Planning together for Melbourne’s next key growth precinct

Demonstrating the continued commitment of our member Councils to collaboration, Hume, Whittlesea and Mitchell Councils held a joint Council meeting this month to plan for the future of the emerging Cloverton precinct and the enormous population growth expected across Melbourne’s north. This builds on the collaborative model established at the three Councils’ inaugural meeting in 2023.

Over the next decade, the Cloverton precinct will become a major city-scale centre serving a catchment of approximately 380,000 people and 50,000 jobs across the three municipalities. The scale of the projected growth makes it essential that planning for transport, health, education, employment, community facilities and other infrastructure happens early and in a coordinated way.

But the impact of this growth will extend well beyond the three municipalities, making infrastructure planning a regional issue, not just a local one.  The Northern Growth Corridor is closely connected to established communities in across the north, with growing pressure already being felt across the transport network and access to essential services such as health.

That is why the three Councils are working together on a coordinated advocacy campaign to government. At the meeting on 7 October they reiterated their commitment to the Cloverton Regional Partnership, an alliance that advocates for recognition of Cloverton Metropolitan Activity Centre as a project of state significance, where infrastructure and service planning keeps pace with growth.

This includes planning and delivery of the Upfield rail line extension to Wallan, which involves duplication and electrification, a future station serving Cloverton, and securing land and planning for a new major public hospital in Melbourne’s outer north.

Getting the planning right now will help ensure future communities have the infrastructure and services they need, while also managing the flow-on impacts of growth across Melbourne’s north. It is a long-term challenge that requires long-term thinking and a strategic, coordinated response.