Plan Melbourne 2017-2050

Plan Melbourne 2017-2050 is the metropolitan planning strategy to manage Melbourne's growth and change over the next three decodes.
Integrating long-term land use, infrastructure and transport planning, Plan Melbourne 2017-2050 sets out the strategy for supporting Jobs and growth, while building on Melbourne's legacy of distinctiveness, liveability and sustainability.

The strategy contributes to the overall vision for the state, and includes links with regional Victoria.

The updated plan builds on the extensive work and consultation underpinning Plan Melbourne 2014 and previous metropolitan strategies and guiding policy documents including Melbourne 2030 and Melbourne@5million.

Plan Melbourne 2017-2050 will be given statutory effect through amendments to the State Planning Policy Framework within the Victoria Planning Provisions.

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Plan Melbourne Five-Year Implementation Plan

Plan Melbourne 2017-2050 was accompanied by an implementation plan detailing 112 proposed actions. With responsibilities for metropolitan planning and delivery shared across three levels of government, Plan Melbourne Plan Melbourne is the action pathway that will convert the vision for Melbourne into meaningful and sustainable changes to the planning processes we use to govern and manage growth whilst equally maintaining a viable and ever-changing community.

This is why Plan Melbourne has a separate Five-Year Implementation Plan.

A monitoring and reporting framework has been developed to track the progress of the implementation of Plan Melbourne. Plan Melbourne and the Implementation Plan will be formally reviewed every five years.

Implementation Plan

Report on Progress 2020

The Report on Progress 2020 is the third yearly progress report for the current Five-Year Implementation Plan (2017-2022). This report details the status of each of the 113 actions in the Implementation Plan as they stood in 2020. Collectively, the actions are aimed at boosting connectivity, sustainability and liveability within Melbourne and ensuring our state can accommodate future population growth.

Report on Progress 2020

Progress reports will be publicly available and published annually. Links to previous years’ reports are provided below.

Report on progress 2020 report cover image

Melbourne's strategic planning history

Melbourne was founded in 1835 and was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria in 1847. Today, Melbourne is consistently recognised as one of the world's most liveable cities and has a long history of strategic planning.

Strategic planning began with Robert Hoddle's 1837 street layout, known as the 'Hoddle grid'. This layout is what we know today as Melbourne's central business district and has influenced the layout of modern day Melbourne.

By the early 1910s, concerns about the dilapidated parts of the city prompted major public inquiries by the Joint Select Committee on the Housing of the People in the Metropolis (1913-14) and a Royal Commission in 1915. These events led to the development of Melbourne's first strategic plan in 1929. The Plan, named the Plan for General Development of the Metropolitan Town Planning Commission, proposed a planning scheme to prevent 'misuse' of land and protect property values. It also highlighted traffic congestion, the distribution of recreational open space and the haphazard intermingling of land uses.

Bourke Street. Melbourne 1954Bourke Street, Melbourne 1954

The 1929 plan was not implemented and it was only after the Second World War in the early 1950s that the planning system as we know it today commenced with the Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme 1954 – Report and its associated Survey and Analysis volume.

Over the sixty years since this planning effort began more than 21 policies or plans have been produced. The documents below outline key metropolitan planning policies and strategies that have helped to shape Melbourne's development.

Previous strategic plans

Plan Melbourne 2017 - 2050

Plan Melbourne 2014

Integrated long-term land use, infrastructure and transport planning to outline a vision for Melbourne's growth to 2051.

Delivering Melbourne's Newest Sustainable Communities (2009)

Outlined an integrated approach to land use, transport and environmental initiatives, including the Urban Growth Boundary and Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution.

View the 2009 policy documents

Melbourne 2030 a planning update - Melbourne@5Million (2008)

Outlined policy implications from the Victorian in Future 2008 growth projections.

View the 2008 report

Melbourne 2030 audit report (2008)

An independent audit of Melbourne 2030 and provided recommendations on the implementation of Melbourne 2030.

View the audit and 2008 Government response

Planning for all of Melbourne (2008)

The Government's response to the audit of Melbourne 2030.

View the 2008 report

A plan for Melbourne's growth areas (2005)

Sets out a strategic approach for development in Melbourne's growth areas, including the establishment of the Growth Areas Authority.

View the 2005 plan

Melbourne 2030 (2002)

Quantified the task of urban consolidation. It also introduced an Urban Growth Boundary.

View the 2002 plan

Living Suburbs (1995)

Focuses on relationships between central city, suburban Melbourne and adjacent regional areas providing a framework for integrated metropolitan development to enhance Melbourne's environment and liveability, and managing infrastructure and urban development.

View the 1995 report

Metropolitan Strategy Implementation (1981)

Encouraged development in existing areas, and sought to concentrate housing, transport, employment and community facilities in highly accessible places.

View the 1981 report

Report on General Concept Objections (1974)

Examines the submissions and objections to the Planning Policies for the Melbourne Metropolitan Region.

View the 1974 report

Planning Policies for the Melbourne Metropolitan Region (1971)

Introduced long-term conservation and development policies through growth corridors and what we now call green wedge principles, and contained outward growth to a limited number of areas on the edge of the city. It looked at the physical constraints around Melbourne for the first time.

View the 1971 report

Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme 1954 – Report

Shows the beginnings of the development corridors that we know today and planned for a population of 2.5 million in the 1990s, a population actually reached in the 1970s.

View the 1954 report

Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme 1954 – Survey and Analysis

This document is a complimentary document to the Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme Report 1954 Report. It presents a detailed account of the studies which formed the factual basis of the 1954 report and proposed planning scheme.

View the 1954 survey and analysis

A Plan for General Development (1929)

Presents a planning scheme to prevent 'misuse' of land and protect property values. It also identified a number of issues such as traffic congestion and recognised the value of Melbourne's waterways as an open space network.

View the 1929 plan

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Page last updated: 07/10/21