Next steps from Docklands Summit

The City of Melbourne has provided a long-awaited update on actions generated from the Docklands Summit it held back in September last year.

Some eight months on from the summit, the presentation from council officers at the May 16 Future Melbourne Committee (FMC) meeting held in Docklands represented the first update on the council’s action items since last year’s event at Marvel Stadium.

Among the completed initiatives were a new public toilet at Docklands Park (opposite Kangan Institute) and the floating wetlands trial in Victoria Harbour.

As for short-term deliverables, the council’s Sophie Handley told the meeting on May 16 that the summit had provided some of the following “clear actions to pursue”, including …

• Addressing beautification by relocating some planter boxes, “which we already have in stock” around Harbour Esplanade and NewQuay, but “we’ve commissioned some new planter boxes to be put together and installed during the rest of this calendar year”.
• Ms Handley said the council had also undertaken a “walking audit of public places to ensure what areas require maintenance and improvements”.
• The council has also negotiated to install a temporary pocket park at Yanonung Quay, which Ms Handley said would “really provide a clear focus for activities at Yanonung Quay”.
• Artwork will also be reinstalled along Yarra’s Edge: “We’re also looking to reinstall light buoys that were installed some time ago,” Ms Handley said.

As for medium- and long-term initiatives, the council says it will continue to support the establishment of the Docklands Stakeholder Group, advocate for the redevelopment of Central Pier and Harbour Esplanade, develop a “public realm improvement plan”, conduct an analysis of The Hub at Docklands, as well as develop a communications and media strategy “aligned with a family-friendly precinct”. •