Docklands is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on the western end of the central business district. Docklands had a population of 15,495 at the 2021 census.
Primarily a waterfront area centred on the banks of the Yarra River, it is bounded by Spencer Street, Wurundjeri Way and Montague Street to the east, the Yarra River and Moonee Ponds Creek to the west, Footscray Road and Dynon Road to the north and Lorimer Street, Boundary Road and the West Gate Freeway across the Yarra River to the south.
The site of modern-day Docklands was originally swamp land that in the 1880s became a bustling dock area as part of the Port of Melbourne, with an extensive network of wharfs, heavy rail infrastructure and light industry. Following the containerisation of shipping traffic, Docklands fell into disuse and by the 1990s was virtually abandoned, making it the focal point of Melbourne's underground rave scene. The construction of Docklands Stadium in the late 1990s attracted developer interest in the area, and urban renewal began in earnest in 2000 with several independent privately developed areas overseen by VicUrban, an agency of the Victorian Government. Docklands subsequently experienced an apartment boom and became a sought-after business address, attracting the national headquarters of, among others, the National Australia Bank, ANZ Bank, Myer, David Jones, Medibank and the Bureau of Meteorology, as well as the regional headquarters for Ericsson, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank and television networks Nine and Seven.
Known for its contemporary architecture, the suburb is home to a number of heritage buildings that have been retained for adaptive reuse, and is also the site of landmarks such as the Docklands Stadium, Southern Cross railway station and the Melbourne Star.
Although still incomplete, Docklands' developer-centric planning has split public opinion with some lamenting its lack of green open space, pedestrian activity, transport links and culture.
History
Early history
Before the foundation of Melbourne, it was a large wetlands area of the Yarra River estuary consisting of a large salt water lagoon and a giant swamp at the mouth of the Moonee Ponds Creek. It was one of the open hunting grounds of the Wurundjeri people, who created middens around the edges of the lake. The lake was populated by fauna including native black swans and wild ducks as well and earlier, with its connection to Hobsons Bay, such marine life as snapper and swordfish.
In 1835, Vandemonian John Batman established a home on Batman's Hill, marking the westernmost point of a new settlement. The rest of the area, however, remained largely unused for decades. The swamp, known as Batman's Swamp, and later West Melbourne Swamp was a major source of nuisance to the colony, considered ugly and unsanitary and produced a strong unpleasant smell.
The first plans to reclaim the swamp issue were presented on 5 May 1858 by engineer Alexander Kennedy Smith to the Philosophical Institute of Victoria and proposed a system of three canals and a road to Footscray. While the reclamation did not proceed, the road did. Swamp Road (now Dynon Road) was completed in 1863 and included two bridges across the north of the lagoon.
The advent of rail infrastructure in the late 1860s saw the city's industry gradually expand into the area. By 1878, Moonee Ponds Creek became a series of drainage canals with a system of bluestone constructions helping to funnel the salty water further south.
The earliest extensive plans to develop the area was in the 1870s, when a plan was prepared to extend the Hoddle Grid westward, following the curve of the Yarra River and effectively doubling its size. The plan proposed several gridlike blocks with an ornamental public garden and lake in the shape of the United Kingdom, occupying the site of the salt lake. However, expansion of the grid westward was abandoned in favor of a northward extension.
Construction of Victoria Dock
Under the guidance of British civil engineer John Coode, a major engineering project began in the 1880s to reroute the course of the Yarra River, which resulted in the widening of the river for shipping and the creation of a new Victoria Dock (the name was previously used by one at Queens Bridge as early as the 1850s). The dock was lined with wharves and light industry grew around the nearby western rail yards of Spencer Street railway station (now Southern Cross railway station), which were used for freighting the goods inland.
Early to mid 20th century: From West Melbourne swamp to slum and new shipping port
During the wars, Victoria Dock was used as the main port for naval vessels and most of the Victorian troops returned from both wars to the docks.
In 1924 the Victorian Railways engineer Edward Ballard prepared designs for a new freight yards including a new Melbourne Yard and Spencer Street Yard and West Melbourne Dock (later Victoria Harbour) and an extension of Dudley Street westward and a new main road through West Melbourne which would later become Docklands Highway with land to be transferred to the Melbourne Harbour Trust.
During the Great Depression era, the area along Moonee Ponds Creek was home to a large rubbish tip. Just across the creek (near the site of Costco) were Dudley Mansions, a notorious slum of half a dozen homes constructed from refuse which Frederick Oswald Barnett began photographing and actively campaigning against.
Construction of the new Victoria Harbour took place over the following decades and with shipping was moved from the Yarra turning basin at Queensbridge Victoria Dock became Melbourne's busiest.
Disuse and rave epicentre
With the introduction of containerisation of Victoria's shipping industry in the 1950s and 1960s, the docks along the Yarra River, east of the modern Bolte Bridge, and within Victoria Harbour immediately to the west of the central business district, became inadequate for the new container ships.
The creation of Appleton Dock and Swanson Dock in an area west of the Moonee Ponds Creek, now known as West Melbourne, closer to the mouth of the Yarra, became the focus of container shipping, effectively rendering redundant a vast amount of vacant inner-city land to the immediate west of Melbourne's CBD.
Docklands became notable during the 1990s for its underground rave dance scene. The growth of the warehouse rave scene carried on from the earlier gay and lesbian warehouse party scene which had started in the early 1980s, and continued in the Docklands through parties such as The ALSO Foundation's Red Raw, Winterdaze, New Year's Eve, and Resurrection dance parties.
The site was also host to a number of dance parties by Future Entertainment and Hardware Corporation. DJs and performers such as Paul van Dyk, Carl Cox, Jeff Mills, Frankie Knuckles, David Morales, Marshall Jefferson and BT headlined these events. The biggest event hosted, in terms of attendance, was the "Welcome 2000" New Year's Eve dance party hosted on 31 December 1999.
Urban renewal
Docklands was seen as a large urban blight by the Cain Jr. State Government. Property consultants JLW Advisory carried out the first market demand assessment of the site.
The size of the Melbourne Docklands area meant that political influences were inescapable. The Docklands project was on top of the government's agenda, however, due to the poor condition of the wharf infrastructure, a further investment was required to initiate the project, which the government at the time could not afford. Nevertheless, the Docklands project stayed on the drawing board, but with little progress. In 1989, several architectural firms were invited to discuss how the area could best serve the Melbourne public.
In 1990, the Docklands Task Force was established to devise an infrastructure strategy and conduct the public consultation process. The Committee For Melbourne, a not for profit organization that brought together the private sector of Melbourne for a public good, was pursuing another planning strategy. It involved a bid for the 1996 Olympic Games and another proposal to turn the Docklands into a technology city, known as the Multifunction Polis (MFP). Both bids fell through in late 1990. Nevertheless, the Committee For Melbourne's approach became the preferred model in the proceeding strategies for the Docklands development, leading to the formation of the Docklands Authority in July 1991.
Kennett era and ARM Masterplan
With a government running in budget deficits, not much progress was made on the Docklands project. In late 1992, Jeff Kennett was elected Premier. Kennett instituted many changes and turned the government's financial position around. He then embarked on a multitude of projects, which included Docklands. It was politically imperative to get the project rolling, the Docklands Authority opted for the concept of having infrastructure funded by the developers. The development industry supported this, and claimed that the project would be more efficient. Docklands was divided into sections or precincts, which were to be tendered to private companies to be developed.
May 1996 saw the relaunch of the tender process. Few restrictions were applied to the bids from developers, and as the vision was to make Docklands 'Melbourne's Millennium Mark', the key criterion for a successful bid was to get projects going by 2000. It did not take long for the realisation that the lack of government coordination in infrastructure planning would create problems. Developers would not invest into public infrastructure, where benefits would flow on to an adjacent property. This was corrected by allowing developers to negotiate for infrastructure funding with the government. The Docklands Village precinct was planned for a residential and commercial mixed development, but, in late 1996, that plan was scrapped when it was announced a private football stadium would be built on the site. The site was chosen for its easy access to the then Spencer Street station (now Southern Cross station), and it was intended to be an anchor for the entire project and provide for a clear signal to the long-awaited start of the Docklands project. However, the stadium also created a huge barrier between the City and Docklands.
Work on the Bolte Bridge, designed by architects Denton Corker Marshall, for Transurban and constructed by Baulderstone Hornibrook, another architectural centrepiece took place from 1996 to 1999 and costing $75 million.
In 1997, the Docklands commission engaged architects Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM) to design the Docklands masterplan incorporating the stadium, Victoria Dock and the Yarra on both sides of the Bolte Bridge. The whimsical futuristic design featured mostly curvy building frontages and winding thoroughfares. The centrepiece was an oval shaped central park (approximately the size of the Docklands Stadium field) accessed via a network of footbridges and surrounded by mid-sized towers from which a radial network of roads were lined by irregular curved footprints, each individually surrounded by zig-zagging lines of trees along the parks and open space. Vehicular traffic was minimised by a reduced road connectivity to encourage pedestrianisation. Harbour Esplanade was to be lined by low-rise commercial buildings such as restaurants to attract activity to the foreshore. The original plan featured integrated windbreaks to reduce the wind-tunnel effect. A wide promenade and framed park would directly connect Bourke Street and Lonsdale Streets to the new precinct (the present site of Southern Cross Station), effectively funnelling pedestrians from the CBD toward the new waterfront. Moonee Ponds Creek was connected to Victoria Dock via a winding channel creating additional waterfront and the precincts were dotted by small irregularly placed ponds, islands and boardwalks. Another small channel would have connected the Victoria Harbour waterway with the Yarra to the south allowing for more flow and less stagnant water. Central Pier was to be demolished and replaced by a peninsula of connected islands featuring green space and a walking path from which the whole precinct could be viewed. Moonee Ponds Creek would have been restored featuring a peninsula extending beyond the present Bolte Bridge adding a large park to the northern riverside frontage of the precinct.
In 1999, Docklands was formally excised from the City of Melbourne and placed under full control of the Docklands Authority, a situation which was to last until 2007.
Bracks/Brumby era: Redesign and Commencement of Construction (1998)
With the exception of Yarra Waters (later Yarra's Edge) bid by Mirvac, bid for every other precinct between 1998 and 1999 fell through, reasons for which were often unclear due to secrecy provisions and a change of government.
Under a new government the ARM masterplan was largely abandoned for a new Docklands Public Realm Plan and a new planning committee was established in conjunction with the City of Melbourne. This new plan removed the wavy original masterplan in favour of a largely rectilinear plan. Significantly the new masterplan removed key pedestrian connections to the CBD at Lonsdale Street and called for an elevated concrete footbridge via Bourke Street, effectively isolating the northern parts of the precinct from the CBD (due to plans for the new Southern Cross Station). The large public plaza proposed on the railyards between Bourke and Lonsdale Street was excluded leaving a large and visually unappealing space which disconnects Docklands from the CBD. Instead of reducing the connections to the road network, a new north–south highway, Wurundjeri Way, would further bisect the precinct and disconnect it from the CBD. The new plan called for much taller, more built up areas of towers along the north and south of the harbour and toward the Hoddle Grid (present sites of New Quay and Yarra's Edge and Batman's Hill). Central pier was to be restored and retained instead of demolished. Many more marinas catered for more private boats at New Quay, Victoria Harbour and Yarra's Edge than the original design, further reducing the amount of open water. Green space around the smaller and mid-sized buildings was removed in favour of footprints built to street frontage with laneways connecting each street between shorter podiums. More traditional avenues of street trees replaced irregular plantings, the ornamental ponds and floating walkways were removed in favour of long linear concrete promenades. Mixed-use low-rise along Harbour Esplanade which was aimed to increase activity along the foreshore was removed in order to widen the main thoroughfare. Docklands Park became a linear park flanked by shorter towers aligned north south with the Charles Grimes Bridge. Moonee Ponds Creek extension and restoration was also removed from the masterplan. The design also called for a wide Harbour Esplanade with no buildings along its foreshore lined by Canary Island Date Palms similar to the popular foreshores of Port Melbourne and Albert Park.
Through the tendering process for the sites, the business park was split once more and awarded to two consortia, becoming Entertainment City (renamed Paramount Studios) - a movie theme park with film studios, to be developed by a Viacom led consortium, and Yarra Nova (which later evolved into NewQuay), to the MAB Corporation consortium. The Paramount Studios proposal fell through, and the site was put to tender once more, as Studio City, and later awarded as two parts, becoming what is now Docklands Studios Melbourne and Waterfront City.
Yarra Waters/Yarra Quays was awarded to Mirvac, later becoming Yarra's Edge.
The technology park was renamed Commonwealth Technology Port (or Comtech Port) before finally becoming Digital Harbour.
A number of other sites also encountered false starts, with Victoria Harbour originally being awarded to Walker Corporation, before being put out to tender again and finally being awarded to Lendlease in April 2001. The Batman's Hill precinct was originally awarded to Grocon, which had plans for what would have been the world's tallest building rising 560 m, dubbed Grollo Tower and featuring a mix of office, apartment, hotel and retail. This deal also fell through with the site being subdivided into 15 parcels as well as No 2 Goods Shed.
On 1 July 2007 Docklands became part of the City of Melbourne Local Government Authority, however, VicUrban retained planning authority until 2010.
Districts
Following the initial Vicurban tender and the 1999 masterplan, Docklands was divided the land into a number of themed precincts, with each to be designed and built by a different development company. Overall governance was overseen by the Docklands Authority.
The precincts defined (from north to south) were:
Since the initial tendering process, other precincts and sub-precincts within these have emerged.
Northbank
Though not part of the 1999 masterplan or tendering process, the area of Docklands north of the Yarra opposite South Wharf from Spencer Street to Charles Grimes Bridge area around Siddeley Street originally including the part of North Wharf closest to the Hoddle grid is part of the gazetted land. It was rebranded as the Northbank precinct as other parts of Docklands began construction. At the time it consisted of a collection of a handful of existing buildings. Originally home to 1880s markets and industry including the Mission to Seamen building, between the 1920s and 1940s the area was almost completely cleared for a new port including Goods Shed number 5 and a large electric crane. By the 1970s, the majority of the area was covered by a parking lot with a petrol station and a small number of commercial buildings remaining from the 1920s era.
In the late 1970s, the disused port area was first earmarked for urban renewal aimed at extending CBD beyond the Hoddle grid along the river past Spencer Street. A small cluster of 1920s commercial buildings were cleared to construct the brutalist landmarks the blocky World Trade Center (1982) and semi-circular shaped Crowne Plaza Hotel (1988) along with a massive multi-storey carpark, Melbourne's largest at the time, aimed to attract motorist commuters. However without permanent residents, like much of the CBD in the 80s the area proved unpopular and failed to attract activity despite the opening of Melbourne's Melbourne's first casino there, Crown Casino in 1994 and after its 1997 relocation to the permanent new site in Southbank, a temporary Madame Tussauds wax museum. Due to the precincts initial failure, development subsequently halted for over a decade.
Since the Docklands project the area has seen a growth of new interest in the long neglected precinct with over $1 billion in planned development. Flinders Wharf (2003) was one of the first new developments, adding 301 hi-rise apartments and mixed use to the riverfront. Relocation of Victoria Police headquarters to the World Trade Center offices and establishing a new police museum in 2007 was followed by redevelopment of the World Trade Centre as WTC Wharf (2008) aimed at stimulating further investment in the precinct. Mirvac have constructed a 20-storey office tower at 7 Spencer Street (2021). Melbourne Skyfarm (2021-23), a greening of the roof of the multi-storey carpark including sustainability centre, was aimed at softening the mostly harsh concrete area. 637 Flinders (2022) by Cox Architecture is seven storey modern infill office building added to the provide street frontage to the shorter World Trade Centre tower. Seafarers (2024), a mixed-use apartment building by architects Fender Katsalidis included a new public park known as Seafarers Rest and restaurants along a reconstructed Goods Shed 5.
Northbank is also a key part of the Greenline pedestrian and cycling link aimed at connecting Melbourne to the Docklands along the Yarra.
Batman's Hill
The Batman's Hill precinct is an 100,000 square metre area bordered by the Yarra River to the south, Spencer Street to the east, Docklands Stadium to the north and Victoria Harbour to the west. The precinct is named after the historical landmark Batman's Hill, which was once located within the area.
It is a mixed-use precinct including commercial and retail space, entertainment, hotels, residential sections, restaurants, cultural sites and educational institutions as well as the historic Rail Goods Shed No. 2, which was split in half to allow for the extension of Collins Street into Docklands, providing businesses with an address that is considered to be prestigious.
Fox Classic Car Museum in the Queens Warehouse was one of the first places to open in Batman's Hill in 2000.
Completed buildings include:
700 Collins Street (home to the Bureau of Meteorology and Medibank) (2003)
750 Collins Street (the Melbourne headquarters of AMP) (2007)
Watergate apartments and small office complex (2007)
737 Bourke Street (10 storey office building for headquarters of National Foods) (2008)