• 42,000 square metres of graffiti was removed
• 1350 tonnes was sent to landfill from public litter bins
• 11,400 combined tonnes from various sources including communal recycling bins, cardboard bins and residential collections.

• Over 1800 tonnes of cigarette butts collected and recycled.
• 1435 tonnes of street sweepings collected
• 712 loose syringes collected from public spaces
• 110 collections from syringe bins located in public and private facilities

Safer roads and public transport

Footpath upgrades have been completed along Lonsdale St, Exhibition St and La Trobe St. Works on Queen St are set to commence soon, works notifications will be sent to residents and traders.

Little Lonsdale Street upgrade works have commenced between Elizabeth and Swanston Streets, with the remainder of the project to commence in stages across 2023.

Flashing bicycle warning signs have been installed on La Trobe Street at the Melbourne Central carpark entrance and Park St warning road users of bike/vehicle conflict risk. This project was delivered as part of a successful Blackspot funding application.

We’re working with the Department of Transport and Planning to inform its evaluation of the e-scooter trial and decision on the legalisation of e-scooters. The Victorian Government extended the trial until 31 March 2023. To date there have been more than 3 million e-scooter trips across the city as part of the trial, many of which are replacing car trips and providing increased access to city attractions.

We’re collaborating with other nearby councils as part of M9 to develop actions that encourage more people to ride. We supported Ride to Work Day activities in October that showed an increase in bike and scooter users by 48 per cent compared to 2021.

Planning and development impacts

The Neighbourhood Portals have been updated with links to planning register entries relevant to each neighbourhood, making it easier for community members to find local planning applications. Weekly Planning Applications and Decisions Lists are now sorted by neighbourhood for ease of reference. Sign up to receive these weekly emails.

A community reference group has been established by CBUS Property and Armitage Jones for the development at 435 Bourke St. Residents and business owners impacted by the development are encouraged to participate by emailing 435bourke@armitagejones.com.au

International students

My Melbourne Student Ambassadors play a key role in co-designing, leading, supporting and promoting initiatives of the My Melbourne Program. We’ve appointed 10 students from nine different regions who have studied or are currently studying 10 different majors at six Melbourne education institutes.

We hosted the launch of the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) 'Employer Guide to Employing International Students and Graduates' at Melbourne Town Hall.

Off-leash area for dogs

We are currently working on developing 'dogs in the park' events in neighbourhoods. These events, in partnership with behaviour trainers from the Lost Dogs' Home aim to raise awareness and provide education of dog behaviour, enrichment and responsible dog ownership to improve dog and human experiences in public places.

Grants of up to $2000 are available to increase community participation, connection, equity, diversity and inclusion through our new Connected Neighbourhoods Small Grants. Applications are open all year until the budget has been fully allocated.

Applications for our Inclusive Communities Grants open twice a year. This includes operational support grants of up to $2000 and for larger projects and initiatives up to $20,000. Applications for projects taking place from July 2023 to June 2024 are open from Monday 20 February and close Monday 20 March.

Community Events Grants of up to $10,000 per event are available to not-for-profit organisations to work in partnership with the City of Melbourne.

Check out other grant opportunities on the Community Noticeboard.

The following projects in the Melbourne CBD have recently received Connected Neighbourhood Small Grants:

• The Creative Youth Coding Program - This project is aimed at providing outcomes for children (aged 11-12) in the City North area where there is currently limited low-cost weekend programming for children and young people.
• Book Club - This is a unique idea to bring together diverse groups of women in the CBD neighbourhood to support each other and learn together about financial and business skills.

Projects from other neighbourhoods include:

• Growing Stronger Communities Together - This project aims to provide a new outdoor gathering and bbq space at the Kensington housing estate.
• Docklands Primary School End of Year Celebration - This project is aimed at bringing together the Docklands community, beyond the school community, for a concert and celebration.
• Carlton High Rise Elder Citizens project - This project aims at increasing community connection for older men living in the Carlton Housing Estate.
• Unity makes Community East Melbourne - This project aims to be an event inclusive of all the community to encourage post pandemic re-connection and assist residents to get their bicycles running again in a community setting.
• East Melbourne Community Christmas Picnic - ‘Building Community Spirit’ is an inclusive Community Picnic to celebrate the festive season and bring our community together. The event will take place on the grounds of Bishops court and residents are invited to bring along a picnic and enjoy an afternoon of music, entertainment, social interaction, and community connection.
• Baby Wearing Boogie - This event will help new parents in the COM connect with others, move their bodies, have some fun and enrich their babies lives with new sensory experiences.
• Community Cooking Club - The Community Cooking Club will meet weekly at Carlton PS to plan recipes, budget for shopping for the following month. Meals will be cooked and shared by participants with participants leading the program. Participants will be encouraged and supported to set up a fortnightly school lunch program, become involved in site activities including community events involving food. The grant will be used to purchase a fridge/freezer for use by Community Cooking Club, healthy lunch program and other programs at Carlton PS. To be used to store fresh/frozen produce for community/school programs and food from Foodbank.
• HEALING MINDS THROUGH MUSIC - Healing Mind through Music aims to collaborate with Paving The Way Forward, Co Health, Chinese Elderly Dancing Group and Vietnamese Elderly Association in North Melbourne to bring elderly people of all backgrounds together, to help people to improve mental health by healing the mind, body, and soul.
• Growing Kensington's Community Food Forest Together - Growing Kensington’s Community Food Forest Together will rebuild a team of volunteers to refresh this newly established food garden based on permaculture principles which‍ have both (volunteers and garden) suffered years of decline from COVID lockdowns. A new volunteer team will help to restore and maintain the garden’s food abundance for fair share harvesting amongst Kensington Estate’s (former public housing, now 50:50 public private new housing) 2000+ residents and neighbours.
• Celebrate at Yarra's Edge: The Docklands Connection - A one off event to bring the community of Docklands together to connect and showcase: local talent, businesses and government services. The event will be held at Shed 21, 206 Lorimer Street Docklands on Saturday 26 November, 12pm - 3pm. This will also help to reactivate the site. We have approached a number of organisations to determine interest in the event eg. Development Victoria, Mirvac, various social groups etc.
• Mushroom Growing Workshop Series - The funding will provide access to four mushroom-growing workshops at the Kensington Stockyard Food Garden during 2023. The workshops will provide an opportunity for social connection and community building at the Kensington Stockyard Food Garden where participants will learn how growing mushrooms can be cheap, easy, and a sustainable way to produce their own fresh mushrooms at home and in the community.
• Gardening@33 - Gardening@33 is a social gardening project aimed at facilitating increased social connections between community members, building community resilience, and contributing to greater mental and physical health. This will be achieved through fortnightly sessions involving hands-on gardening alternating with theory-based guest lectures. The project is resident-led, and will build awareness of food systems, growing and cultivating, the importance and function of native plants in our community food garden.
• Removing Barriers to Education - River Nile Learning Centre (RNLC) students are all newly arrived refugee and asylum seeker women who struggle to survive on limited or no welfare payments. The grant will be used to purchase Myki’s for participants in English language classes at our learning centre in North Melbourne.
• LITTLE KENSPACE - The DRUM Youth Committee would like to design and furnish a vacant space at the bottom of the Kensington Housing Estate building - has a small room at 56 Derby St corner office space we propose can be used by young people Wednesdays 4-6pm. This $2K funding will be used for items such as a couch, and Xbox and television and some beanbags or similar to upgrade the space.