Is Frankston having its Geelong moment?

Visitors are filling Frankston streets, cranes are dotting the skyline, and key streets have undergone some serious face lifts. The Frankston Metropolitan Activity Centre Plan is the document underpinning bold ambitions for sustainable development, private and public investment, diverse housing options, and destination shopping and dining promenades.

Like Geelong, Frankston has an enviable waterfront precinct that has been successfully activated over the past decade. Alongside the waterfront, Kananook Creek meets the pristine sand of a beach that is regularly voted Melbourne’s best. With the greatest respect to other centres in Melbourne, they don’t have what Frankston does.

The past three decades have been transformative for Geelong, headlined by the Pyramid Building Society collapse and closure of Ford. Significant forces like these meant local government and industry had to organise themselves and collectively speak up for their city. Fast-forward to today, and Geelong boasts such major employers as the TAC, National Disability Insurance Agency, and WorkSafe.

It’s also getting more than its fair share from government. The Committee for Frankston & Mornington Peninsula found $22,823 is spent on infrastructure for every person in the City of Greater Geelong – a whopping $20,506 more than is spent for every resident on the Peninsula.

The politics too are similar. The federal electorate of Dunkley and state electorate of Frankston are crucial to either side of politics forming government. Essentially, you can’t govern in Victoria without the people of Frankston.

And this has been crucial in the city’s more recent success. Investments in redeveloping the Frankston Hospital, Frankston station, and TAFE upgrades are just some of the major projects delivered since 2014. However, government shouldn’t take Frankston for granted. Frankston is on the precipice of something special, and the next few decades will be transformative for the way we live, work and play on the Peninsula.

JOSH SINCLAIR – CEO, the Committee for Frankston & Mornington Peninsula COMMITTEE FOR FRANKSTON & MORNINGTON PENINSULA