‘Hang our heads in shame’: Locals join public housing tenants’ development fight

Well-heeled Port Melbourne residents have joined forces with former tenants of a public housing block to oppose the redevelopment of the Barak Beacon site, which includes plans for an 11-storey tower.

Steve Raymond, who lives near the site, said that while tenants evicted from the public housing had been protesting against the redevelopment for a long time, many other locals had only just joined the fight.

Local residents Steve Raymond and Rowena Calvert are unhappy with the proposed Barak Beacon redevelopment in Port Melbourne. Credit: Justin McManus

“It’s made us hang our heads in shame,” Raymond said. “We’ve ignored [it]. We’ve been driving past these protests and couldn’t quite work out what was going on, and now we find ourselves very unified.”

Public housing tenants were evicted from the Barak Beacon estate on The Boulevard facing New Beach last year, and the low-rise buildings, which comprised 89 homes, were demolished. Residents were relocated.

The government did not release designs for the new estate until this year. The plans are for 408 new homes, including 130 social homes, 82 affordable homes, 17 specialist disability accommodation dwellings and 196 “market rental homes”, in an 11-storey and nine-storey tower.

The market rental homes will be available for private lease, with the development a partnership between Homes Victoria and not-for-profit organisation Building Communities, which has a 40-year lease to build, operate and maintain the new homes.

An artist’s render of the proposed development at Barak Beacon. Credit: Homes Victoria

Last month, Raymond started a petition opposing the redevelopment, which has already been signed by almost 2000 people.

Raymond is a pseudonym he has been using because he is from a well-known family and does not want to be widely identified.

The petition calls on the state government to limit the Barak Beacon redevelopment to four and five-storey towers and reduce the number of dwellings from 408 to 250.

The petitioners also want the government to reduce the number of private homes and boost the number of public housing units as a proportion of the development.

“We don’t mind if it’s all social housing. The scale of the development is our issue here,” Raymond said.

Residents are concerned there will be only 260 parking spaces for more than 1000 people, causing congestion in the area and what they say will be a major traffic hazard for the children at the nearby Port Melbourne Primary School.

Housing minister Harriet Shing said the government was building more social and affordable housing than ever before, and this included the Barak Beacon redevelopment.

“This project will deliver a 46 per cent uplift in social homes at the site – and the buildings will stay in character with the neighbourhood, which already features other medium-density developments,” she said.

“Every renter who previously lived at Barak Beacon will be given first right of return to the brand-new safe and secure homes.”

But former Barak Beacon tenant Margaret Kelly said she and many former tenants would not return.

Kelly lived in the estate for 25 years before refusing to vacate her home and forcing the government to take her to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to evict her.

“I was so distressed when they released the plans,” the 68-year-old disability pensioner said. “It’s just a trashy overdevelopment. They promote the concept of sort of mixed-use estates, but they’ve got all the public tenants segregated into two buildings. It’s not mixed at all.”

The former public housing at Barak Beacon in Port Melbourne in 2022. Credit: Scott McNaughton

Kelly was provided with housing close to her former home but said she would probably never move back to Barak Beacon because the process was so difficult for her.

She said the planned homes for the former public housing tenants were “little dog boxes”. She was also critical of the government for building a mix of social homes and affordable housing that did not provide the same benefits as public housing.

Kelly said she could “sort of understand” that many locals had not engaged with Barak Beacon’s demolition or redevelopment until now.

“They’re mostly people with kids, and it’s hard to take a big interest in the community when you’ve got young children, but it will really seriously impact on them,” she said. “It’s great that the local community is taking an interest.”

Homes Victoria lodged its application for the Barak Beacon development with Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny on Monday.

Kilkenny has the final decision on the development as part of a streamlined process that exempts the plans from the standard notice and appeal process. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year, with residents expected to be able to move back in 2026.

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