Could any of these 12 Victorian grand plans be revived, including a Disneyland and CBD horse racing?
A monorail was once planned for Melbourne — what happened to that Victorian grand plan as well as 11 others including a Disneyland and street horse racing?
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Imagine how different Victoria would look if Melbourne had horses racing in the street, a Disneyland down the road and a regional city flooded to look like Venice?
There are many city-changing plans that stalled.
Here are 12 grand ideas for Victoria that never quite got there. Some were just thought bubbles, others costed and planned. Were they crazy dumb, brilliant or just ahead of their time? Could, or should, any be revisited and reborn?
Disneyland at Avalon
The happiest place on earth could have been in our very own backyard, if this dream had been more than just a thought bubble.
Trucking magnate Lindsay Fox launched a sales pitch in 2005 to create a Disneyland theme park at Avalon.
The plan was backed by local leaders and politicians.
While Disney Parks and Resorts Australia/New Zealand said there was no merit in it, a spokeswoman for then Victorian Tourism Minister John Pandazopoulos confirmed Disney executives had visited Avalon, as well as Melbourne’s Docklands and the Gold Coast.
Disney maintained secrecy throughout the entire process and ultimately no plans came to fruition. Avalon - between Melbourne and Geelong - remains an airport and industrial hub
Zip line over the MCG
A grand plan to build a sky-high tourist walk and zip line ride from the top of the MCG was put forward in 2017.
It was proposed fans would be able to climb up to 70m above the home of sport to take in breathtaking views of the iconic ground and the city skyline.
Daredevils would also be able to soar from one side of the MCG to the other on a zip line perched high above the sacred turf.
The MCC ultimately abandoned the major project due to fears of a cost blowout and structural issues.
Preliminary planning for the experience was carried out and Federal Government funding approved for the attraction, which was expected to rival the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb and walk.
But the cost of making the zip line and roof walk structurally sound and suitable for use around footy, cricket and events at the MCG was found to be much higher than its original $2.6 million estimate.
Horse racing in the Melbourne CBD
A horse racing event that would see thoroughbreds sprint along Melbourne city streets was considered by the Andrews Government in 2018.
The City Racing day, conceived by a global sporting group also planning events in Paris, New York, Rome and Hong Kong, would have featured a 1000m track installed in the CBD as well as pop-up hospitality suites and boxes.
World class jockeys were to have been flown in to ride local horses, with punters set to line the streets for six races beamed around the world and showcasing the best our capital has to offer.
A flat road of about 1.25km — at a width of about 14m for up to eight horse races — was required for the track and run-off.
The government was considering St Kilda Rd and across the Princes Bridge, near to Flinders St Station and Federation Square as a potential location.
But the idea was a false start, with the state government never committing to the idea.
Melbourne monorail
A multibillion-dollar, high speed magnetic monorail from Geelong to Frankston via Melbourne, was proposed by a German-based consortium in 2008.
The project pitch promised a 20-minute commute from Geelong to Melbourne at speeds of up to 500km/h.
A submission to the state government at the time said the monorail — also intended to connect Tullamarine and Avalon airports — would hover above the track using magnetic levitation.
A year later, the head of the consortium lamented a lack of action, saying the government had not responded to the company’s submission.
Instead, Fast Rail services were launched on the Geelong line in 2006, with the track upgraded to allow for VLocity trains running at 160km/h between Werribee and Geelong.
Little Venice in Geelong
In the mid ‘90s, former, controversial Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen paid a visit to Geelong and made an unexpected suggestion.
When asked for his thoughts on what could be done to improve Geelong, Mr Bjelke-Petersen said he’d like to see the city transformed into Australia’s very own Venice.
He proposed the streets be made into canals with ‘little boats” replacing cars and buses as the preferred mode of transport.
The canals, according to Bjelke-Petersen, would have been connected to the bay and the regional city would have become a massive, international tourist attraction.
Why didn’t it happen? We’ll let you be the judge of that.
Bridge over the bay
Victorian commuters could have been able to cross Corio Bay, with the construction of a huge bridge from Limeburners Lagoon, near Lara, to Point Henry.
The idea for the bridge, proposed in 1996, was one of two congestion-easing options outlined in a major Geelong roads study, the other being a ring road around Geelong’s western fringe.
While the bridge was initially favoured out of the two, we all know which won out in the end.
Ice Pick tower
Melbourne could have been home to one of the tallest towers in the world.
That was the ambitious dream of property developer Bruno Grollo, who proposed a 680m high tower at Victoria Dock.
Plans were unveiled in 1995 for a 137-storey skyscraper to tower above Docklands. The 680m high building would have cost $1.7 billion.
Named Melbourne Tower or Grollo Tower, it was coined the Ice Pick because of its design.
The proposal was scrapped in 2001 when the Docklands Authority rejected it.
Flinders Street Station as a huge retail, food, entertainment hub
Over the years many people have come up with ideas to redevelop Flinders Street Station.
A $700 million plan to build over platforms and turn the station into a multi-level transport hub was brought forward in 1996.
The proposal included 200 specialty shops, restaurants, cafes, galleries and family-oriented entertainment areas, but it never came to pass, staying true to its rail roots.
Werribee giant amusement theme park
A theme park to rival the Gold Coast’s many amusement and ride park ‘worlds’ was once planned for Werribee.
African Safari World was a $220 million proposed amusement park to hold some of the world’s biggest and best adventure rides, set in the grounds of Werribee Open Range Zoo.
Warner Village Theme Parks, who already own and operate several properties on the Gold Coast in Queensland, was behind the proposal.
The park was scheduled to open in 2010.
But the state government rejected the plan in 2008 because the cost to taxpayers would be too great.
Parliament House dome
Former premier Jeff Kennett revived an idea to add a dome to Parliament House that had been proposed when it was originally constructed in 1855.
The $30 million plan was opposed by Labor and the unions and never got off the ground.
Mr Kennett told the Herald Sun in 2008: “It was a great pity that we never put the dome on and I still regret it today.”
“The unions refused to give us a guarantee that they would give us a consistency of work and I thought, given my relationship with the unions, given all the reforms we’d put through, they could have kept the parliamentarians out of the building for 10 years,” he said.
“Once the Labor Party failed to back us I said, ‘what’s the point of doing it?”
Crown Casino rollercoaster and ferris wheel
As if Crown isn’t glitzy enough already — imagine if it had a glass-covered ferris wheel and rollercoaster?
That was the plan back in 1993.
The plans were eventually scaled back, but much of what was proposed at the time — a five-star hotel, shops, restaurants and bars was built.
Showgrounds stadium
There were huge plans to build one of Australia’s premier sporting stadiums at the Melbourne showgrounds.
In the mid-1990s a proposal for a covered 80,000 seat stadium was unveiled.
The state-of-the-art stadium would have hosted at least 27 AFL games a year plus 20 national soccer matches and 10 rugby league games, according to plans at the time.
The Essendon Football Club and National Soccer Federation were quick to support the plan.
A smaller arena, Marvel Stadium, was of course built at Docklands instead.
Do you know of other grand plans that were touted but never eventuated? Send an email to news@heraldsun.com.au and let us know.
Originally published as Could any of these 12 Victorian grand plans be revived, including a Disneyland and CBD horse racing?
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