A greener Southbank

More than 90 Southbank residents took part in the City of Melbourne’s Greening Southbank community workshop at Federation Square last month.

The free three-hour workshop and breakfast covered planting priorities and allowed residents to share their vision about how the future urban forest in Southbank might look at a street level.

As part of the City of Melbourne’s Urban Forest Strategy to help tackle climate change, urban heating and population growth, the workshop was aimed at working with communities to develop tree-planting plans for local areas.

The recommendations and findings from the workshop will help form the Southbank Urban Forest Precinct Plan, which will assist council to increase the canopy over Southbank from 16 per cent to 40 per cent by 2040.

Some of the main recommendations made by residents on the day included more rooftop gardens, communal gardens and green median strips on City Rd and Power St.

Chair of the City of Melbourne’s environment portfolio, Cr Arron Wood, said it was great to see such a large turnout.  

“The large turnout for the Southbank workshop really shows that the Southbank community is passionate and wants to be involved in a greener future for the area,” he said.

“We have some world leading experts at the City of Melbourne, but collaborating with residents and businesses has been vital for the success of the Urban Forest Strategy. We simply can’t do it without the commitment shown by the Southbank community.”

A summary report on the outputs from the community participation will be available on the Participate Melbourne website this month.

A draft version of the Southbank Urban Forest Precinct Plan will be available for community comment in the new financial year, also on the Participate Melbourne website. For more information visit

www.participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au