Melbourne’s airport rail’s on ice, like fast trains. Our quarantine hub became an illegal drug lab and we never quite landed Land 400
A regional Commonwealth Games is far from the only grand plan that has been spruiked, then shelved, in Victoria. Here’s 18 more ideas that withered.
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Premier Dan Andrews’ shock axing of the much-hyped Victorian regional 2026 Commonwealth Games may be one of state’s highest profile casualties but there have been many other grand plans that have got Victorians excited and failed to eventuate over the years.
There’s also been projects that did get funded and built, but have become white elephants.
ON ICE OR SUB-PAR
Airport rail to Tullamarine
Melbourne’s long-awaited airport rail is under a cloud after it was included in the federal government’s review of its infrastructure spending.
The Commonwealth and state governments have both committed $5bn to the project and early works were underway before the review was announced.
But speculation is mounting that the process will lead to construction being pushed back by as much as four years amid fears of a huge government budget deficit.
Fast train to Geelong
Major Geelong organisations attacked the state and federal governments in April this year over reports a much-vaunted $4bn fast rail project — making train travel between Melbourne and the major regional city quicker — would be put on hold.
Work on the project was expected to begin this year, four years after the state and federal governments announced they would partner to deliver the key infrastructure but was paused when, like the Melbourne Airport rail project, budget fears were raised.
Delivery of 1000 free car parks in Ballarat
Premier Daniel Andrews promised 1000 new free car parks for the Ballarat CBD ahead of the 2018 state election but locals say, years later, they’re still waiting for hundreds of them.
“The Andrews Labor Government is getting on with the delivery of 1000 free car parks in Ballarat, taking the pressure off local streets and making it easier to get in and out of the city.
Work has begun to map potential locations for the car spaces … where possible, the Regional Car Parks project will focus on the use of public land, primarily available VicTrack land or existing VicTrack carparking sites,” the state government trumpeted in 2018.
It took until mid 2021 for the government to reveal its shortlist of sites and even then the exact cost was still to be determined.
As of May this year it had delivered free parks, but certainly not 1000, with hundreds still unaccounted for.
“The Department is working to deliver the remaining 451 car spaces under the Regional Carparks Fund,” the government updated on May 2.
Late last month the government and council refused to answer questions about why public funds were used to build a car park on private land in Ballarat Central.
Victorian taxpayers shouldered the bill for an $850,000 car park on Creswick Rd, built by the City of Ballarat, which rented the land for $200,000 a year from the beginning of 2018 until mid-May this year.
The car park opened to the public in 2019 and has operated with both free and paid parking.
WHITE ELEPHANTS
Mickleham quarantine facility
Victoria’s purpose-built quarantine facility abruptly closed just eight months after opening, sparking denials the half-a-billion dollar project was a “white elephant”.
The controversial hub built in Mickleham, 30km north of Melbourne, was purpose built to
house international arrivals at the peak of the Covid pandemic.
In October last year the facility was repurposed for a short period to house victims of Victoria’s devastating floods, but in January this year police reportedly stumbled on a hidden drug lab in the facility.
Desal plant
The Wonthaggi desalination plant was meant to supply up to 150bn litres of water a year to Melbourne, Geelong, South Gippsland and Western Port towns.
But it was riddled with problems from the start when it took years to turn on, costing the state $27m, on top of the $607m paid each year to keep it ready for use.
The remainder of the 2022-23 desalination order was ceased after Melbourne Water provided advice to the state government.
“The Victorian government has accepted this advice and the desalination order will be halted, effective immediately,” a statement read.
NEVER HAPPENED
East West Link
The controversial East West Link has been in talk for years.
It was recommended in 2008 to connect the Eastern Freeway to the Western Ring Rd, and was backed by the Baillieu government in 2011.
Then Premier Denis Napthine and Transport Minister Terry Mulder signed the contracts after a bid to halt the project was thrown out of the High Court in 2014.
The court case took place as protesters fought for access to the project’s business case in order to uncover “government secrets”.
Premier Daniel Andrews promised to tear up the contracts if he won government, and promptly dumped the project in 2015.
As Premier, he wasted about $1.2bn already spent on the project.
Meanwhile, Victorian taxpayers were left with a $339m bill after the government struck a deal with the East West Connect consortium to pay for costs incurred during the brief life of the tunnel project.
The payment did not include compensation for any loss of future profits.
The East West Link has been backed by the Liberals and Nationals at four successive federal elections, as well as the past two state elections.
Guggenheim modern art museum in Geelong
In 2000, ambitious plans were launched for a Guggenheim modern art museum in Geelong.
The Geelong council tipped $100,000 into the bid, supported by then Premier Steve Bracks and Geelong mayor at the time, Michael Crutchfield and there was even a delegation to New York to push the bid. Part of the money was spent on a pre-feasibility study, which found Geelong would reap tourism benefits from the museum.
But the ambitious plan to turn Geelong into a world art tourism capital like other Guggenheim sites such as New York, Venice, Bilbao, Berlin, Abu Dhabi and Tokyo was officially shelved in 2003 after a risk assessment raised concerns about cost blowouts and future state government support.
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.
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.
Hovercrafts between Melbourne, Geelong and Portarlington
In 2008 a novel venture was floated to help commuters speed across the bay by hovercraft.
A feasibility study was completed examining the prospect of having 12 custom-built hovercraft transport commuters whizzing across Port Phillip Bay at peak times. The hovercraft would have held up to 100 people and been built in Geelong at a cost of $112 million.
Werribee ‘super city’
A $30 billion plan for a hi-tech super city creating up to 100,000 jobs in Melbourne’s western suburbs fell over in mid-2019 when the Andrews government withdrew support for the Australian Education City proposal for a 400ha state-owned site in East Werribee.
AEC consortium had been preferred bidder for the site, which was to feature university campuses, schools, a high-rise town centre and underground train stations linking to the Werribee line. The change of heart caused a legal fracas.
Koo Wee Rup international airport
In 2017, ambitious plans were floated to build a major airport near regional Koo Wee Rup, that was described as Melbourne’s answer to Sydney’s Badgerys Creek.
Paragon Premier Investment Fund said it wanted to build the commercial airport at a site between Koo Wee Rup and Lang Lang. It said the airport could be operating cargo flights by 2020, followed by domestic and international services.
Cruise ship pier and 10 hectares of hothouses at Avalon
Former Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons championed the building of a “legacy” glittering, ice-castle inspired $36.9 million cruise ship pier in Geelong, saying tourists would flock to the city and reinvigorate its economy.
Lyons even took his proposal (and pictures) to then Prime Minister Tony Abbott in early 2014 in the hope of federal support.
He held fast to the dream of cruise ships flocking to Geelong almost until the point of the council’s sacking by the state government in 2016.
Lyons also spruiked a plan for a thousand jobs with a $320 million sustainable farming precinct with 10 hectares of hot houses at Avalon, near Geelong.
The proponent, Sustainable Farms, said the enterprise would generate $160 million a year for Geelong’s economy when the 150-hectare site near the Princes Highway at Avalon became fully operational.
To be built in six stages over seven years, Sustainable Farms planned to chip and consume unprocessed, natural timber collected from its demolition waste recycling operation, to produce both heating steam and electricity to power up to 60 hectares of hydroponic glasshouses on the site, giving it the capacity to produce 30,000 tonnes of vegetables a year by 2021.
The first stage of the development, which it said would be completed by mid 2016, would focus on building the 10 hectares of glass houses and developing an energy centre.
Lyons said the project was a great endorsement of Geelong.
“I wholeheartedly support the fast tracking of this development to enable sustainable Farms to be operational in 2016,’’ he said.
“This is a massive development that is totally in line with Geelong’s future as a smart 21st century city.’’
Tallest tower in Melbourne
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 $1.7bn, 680m high, 137-storey skyscraper at for Docklands in 1995.
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.
Bridge over the bay
Victorian commuters would have been able to cross Corio Bay, by car, 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, it didn’t get built.
Nuclear power station on French Island
In the late ‘60s then Liberal Premier Sir Henry Bolte had a vision of turning French Island into a literal powerhouse with an international airport, an aluminium smelter, factories, toxic waste plant, housing for 3000 people — and Australia’s first nuclear power station.
The State Electricity Commission was on board with the plan, sending its chief engineer on a five-week tour of nuclear plants around the US, Canada and Britain. Needless to say, it fortunately never eventuated.
Land 400 at Geelong’s old Ford factory or Avalon
In 2017 the Andrews’ government released a statement saying it was “ramping up pressure” on the then Liberal federal government to bring a multi-billion defence vehicle manufacturing contract to Victoria, based out of Geelong’s old Ford factory.
“Marand – one of Victoria’s biggest defence supply chain companies – will build the hulls and turret shells for the new vehicles, should BAE Systems Australia win the contract for the LAND 400 Phase Two project,” a statement said.
“The company is looking to increase its footprint in Geelong and base a significant part of their LAND 400 work at the former Ford factory. That would create as many as 60 new jobs in Geelong, including positions suitable for former automotive workers.
“LAND 400 Phase Two is worth around $5 billion and would create up to 2000 manufacturing and supply chain jobs in Victoria.”
But the Land 400 saga dates back much further than 2017, with former Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons backing the proposal and saying it would contribute $20 billion to the Geelong economy and deliver “some 2450” local jobs.
Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson was also a vocal proponent of the bid from the outset, posing up in army vehicles to advance the case.
In April of 2014, Lyons announced the establishment of a dedicated Geelong Defence Business Office, headed by a highly-paid consultant, to boost the city’s bid for Land 400 and also that month hosted a special briefing day for defence force contractors, to show off the city’s capabilities, providing aerial tours of the region.
But even from the early days, cold water was thrown on the possibility of Geelong becoming a defence force hub by experts.
The words of wisdom fell on deaf ears.
Nearly a decade later, and with plans having evolved to now lure the Land 400 Phase Three — possibly involving South Korean company Hanwha building its “Redback” infantry fighting vehicles at nearby Avalon — and the deal’s not done.
Hanwha Defense Australia has started building a $170m Avalon airport facility where it plans to manufacture 30 self-propelled howitzers, however.
And Hanwha is one of two companies short-listed to manufacture infantry fighting vehicles under the Land 400 Phase 3 project — but there’s been budget cuts that may affect both that project and the Land 400 plans.
Geelong mayors have come and gone, but Senator Henderson is still sending out the war cry, calling for certainty over the future of the defence project amid reports it could move offshore, and steadfastly pushing to land, Land 400.
In May this year she said: “The industry is already hurting after the government’s Defence Strategic Review saw Army capabilities cannibalised by massive cuts to the Howitzer defence project, based at Avalon, and the LAND 400 Phase 3 infantry fighting vehicles program,” she said.“Now Labor is delaying its decision for a preferred tenderer for LAND 400 Phase 3, which was due last year, even further.”
Sea pool for Port Melbourne
In 2016, a plan for a sea pool to mark the “gateway to Melbourne” was floated.
Local man Rohan Cresp said the pool, which would be next to the Port Melbourne Yacht Club on Bay St, would be a welcome change from the “eyesore of a burnt out site” that at the time greeted passengers off the Spirit of Tasmania and cruise ships.
He said he had raised the idea with the Port Phillip council almost a decade earlier, but the idea had gone nowhere.
“There’s more and more apartments, more and more dwellings and you’re about to bring 80,000 people into Fishermans Bend and there’s not even a thought bubble of infrastructure.”
Mr Cresp commissioned WOWOWA Architecture & Interiors to create artist’s impressions of the proposed pool and a crowd-funding campaign for an in-depth feasibility study has already raised more than a third of the $15,000 needed.
“I’ve got images now and people are putting their money where their mouth is to say they want this,” he said.
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