‘City of the future’ planned in ambitious campus redevelopment

La Trobe Uni’s Bundoora campus will be “turned inside out” in a $5bn revamp featuring a town centre, accommodation, research precinct and sports park.

The project is described as the ‘most ambitious campus redevelopment plan under way in Australia at the moment’. Picture: Supplied

A new “city of the future’’ will emerge from La Trobe University’s Bundoora campus within a decade.

The existing site will be revolutionised in a $5 billion project to incorporate a town centre, accommodation, a health and wellbeing park, research precinct and the near-completed sports park.

La Trobe vice-chancellor John Dewar told the Herald Sun that the 235-hectare campus in the city’s northeast would be “turned inside out” so the uni would become part of a new community.

“This is the most ambitious campus redevelopment plan under way in Australia at the moment. It’s comprehensive,’’ Prof Dewar said.

An artists’ impressions based on the submission by Plenary, the preferred Master Development Partner for the project. Picture: Supplied

“It’s not that we’re just taking one part of the campus and building a few more buildings.

“This is a vision for the complete transformation of the Bundoora campus.’’

The bold new project will also:

• Providehomes for between 12,000 and 15,000 students, staff and private residents;

• Increasethe number of enrolled students from 28,000 to 40,000;

• Createmore than 20,000 jobs over 10 years and;

• Generate$3.5 billion in Gross Regional Product in the next decade.

The new city’s sports hub has been locked in as the base for the Matildas as they prepare to tackle the FIFA Women’s World Cup next year in Australia.

“We’ve got areas where people can live, can work, do cultural things, visit retail outlets, and there are places where research and innovation will take place.’’

La Trobe University vice-chancellor Professor John Dewar says the Bundoora campus will be “turned inside out. Picture: La Trobe Uni

Prof Dewar said that the university would soon face and embrace the outside world.

“Bundoora campus was designed back in the 1960s and it was designed on very traditional university principles – that university is a place that’s sealed off from the outside world, a place of quiet study and contemplation and thinking great thoughts.

“But the world has changed completely since then, particularly what communities expects now of the universities.

“And it’s where people can live – students, as well as people who are members of the general public who wants to live in a beautiful setting close to a university.’’

Also key to the revamp is converting academic theories and research into action, especially in areas such as food and agriculture, health and digital technology.

“Perhaps the most radical idea here is the idea of bringing together industry partners with researchers, and creating the means by which brilliant ideas in the laboratory are translated into commercial products or within walking distance of each other,’’ Prof Dewar said.

La Trobe University’s Bundoora campus was designed in the 1960s as a place ‘sealed off from the outside world’.

“That’s such an important role for universities now. To be part of a really active environment where that can happen.

“And actually, physical co-location really matters.’’

The site had plenty of space, Prof Dewar said, which was a major advantage that few universities had.

“We’ve got fantastic infrastructure. We have all of those expensive machines that individual small businesses can’t buy, but which they can access and bring in the commercial expertise through an accelerator program or an incubator program and provide the pilot manufacturing and advanced manufacturing capability that allows people to design and develop new products.’’

The plan aims to preserve the site’s natural environment, Prof Dewar said. The neighbouring Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary will be untouched.

“We want to preserve some very important waterways that run through the heart of the campus.

“And the university is the custodian of those waterways for the surrounding catchments and the downstream creeks.’’

Unused land and existing car parks will be used for the development with new underground or multistorey carparking to be built.

“There’s actually a lot of vacant space but there are also car parks that we plan to build on eventually and we’ll have to move the carparking somewhere else.’’

The Bundoora revamp is one of the biggest urban renewal projects within Melbourne’s metropolitan borders, overshadowed by the massive transformation of Fishermans Bend which by 2050 will be home to about 80,000 people and provide just as many jobs across the 480-hectare precinct.

The Plenary Group has been appointed the preferred Master Development Partner for the Bundoora project.

Plenary is also building the new $1.5 billion Footscray Hospital, due to be completed in December 2025.