A booming Bend

A report by infrastructure firm AECOM has made a number of recommendations that it says could help secure up to $12 billion of economic benefit in Fishermans Bend by 2030.

Released this month, AECOM’s Transforming Fishermans Bend report provides 10 recommendations it believes will help create a 230-hectare globally competitive employment precinct in Australia’s largest ever urban renewal zone.

The report’s author and AECOM Melbourne cities leader Tim O’Loan said that Fishermans Bend had all of the attributes of a globally successful employment and innovation cluster as it was a highly accessible location with direct access to the freeway and port with an already established foundation of employers.

“Much of the thinking to date around Fishermans Bend has been focused on planning issues in the residential areas,” he said.

“This has drawn focus away from the employment area resulting in a lack of clarity on what needs to happen in the next 10 years to ensure the precinct is home to up to 80,000 jobs by 2050, the target set out by the government in its Fishermans Bend framework.”

Some of the report’s more notable recommendations include:

Investing in rubber-wheeled ‘pre-light rail’ transit solutions;

Attracting leading international universities to complement local universities;

Focusing on the advanced industrial and manufacturing sector;

Actively including the creative industries;

Investing in the precinct as a test bed location for emerging technologies;

Looking beyond the General Motors Holden (GMH) site to actively support the development of other ‘campus’ zones that complement the GMH core; and

Opening up the waterfront in collaboration with the Port of Melbourne.

Mr O’Loan said it was essential for Fishermans Bend to support advanced manufacturing markets if Melbourne was to compete with cities that were already investing in innovation corridors and precincts in the future.

“Our $12 billion projection represents around 4 per cent of Victoria’s $300 billion of activity if it were achieved today,” Mr O’Loan said. “However, the key to achieving this is the creation of an innovation and employment cluster that can participate in the advanced manufacturing market.”

“If we want to achieve this target we need a strategic plan and a commitment to fund the key moves, starting right now. We know the employment precinct has far greater potential than is being currently considered, and if curated properly, it will help sustain a more vibrant and connected residential precinct as well.”

The report also follows the release of the Fishermans Bend Business Forum’s state election policy paper last month, which like AECOM, calls on government to engage further with the more than 500 existing businesses.

Its key recommendations call on the government to commit to an immersed heavy vehicle transport tunnel linking Graham St to Appleton Dock, expand the Melbourne Cement Facilities on Lorimer St and commit to building Metro 2.