Future Focus Group

The project group submitted a detailed submission to the Victorian Government for tram travel in the Melbourne CBD and Docklands to be made free-of-charge to enhance the liveability of the CBD. Using the government’s prescribed ‘Investment Lifecycle Guidelines’, the submission included information gained from consultation with key stakeholders, as well as detailed financial and transport modelling, utilising the Melbourne Integrated Transport Model.

After sustained advocacy by the group members and the Committee, free tram travel in the CBD and Docklands was introduced in January 2015, making Melbourne a more enjoyable place to visit, work, learn and live. 

The project group successfully developed and launched Open House Melbourne. The aim was to establish an annual free-of-charge event to showcase to Melburnians and national and international visitors, the wealth of architecture and design nestled in and around our city.

The inaugural Open House Melbourne event , held on 20 July 2008, with more than 30,000 visits to eight buildings, now attracts more than 130,000 visitors to over 100 buildings.

In 2012, Open House Melbourne received the prestigious Melbourne Award for Contribution to Profile by a Community Organisation as well as a Special Award from the Australian Institute of Architecture in recognition for its work promoting architecture to the public. Now an incorporated not-for-profit association, Open House Melbourne is part of the Open House Worldwide Network founded by Open House London.

http://www.openhousemelbourne.org/

The outcome of this project was the launch of a world-first green roof design competition open to both professional and student architects and landscape architects. Building owners were encouraged to register their roofs for the chance to win a fully-funded, architecturally-designed green roof. The result was the installation of a green roof on a CBD building at 131 Queen Street, Melbourne, which was officially opened on 15 July 2010 by the Lord Mayor.

Funding and in-kind support in excess of $500,000 from government, private enterprise and suppliers was secured as well as an Australian Research Council linkage grant of over $3 million for future green roof research.

This project continues to inform policy and generate interest subsequently inspiring the Growing Green Guide: A Guide to Green Roofs, Walls and Façades as well as regular press coverage.

In partnership with the City of Melbourne’s Office of Knowledge Capital and other key stakeholders, the project group developed and organised a welcome booth at Melbourne Airport for international students that included a team of volunteers, who handed out information packs containing information relating to employment, accommodation, city services, safety and social integration. Over 4000 information welcome packs were handed to foreign students arriving in February 2009.

All of the project participants were invited by the Office of Knowledge Capital to be part of the Office of Knowledge Capital International Education Reference Advisory Group. This project continues to this day as the City of Melbourne's 'Welcome Desk'.

The project group initiated the creation of a bronze sculpture of the main characters from Norman Lindsay's The Magic Pudding, as a centrepiece of a CBD-based children's garden precinct. The Magic Pudding sculpture was commissioned, cast at the Victorian College of the Arts and unveiled in 2000 at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne by Norman Lindsay's granddaughter Helen Glad. Now known as The Ian Potter Foundation Children's Garden, the garden along with the sculpture, has become a popular Melbourne landmark.

Following this project, one of the participants founded and established the Melbourne Prize Trust, which runs the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture, the Melbourne Prize for Literature and the Melbourne Prize for Music in a three-year cycle and has to date, made available approximately $1 million to Victorian artists.