Melbourne’s new suburb Arden slammed over ‘incredibly short sighted’ blunder

It is Melbourne sparkly new suburb. But it appears there’s one glaring problem with the plan described today as “incredibly shortsighted”.

Plans to transform Melbourne’s inner north into another employment and transport hub have faced backlash from a Greens MP, who warns the city is repeating a massive mistake.

The Arden precinct in North Melbourne is poised to undergo a massive transformation in the coming years to become new a vibrant neighbourhood for Victoria’s capital city.

Nestled around the recently constructed Arden Station of the Metro Tunnel, the ambitious project aims to accommodate approximately 34,000 jobs and provide homes for over 20,000 residents.

But there’s one small problem. The Government has only planned to build one primary school in the area.

Greens MP Ellen Sandell said the decision will immediately cause problems and criticised the government for failing to learn from mistakes in the Docklands, which was originally planned with no extra public school.

The government was eventually forced to acquire land to build a school and just two years after opening was forced to expand the school into a nearby shopping centre.

“This is an incredibly shortsighted decision by the Labor Government in Victoria,” Ms Sandell said in a statement provided to news.com.au.

“Where will these 20,000 people send their kids to school? The Labor Government urgently needs to go back to the drawing board and include several primary schools, and a high school, in the Arden development from the start so we don’t have an expensive disaster on our hands later on.

“When Docklands was developed, the government did not expect families to live there, so no school was provided for. Of course, many families did choose to make Docklands home and parents had to campaign for a long time to build a primary school.

“This is exactly what happened in Docklands, which was a huge failure.”

Map of Arden Precinct The new suburb, which will take in 50 hectares of land between Macaulay Road, Dryburgh Street and the Moonee Ponds Creek

The Education Department’s 2022 Enrolment Pressure Index revealed the closest North Melbourne primary school, the one closest to Arden, is at 92 per cent capacity.

“It’s important that we keep refreshing that work because those projections can change,” Education Department secretary Jenny Atta said in response to the criticism.

“We’ve seen in some of the growth corridor areas that growth has exceeded what has been projected.”

One parent with a child at a Docklands primary school said the decision is “so narrow-sighted it’s ridiculous”.

“City living is desirable. People want to be living here and they want to be raising their families here. We don’t want to have to move out to the suburbs in order to get into a school,” Mary Masters told The Age.

“They can’t just keep us in a shopping centre for the next 10 years. But all the sites nearby got sold off to developers and now they’re having to negotiate with developers if they want to get some land back for schools.

“Hopefully they don’t repeat the same mistake with Arden. Just put the land aside now, build new high schools, build new primary schools.”

Greens politician Ellen Sandell said the decision will immediately cause problems and criticised the government for failing to learn from mistakes in Docklands, which was originally planned with no extra public school.

Spread across approximately 45 hectares of predominantly industrial lots, the Arden precinct is situated between Macaulay Road, the Upfield rail line, Moonee Ponds Creek, and Dryburgh Street in North Melbourne.

The state Government predicts that Arden will undergo substantial changes, shaping the landscape of the region over the next 15 years.

The planning process for the Arden precinct was spearheaded by the Victorian Planning Authority, working in collaboration with the City of Melbourne.

The Department of Transport and Planning will take the lead in delivering the Arden project, with Development Victoria engaged to oversee the renewal, transforming Arden into a globally recognised destination for innovation and industry collaboration.

Originally identified as part of the Arden-Macaulay Structure Plan 2012, the urban renewal areas around North Melbourne were later divided into two distinct precincts: Arden and Macaulay.

In July 2020, a draft structure plan for Arden was released for public consultation, envisioning a thriving neighbourhood characterised by open spaces, new community facilities, innovative water management, and well-designed buildings for both residential and professional use.