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What we know
Southbank is situated on the southern side of the Yarra River Birrarung and bounded by St Kilda Road and the West Gate Freeway.
A high density residential neighbourhood - Southbank has experienced rapid growth since the 1990s, transforming from an industrial area into a dense, high-rise neighbourhood. The Boyd Community Hub, library and park, is Southbank’s major local community asset.
A high density commercial neighbourhood - Southbank Promenade is one of Melbourne’s major entertainment precincts with many restaurants and hotels. The spectacular city views make it a popular place for locals and visitors to dine, drink, stroll and watch the occasional street performer.
A high density arts neighbourhood – Southbank is home to Melbourne Arts Precinct. It has one of the highest concentrations of arts and cultural organisations anywhere in the world, including the National Gallery of Victoria and Hamer Hall as well as many galleries, theatres, studios, and arts education institutions.
*based on pre-covid data
Quick facts
Data is sourced from 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census of Population and Housing, ABS Estimated Resident Population 2021, and 2020 Census of Land and Employment (CLUE).
To access more data on Southbank, visit: Southbank community profile on profile .id.
To learn more about the ABS Census of Population and Housing, including definitions, visit: Guide to Census data.
City of Melbourne services in Southbank
The City of Melbourne delivers Family Services, the Southbank Library and community centre at Boyd Hub.
At Boyd, you can use borrow books and access online resources (books, films, music, etc.) from the library. Our library offers Wi-Fi 24 hours in the building and the surrounding park. Upstairs, you can find family services (Maternal and Child Health, Family support and counselling, Playgroups). You can also hire community spaces.
City of Melbourne manages and maintains many public spaces including: Boyd Park, City Road Park, Cook Street Reserve, Grant Street Reserve, Miles & Dodds Street Park, Normanby Rd Reserve, Queensbidge Square, Railway Revegetation Area, Riverside Quay, Southbank Boulevard, Southbank Promenade, and Sturt Street Reserve.
We manage three venues in Southbank: Assembly Point will host approximately 11 exhibitions in 2021-22 and The Guild provides office space for five creative businesses. Both are located 152 Sturt Street, Southbank. Boyd Studios at Boyd Community Hub contains six artist studios and two artist-in-residence studios.
Learn more
What we heard
City of the Future consultation
We invited community members to reflect and share with us how COVID-19 changed your perspective and priorities for the future of the city. Research and knowledge gathering activities with the community took place from 15 June through to 19 July 2020.
- There is an opportunity to make lasting and impactful change, but we should act now. The city needs to adjust to major impacts and economic recovery is crucial to our city’s success.
- The creative sector’s contribution is vital to the city’s economy along with its role in creating vibrancy, social cohesion and unique experiences. It must be a focus in recovery. Opportunities were also identified to accelerate growth through innovation and emerging businesses.
- Building resilience in our community is essential given ongoing uncertainty. Accelerating action on climate change and collective global action are fundamental to economic recovery. There is a strong desire to integrate our city’s ancient and continuous Aboriginal culture and knowledge in responding to contemporary challenges.
- There is great concern about the mental health, equity and wellbeing of our community, particularly vulnerable communities. Community and experts want to see inequality, affordability and inclusion addressed. The desire for more green spaces in our city was consistently linked with health and wellbeing outcomes.
- The digital divide is an issue and we need to consider integrated digital infrastructure that would enable participation in an adaptable, digitally-inclusive and connected city.
See the ideas forum.
Seven initiatives represent our city’s plan for reactivation and recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic. Together, they connect our immediate response to the crisis with our city’s longer-term regeneration. By linking the actions that we take in the short-term with the outcomes we want to see in the future, we can ensure that we target our resources to those initiatives that best meet our long term strategic objectives and ultimately deliver maximum benefit for our city and its citizens.
Initiatives integral to immediate recovery
- Prioritise public health and wellbeing
- Reactivate the city
Initiatives integral to our city’s successful regeneration and ongoing resilience
- Build economic resilience
- Expand equitable opportunity and access
- Transform our spaces and buildings
- Strengthen community participation and align to others
- Evaluate and progress
Read the full consultation recap.
The COVID-19 Reactivation and Recovery Plan integrates with the Council planning framework and City of Melbourne’s strategic plans and is designed to help guide and shape our work now and into the future.
Read the COVID-19 Reactivation and Recovery Plan.
Community Vision consultation
To help form our 10-year Community Vision and four-year Council Plan 2021–25, we completed a period of deliberative engagement with a broad cross-section of the community throughout March 2021.
We spoke with more than 750 people who live, work, study, visit or own a business in the municipality to understand what our community values most about the city.
Overall, the community’s top aspirations were for Melbourne to be a city that:
- is healthy and safe
- considers climate change in everything that we do
- is inclusive, accessible and affordable.
Read the full consultation recap.
The community’s feedback was gathered and synthesised into a series of insights and aspirations that helped to create the 10-year Community Vision and four-year Council Plan.
Read the Consultation Report (PDF 1.06MB).
Six strategic directions from the Council Plan include:
- Economy of the future
- Melbourne's unique identity and place
- Safety and wellbeing
- Access and affordability
- Climate and biodiversity emergency
- Aboriginal Melbourne
What we're doing
Capital Works
New investments in Southbank this year include:
- $20,000,000 – New Southbank open space reserve
- $4,300,000 – Public Art
- $3,355,140 – Transforming Southbank Boulevard and Dodds Street
- $5,214,000 – Dodds Street Linear Park
- $3,800,000 – Southbank Promenade Stage 1
- $650,000 – City Road Master Plan
- $48,000 – Furniture and Equipment New Purchases
We will invest $603,200 on renewal works in Southbank including for roadways, kerb and channel, median and tree plot renewals, safe city cameras, library collection and property.
We will invest 312,696 on maintenance works in Southbank including at our community facilities, creative spaces and other property, on pedestrian infrastructure, wayfinding signage and for urban forest health.
Key Initiatives
This year we will:
- Deliver and manage the Business Precinct Program.
- Provide accessible creative opportunities to everyone through expanded arts and library programming.
- Facilitate integrated water management solutions to support increased greening, reduced flooding and reduced pollution to the bay.
- Increase the amount of public open space in Southbank.
- Deliver high quality urban design in the Central City and Southbank through Amendment C308.
- Implement Amendment C323 which seeks to introduce planning controls to encourage the provision of arts and creative industry along Sturt Street, Southbank to support the Melbourne Arts Precinct.
Our strategic work in Southbank
We will progress delivery of:
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