By Adam Carey
Melbourne Airport wants to turn disused land it owns on Melbourne’s fringe into a sprawling entertainment and shopping precinct with a golf driving range, hotel, cinemas and restaurants.
The airport hopes the 32-hectare site, to be called Elite Park, will become a major tourist drawcard and expand the growing list of commercial uses on airport land that are unrelated to aviation, including surf park Urbnsurf, AFL club Essendon’s training base and the Hanrob pet hotel.
An artist’s impression of Elite Park, a proposed $475 million development on Melbourne Airport land.
The airport’s owner, APAM, estimates it would cost $475 million and nine years to develop Elite Park, which would support 2140 jobs in areas such as retail and hospitality once finished.
The project would require federal government approval as it would be on Commonwealth-owned land and involve the clearing of critically endangered grassland.
Work would begin next year if the proposal is approved, and the first tenants would move in by the end of 2026, Melbourne Airport said. The anticipated completion date is 2034, one year after the delayed Melbourne Airport rail line is currently scheduled to open.
APAM’s release of its major development plan for Elite Park comes two weeks after the Albanese government approved long-held plans for a third runway at Melbourne Airport.
According to the development plan, the airport is preparing for further major expansion in coming decades, including potentially building a fourth runway and a major freight terminal.
The Elite Park site occupies 32 hectares of undeveloped land between the Tullamarine Freeway and Airport Drive.
“Elite Park is designed to be a destination for work and leisure, to strengthen Melbourne Airport as a transport gateway with a strong economic presence,” the plan says.
“The land is currently vacant and underutilised. The site’s greenfield status and large site area means there are few impediments to development, providing opportunity to attract large and/or unique anchor tenancies.”
Topgolf is eyeing its first Melbourne location.
US-based golf driving-range chain Topgolf is expected to open its first Melbourne centre there, the airport said.
The airport said it was encouraged by the runaway commercial success of Urbnsurf, Melbourne’s only surf park, which drew 332,000 visitors in 2023 and was one of the state’s 10 most-visited attractions.
“Urbnsurf has demonstrated that Melbourne Airport can be an attractive destination for visitors and tourists in its own right,” it said.
The airport estimates the precinct would deliver $246 million a year in economic benefits.
Inland surf park Urbnsurf has pioneered the development of tourist drawcards at Melbourne Airport.Credit: Scott McNaughton
Helen van den Berg, chair of the Maribyrnong River and Waterways Association, said the airport needed to be sure the development would not affect groundwater, or lead to increased pollution and run-off into local creeks.
“I lament the loss of all open ground because all our creeks in the west are groundwater-dependent. When we don’t get the base flow from groundwater, they dry up,” van den Berg said.
Westmeadows resident Russell Nilsson lives near the airport and has campaigned against the development of a former landfill buffer zone that is opposite the proposed Elite Park site, due to soil contamination fears.
That campaign ended in defeat last year after Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny intervened and approved the development proposal, overriding Hume City Council, which had blocked it in 2022.
Nilsson said Elite Park was a more appropriate location for development.
“I think a driving range would be suitable use for the area,” he said.
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