Shane Warne, Vegemite among proposed names for new Melbourne train stations

VEGEMITE, Bunnings Sausage, Shane Warne and the dreaded Station McStationface are among 50,000 names put forward for five new Melbourne train stations.

VEGEMITE, Bunnings Sausage, Shane Warne and the dreaded Station McStationface have all been proposed as potential names for five new underground Metro Tunnel stations across Melbourne.

The Melbourne Metro Rail Authority has received more than 50,000 suggestions over the eight week competition with the final names to be announced later this year.

Related: Public chance to name five new stations

The suggestions ranged from the humorous to more serious cultural and ANZAC themed names and will now be put to an advisory panel to tick off on the final decision.

The Andrews Government appointed the panel to stop larrikins from hijacking the competition, after a similar competition in Britain saw the public choose to name a £200 million polar research ship Boaty McBoatface.

An artist’s impression of how Melbourne Metro station CBD South would look.

Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan commended the involvement of Victorians.

“We have had an overwhelming response with an extraordinary 50,000 suggestions that reflect Victoria’s diversity, history and cheeky sense of humour,” Ms Allan said.

“Now the hard work begins for the advisory panel to assess submissions before compiling a shortlist of names for each station for the government to consider.”

“The Metro Tunnel will free up the City Loop, Melbourne’s biggest bottleneck, creating space for more trains, more often.”

The British public chose to name a new polar research ship Boaty McBoatface.

The five Melbourne sites to be named are at the Domain precinct in St Kilda, CBD South and CBD North, Parkville, and Arden in North Melbourne.

One in five suggestions for the new station at Domain referenced Australia’s proud military history including ANZAC, Memorial, Dunlop and Chauvel.

Victoria Cross was also nominated a number of times along with variations of the word Digger.

Competition winners will get an exclusive sneak peak behind the scenes tour of the Metro Tunnel worksites before they are opened to the public.

The Melbourne Metro project includes 9km of twin tracks to link South Yarra to Kensington, easing congestion in the City Loop.

Some works are already under way and major construction is set to begin next year, but the full tunnel isn’t expected to open until 2026.

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