New University of Melbourne campus to be built in Fisherman’s Bend

Plans for a new Melbourne University campus have been unveiled, with the $2bn precinct to be a hub for engineering and design innovation.

An artists’ impression of the new Melbourne University campus approved for the former Holden site in Port Melbourne.

A new Melbourne University campus will be opened at Fisherman’s Bend as part of bold fresh plans for the historic former General Motors Holden site in the city’s west.

A strategy to position Victoria at the forefront of global manufacturing, engineering and design innovation will be announced by the state government on Wednesday.

The “Fishermans Bend National Employment and Innovation Cluster” is central to the plans, with revitalisation of the former Holden site in Salmon St the first of five key priorities.

The University of Melbourne will be given the green light to open an engineering and design innovation campus on the site by 2025, with the government committing $179.4 million for the first stage of redevelopment.

Other priorities include new transport options, civic boulevards to generate pedestrian activity, green spaces and “high-quality urban design”.

The new university campus will be built on the site of Holden’s former Fisherman’s Bend headquarters, built in 1935.

Business Precincts Minister Martin Pakula said the new plans for Fisherman’s Bend would be “powered by new technologies and world-leading engineering and design’’.

“Fishermans Bend presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a precinct that creates jobs for Victorians and produces solutions for the world,’’ he said.

A report into the “strategic directions’’’ for advancing manufacturing at Fisherman’s Bend proposes new tram, train, bus and freight options to better connect the area to the CBD and beyond.

The new campus is the first stage in a five-point plan to revive Fisherman’s Bend.

It calls for Turner and Salmon streets to be “reoriented over time to create high amenity,

attractive and active civic boulevards”.

It suggests the new pedestrian thoroughfares be “embedded with world-leading telecommunication technologies, such as 5G WI-FI … to collect data and allow the precinct to operate as a living laboratory.”

And it declares “the long-term role and function of the site currently utilised as a Go-Kart track at the corner of Cook St and Todd Rd will be reviewed to maximise strategic benefit.’’

Planning Minister Richard Wynne will on Wednesday announce approval of Melbourne University’s $2 billion campus, making it a key new major tenant of the precinct.

The Fisherman’s Bend campus will be built on the site Holden opened in 1936 and feature world-class heavy engineering and large fabrication testing facilities.

It would bring together researchers, students and industry and be purpose built for the faculties of engineering and information technology and architecture, building and planning.

The government will also announce interim planning controls for the Fishermans Bend “NEIC” to guide development while a more detailed precinct plan and permanent controls are finalised.

Fishermans Bend Development Board Chair Meredith Sussex said it was “a global opportunity”.

“And partnerships with the likes of the University of Melbourne and the Defence Science and Technology Group are critical steps in realising that ambition,’’ she said.

The NEIC precinct, already home to global firms such as Boeing and Siemens, is expected to boast more than 40,000 jobs and 20,000 students by 2050 in industries including transport, aerospace, defence and clean energy.

The greater 480ha Fishermans Bend site is Australia’s largest urban renewal project and tipped to be home to 80,000 people and 80,000 jobs in the same period.

The government bought the 32ha former Holden site for $130 million in 2016.