Almost halfway between Melbourne and Geelong, this fast-growing suburb has affordable houses ... and not much more
Mambourin, on Melbourne’s western fringe, was designed as a beacon of liveability, but is now forgotten. In a series, The Age explores why Melbourne’s west is Australia’s fastest-growing region and what’s holding it back.
By Adam Carey
Elijah Teu (left) and Haylee Antonio walk the streets near their new home in Mambourin.Credit: Eddie Jim
Built on fallow farmland 40 kilometres south-west of Melbourne, Mambourin was designed to be a blueprint for compact, walkable suburbs on the urban fringe.
But four years after the first homes began to rise from the red volcanic earth, fears are growing that the emerging community has been planted on the edge of the city and forgotten.
Mambourin is situated almost halfway between central Melbourne and Geelong, on the absolute perimeter of the urban growth boundary.
To the west lies stubbly farmland, and a corridor of land reserved for a second western ring road that will be built one day. To the east, the city skyline is visible from the suburb’s highest vantage point, shimmering on the horizon like a distant mirage.
From the front doorstep of Haylee Antonio’s newly built home, a fragment of the vast grassy plain that Mambourin is being built on can be seen, though it will soon be cleared for new housing.
Antonio and her partner Elijah Teu bought a house and land package there in March, and moved into their new home in December.
Antonio, a social worker, and Teu, who works in construction, emigrated from New Zealand in January last year. Priced out of Auckland’s property market, they saw an opportunity to buy in Melbourne’s outer west and pounced.
“I just didn’t want to waste time. I’ve seen so many Kiwis come here, live the high life and then move back to New Zealand with nothing. And I wanted to switch the books for us,” she says.
The couple paid $550,000 for a three-bedroom, two-garage house just five minutes’ walk from Mambourin Marketplace, a shopping centre scheduled to open in 2025.
“We just thought that was a bargain, if anything,” Antonio says.
In a series, The Age explores why Melbourne’s west has become the nation’s fastest-growing region. We examine what makes it the place to be, and what’s holding it back from its full potential.
Mambourin is ground zero for Melbourne’s breakneck population growth. The lure is simple enough: inexpensive land on the western fringe where housing can be built at scale and with relatively few planning hurdles.
Werribee, the closest suburban centre, is an eight-kilometre drive away. And driving is the only option for now. There is no bus service. A rail line runs by the estate, but there is no train station.
It’s an unlikely setting for an experiment in sustainable urban planning.
But five years ago, Mambourin was chosen as the place to build a “20-minute city” in a greenfield suburb.
Academics from Monash University worked with planners from the City of Melbourne, the Victorian Department of Environment, Land Water and Planning and property developer Frasers to hone the concept.
The building site of Mambourin Marketplace, a shopping centre due to open in 2025.Credit: Eddie JIm
“The vision for Mambourin is to create a 20-minute resilient neighbourhood where everyday needs are met within a short walk, ride or public transport trip,” Monash University’s 2019 research report said.
It was done in recognition of the fact that Melbourne’s much-vaunted liveability was being threatened by the runaway pace of growth, especially on the urban fringe, where new communities were being placed far from essential infrastructure such as schools and public transport.
Monash University’s Liton Kamruzzaman was one of the key researchers on the project.
Kamruzzaman, an associate professor with Monash Institute of Transport Studies, says it was an experiment to see if it was possible to design an outer suburb where residents would be free to leave their cars at home.
Researchers recognised that the train station and bus services would be introduced last, and that permanent infrastructure, such as childcare and schools, could also take years to build. So they proposed building a temporary hub for essentials, such as grocery shops and childcare.
Mambourin residents gathered for a “bus marathon” last year, in protest at the lack of public transport for the new suburb.
The proposal never materialised.
“I think that whole idea fell apart, and it is being developed like any traditional suburb,” Kamruzzaman says.
No bus, no public pool or sports fields
Point Cook resident Senthill Sundaram led a successful campaign for better buses in his suburb five years ago.
Last year he turned his attention to Mambourin, whose residents were pleading for buses, full stop.
Getting to the closest bus stop involves a 1.6-kilometre walk into the neighbouring suburb.
“I’m passionate about this,” Sundaram says. “A lot of immigrants are coming here [to Mambourin] from the subcontinent and other areas, Africa; the women don’t know how to drive, and even if they drive, they can’t afford a second car, and they’re all stuck at home.”
Seeking to pressure the state government to service the area with public transport, Sundaram joined a group of Mambourin residents on a “bus marathon”.
The group met at Mambourin’s only cafe, Little Growling, and trekked 1.6 kilometres into Wyndham Vale to the closest bus stop.
The government announced in May it would introduce a new bus service into the area, connecting the neighbouring estates of Harpley and Cornerstone to Wyndham Vale train station for the first time.
Andrew Butt, a professor in sustainability and urban planning at RMIT University, considers Mambourin a lost opportunity. The suburb was devised with clear thought to placing housing near services, he says, but it has been let down by a lack of infrastructure investment.
Butt says the rail line to Wyndham Vale could be electrified, as was promised in 2018, with greater ease and at less cost than building the Suburban Rail Loop.
Mark Cleveland, Frasers’ development manager for Mambourin, argues the company has invested upfront to make the suburb as pleasant as it can.
The developer has built a private club with a swimming pool, gym and communal event space. It is accessible only to the residents of Frasers’ estate. Frasers introduced private security patrols in response to residents’ complaints about a lack of police response to crimes such as vehicle break-ins.
“The schools are coming, the parks are there. The cafe is there, the shopping centre will be there in 12 months’ time so that it is a walkable community for these people,” Cleveland says.
The missing pieces of infrastructure are the responsibility of the state government, he says.
The master plan for Mambourin includes a train station in the town centre. But just when it might be delivered remains a mystery.
In its submission to Plan for Victoria, the new planning scheme for the state, the City of Wyndham urged the state government to bring forward completion of all the Regional Rail Link’s proposed stations. Two were built when it opened, a third is in the works and three more are proposed.
A future train station was key to plans to create a 20-minute city in Mambourin, but trains do not stop there and the station is unfunded. Credit: Eddie Jim
The council noted that the outer west would carry a heavier load in meeting the state government’s new housing targets than any other part of Melbourne: 120,000 new homes by 2050 are proposed for Wyndham alone.
In an area mostly populated by families, a public primary school opened this year and a Christian P-12 school will open next year.
Developers who work in Melbourne’s greenfields see themselves as convenient punching bags for the lack of supporting infrastructure most new suburbs have. The developers help pay for everything from parks, sports fields and swimming pools to libraries, performing arts centres and kindergartens, but are falling short of what is needed for the ballooning population.
A large empty field occupies part of Mambourin’s north. On the master plan, it contains twin ovals and a tree-lined waterway. The creek bed is dry and treeless.
The developer for this part of Mambourin is Country Garden, a financially distressed, China-based company which last year sold most of its stake in the area to Frasers.
Last year, a Wyndham City Council report calculated the council needed more than $1 billion from developers in contributions to build the facilities communities would need, based on population growth. The report identified a funding black hole of $533.9 million.
In Wyndham’s west, which includes Mambourin, the council identified a $200.5 million shortfall, based on a projected population of 69,000. The undeveloped sports field is just one underfunded project among four in Mambourin, and 49 across wider Wyndham.
The location, progress and construction of the Mambourin sports field over the next three years will be set in the council’s next budget.
Wyndham’s new mayor, Mia Shaw, says the outer western suburbs have been caught in a game of “continual catch-up”.
“It’s the biggest complaint we hear from people in our community, to say the infrastructure always lags,” Shaw says.
She points out that the municipality of 325,000 people has one outdoor and one indoor swimming pool. There are plans to build a second indoor aquatic centre in Tarneit for $120 million, but the project has stalled for the lack of state or federal co-funding.
A spokesman for the state government said it had invested $15 million in building and upgrading aquatic facilities for Melbourne’s west, working closely with local councils.
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