Reclaiming Docklands: Part 3

Participation without power: what happened to Docklands’ community voice?

In a city that speaks so often of consultation, Docklands is hearing less and less.

In the past, residents and local businesses had at least one consistent space to raise their voice: the Docklands Stakeholder Group. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something. A place where the City of Melbourne and key partners would meet with the people who live, work, and invest here. A space to exchange ideas, challenge assumptions, and even see community input shape real outcomes.

That space no longer exists.

In a quiet decision, the City of Melbourne dissolved the group. No successor body was proposed. No resourcing was offered to ensure continued engagement. And no meaningful explanation was given to the residents and businesses who relied on it. In its absence, the council has pointed to Community3008 Inc., our local association, itself an outcome of the stakeholder initiative as the group now representing the Docklands community.

But Community3008 Inc. is run entirely by volunteers. No funding. No secretariat. No structural backing. It is powered only by community will, and even the most passionate community needs support to create lasting impact.

This shift isn’t just administratively careless: it has real consequences.

Across Melbourne, neighbourhoods thrive when communities are involved early, openly, and consistently. When local knowledge is embedded into decision-making. When civic participation is treated as a strength, not a formality.

We saw it in this year’s budget process, where Docklands was once again left off the agenda. Despite being one of Melbourne’s fastest-growing residential areas, and despite strong community participation in previous consultations, the budget offered no clear local investment, no tailored planning, and no recognition of the evolving makeup of the precinct.

Worse still, Docklands continues to be described as a “24/7 neighbourhood” in the city’s municipal planning documents, a framing that reflects a legacy of tourism and entertainment, but fails to recognise the residents, families, and small businesses who live and work here every day. We are not just a precinct to visit. We are a community to live in.

And yet, funding continues to be directed to projects that serve state priorities, such as CBD CCTV installations or event-driven activation, rather than place-based investments that support Docklands residents: family services, public toilets, green spaces, and community infrastructure.

In that context, the loss of a stakeholder body is more than symbolic: it’s strategic.

Without a formalised voice, Docklands is easier to bypass. Decisions can be made with minimal scrutiny. Community views can be filtered through outdated assumptions. And vital local investments can be deferred, ignored, or quietly absorbed into broader “city-wide” initiatives that don’t actually serve our specific needs.

This isn’t just a planning failure: it’s a governance breakdown.

It undermines trust. It makes residents feel invisible. And it reinforces a growing belief that Docklands is no longer a priority for those in power.

In the absence of that, it’s no wonder community engagement feels hollow. Consultation becomes a checkbox, not a conversation. And year after year, Docklands is left to fall through the cracks.

The message is subtle, but clear: speak if you like, but don’t expect to be heard.

This isn’t how strong cities function. And it’s not what Docklands deserves.

We’re not short on people who want to contribute. Our neighbourhood is filled with capable, passionate residents and business owners. But participation without power leads to disillusionment. Without proper structures for input, feedback becomes fatigue. And over time, that breeds disengagement; the very thing councils then use to justify their inaction.

The withdrawal of civic infrastructure in Docklands is not just a failure of logistics, it’s a failure of imagination. Because if the City of Melbourne truly believed in community-led revitalisation, it would resource it. It would honour the voices of those who call Docklands home. It would fund the mechanisms that allow participation to thrive.

Instead, responsibility has been passed down, without tools or trust. And yet, the community keeps showing up. Running events. Hosting meetings. Advocating for the future of our neighbourhood.

In the next article, we’ll explore how this lack of structural support has contributed to a deeper issue: disconnection. Not just from government, but from one another. And we’ll ask: in a suburb full of people, how do we build the relationships that make a neighbourhood feel like home?

Because when people are excluded from shaping their neighbourhood, it doesn’t just weaken our voice. It weakens the ties between us.

For now, I urge you to become a member of Community3008 Inc. and consider what you can do to make Docklands the best place to live for all of us.

Connect with Jamal on Instagram @thejamalhakim •