TWO COUNCILS, ONE STRATEGY: PROTECTING THE AVALON CORRIDOR

By Tess Macallan, Journalist, Council Magazine

As Melbourne’s suburbs continued to sprawl out into unsuspecting regions that were once green space, the City of Greater Geelong began developing a plan to protect the future of the Avalon Corridor – the 30,000ha of land situated between Geelong and Melbourne – but quickly realised it could not undertake the process alone. This led to a collaborative partnership between the City of Greater Geelong and Wyndham City Council, resulting in the recently adopted Avalon Corridor Strategy.

The Avalon Corridor is a significant portion of land that encompasses Little River and parts of Lara. It contains a multitude of environmentally and culturally important landscapes, alongside major assets such as Avalon Airport and the Melbourne Water Western Treatment Plant.

The corridor also consists of the ‘green break’ that creates a clear delineation between the City of Greater Geelong and City of Wyndham in metropolitan Melbourne.

Wyndham is currently one of Australia’s fastest growing municipalities, and as Victoria’s cities continue to expand, Geelong and Wyndham are forecast to have a combined population growth of more than 317,000 over the next 20 years – so without a clear strategy in place, this growth could push out and take over the corridor.

Plans to protect the Avalon Corridor were initiated under the Victorian Government’s Plan Melbourne 2017 - 2050 (Plan Melbourne) strategy, with one of the actions outlining that the green break between Melbourne and Geelong should be continued.

Seeking to cement this boundary with a more detailed framework, the City of Greater Geelong approached Wyndham City Council to develop the Avalon Corridor Strategy

The strategy is intended to guide planning decisions for individual sites and the surrounding region from now until 2050.

As the precinct contains Victoria’s second airport, Avalon –and the future home of Melbourne’s Bay West – both Councils were also required to work with the Victorian Government.

City of Greater Geelong Deputy Mayor, Cr Anthony Aitken, said a lot of areas of the strategy are focused on restricting urban sprawl.

“It’s a massive announcement to the housing market to say these areas are now restricted in terms of urban growth and urban sprawl. We've identified alternative areas for where that population growth could actually occur. Those areas are predominantly outside of the Avalon growth corridor,” Cr Aitken said.

Cr Aitken said that many people within the Geelong community place importance on protecting the green gap between Melbourne and Geelong, and that when Council began the process of communicating with the community about the potential of the strategy in 2017, there was a large amount of support.

“Geelong has always had a long history there. It's a standalone community that has watched Wyndham grow rapidly and seen the expansion of the urban sprawl that is happening in Melbourne's west. The community wants to ensure that the Melbourne metropolis doesn't link up with Geelong,” Cr Aitken said.

Wyndham City Council Manager Strategic Planning and Property, Aaron Chiles, echoed this sentiment.

“The intention is to make sure that people feel as though they've left Melbourne and that they're entering Geelong. For that to happen, there must not be a continuous development, whether it’s suburban or industrial," Mr Chiles said.

The Vision For The Corridor

The key goal that was agreed upon from the initial consultation process was to ensure the green break was maintained through limiting residential growth and reinforcing Melbourne’s urban growth boundary.

The final Avalon Corridor Strategy defines the precinct’s boundary – including additional land south of Dandos

Road – which will then be included in Precinct Structure Plans developed by the Victorian Planning Authority (VPA).

Through community consultation, it also became evident that the strategy should recognise the region’s cultural sites and natural assets.

One of these sites is the You Yangs Regional Park, which sits within the precinct of the corridor. It is a significant cultural site for the Wadawurrung people, which is the local First Nation community in the Geelong/Wyndham area.

Cr Aitken said collaboration with the local First Nations community has been incredibly important as they have been able to identify the culturally significant sites that sit within the plan.

The strategy also seeks to preserve Western Treatment Plant (WTP) operations. Roughly the size of Phillip Island, the area includes a series of lagoons and irrigated paddocks that are used by waterbirds, forming one of Australia’s best birdwatching sites.

The WTP represents a key portion of the Port Phillip Bay and Bellarine Peninsula wetland, which is recognised as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.

The strategy is also focused on securing the economic future of Wyndham and Geelong through the expansion of Avalon Airport operations, identifying infrastructure and employment uses in particular for Avalon, and also for the future Bay West port.

Cr Aitken said this has been a valuable process for Geelong, which traditionally has focused attention towards its southwest and smaller neighbours.

“This strategy was actually the first time that we've understood the strategic importance of actually looking to our north towards Melbourne, as opposed to looking towards our south, which is our coastal and rural councils,” Cr Aitken said.

“It's been a really good process for us to actually understand that our economic future really does depend on what happens in this Avalon area, and that's actually where the majority of employment opportunities are going to be created for the future.”

Mr Chiles said the Avalon Airport is a unique piece of infrastructure, and should have some industrial land use and further development around it.

“That's what the plan identifies and that's good for employment, that's good for the region, that's good for both Geelong and Wyndham for that to occur. What we don’t want is a free for all in terms of the land between Geelong and Wyndham. We want it to be targeted to the area around the airport and to leverage the infrastructure that we already have," Mr Chiles said.

As the region’s population grows, Cr Aitken said Council hopes that Bay West Port and Avalon Airport become the “economic engine room for jobs and investment across the two councils”.

Through the protection of cultural assets and those environmental assets, the strategy also seeks to create a tourism opportunity for the You Yangs, Avalon Airshow, Port Phillip Bay Trail, rural attractions and ecotourism.

“The Avalon corridor enshrines protection of the industrial assets, the cultural assets, and environmental assets,” Cr Aitken said.

Community Feedback

Mr Chiles said community feedback on the strategy has been positive overall.

There were two distinct phases of community consultation, with the first aiming to gather perspectives on issues that were important to the community. This session was held in Little River and received a large turnout.

Mr Chiles said Little River’s central position within the corridor means it is the main resident population in the area, so the community was particularly engaged in the process.

The second consultation was held online due to the pandemic, and had a high level of participation. That consultation used community feedback to inform the strategy as it is now, identifying what the key principles of the strategy should be and the areas that need to continue to be protected into the future.

Cr Aitken said the local community in Lara, which is closest to the Avalon Airport, raised concerns about further expansion of the airport.

However, he said the general population of Geelong has been very supportive because the strategy entrenches the view that Geelong continues to not be part of Melbourne. Feedback from the community, landowners and major stakeholders such as the Victorian Government, Wadawurrung Traditional Owners and Avalon Airport have helped to shape the final strategy.

Cr Aitken said it was a positive experience to work with the Victorian Planning Authority who will undertake planning through the development of structure plans for each of the areas.

The Value Of Collaboration

As for the partnership between the Councils, both Wyndham and Geelong reported the process to be an overall positive and productive experience.

Cr Aitken said, “If we can – in a planning sense – have it on our side of the boundary and they have it on their side of the boundary, it entrenches the planning principle of ensuring that we are not just one massive big metropolis. We actually do have our own identity and that's reflected in a physical sense with the green break between the two cities. We couldn't have done that without Wyndham’s support.”

Mr Chiles said the initiative has been a really constructive working relationship and will hopefully lead to more collaboration in the future.

“It's been a very valuable partnership and one that means we have a better relationship with our colleagues across the boundary with Geelong than we would've if we hadn't done this project,” Mr Chiles said.

“We feel we can give them a call if we're dealing with some challenging issues or things they may have experience with.

“I think it's an example of a project leading to stronger relationships and building rapport across local government boundaries, which is a good thing.”

Next Steps

The Avalon Corridor Strategy was adopted by both the City of Greater Geelong and Wyndham City Council in December 2022. Both councils have written to the Victorian Minister for Planning asking for the strategy to be introduced as a reference – or a background document – in the respective planning schemes for Geelong and Wyndham, which then enables it to be referenced in future planning work moving forward. The Councils will be continuing to work collaboratively with the Department of Planning in the coming months.

The creation of the strategy document has provided action plans for both Councils to focus on.

Geelong has identified what farm zone surrounding Avalon can be rezoned for industrial and commercial uses, and can now start the process of completing forward estimates regarding the cost for infrastructure needed to access those areas.

Mr Chiles said that future work will involve looking at two green wedges in Wyndham and reviewing the Green Wedge Management Plan. Wyndham has already completed background work on another green wedge north of the Princes Freeway and will continue to do work on that in coming years. Council has also identified works to study the township of Little River and what its future planning should look like.

Preserving the green break required Geelong to work collaboratively with Wyndham. Without this partnership, Wyndham may have developed their own urban growth strategies, and taken them right to the boundary between Geelong in the Little River area.

Mr Comello said they hope the strategy will also inform any future review of the Plan Melbourne strategy, which is reviewed approximately every five years.

“We hope that the work done here provides a little more definition to the corridor and its role within the Plan Melbourne metropolitan strategy.”