31 May 2022
Long lines of cars stretch into the distance during peak hour at the Mitchell Street roundabout in Kalkallo, Victoria.
The sluggish traffic is now a daily occurrence for those who reside in the string of new estates along Donnybrook Road in Melbourne’s north, reigniting a debate over whether the city is expanding faster than infrastructure can keep up with.
As an Environmental Planner at Jacobs, Isobel Kirkman is passionate about ensuring residents are not burdened by the trend of rapid urbanisation.
Hume resident Aliya* is one of the many drivers growing tired of the congestion.
*Surname redacted for privacy reasons.
30 May 2022
Hume resident Aliya prepares to leave the Cloverton estate on her morning commute.
Despite projections suggesting Cloverton’s population will eventually reach 30,000 people, the estate has just one exit – Dwyer street.
Aliya said this “poor planning” only adds to the daily congestion.
“The traffic wastes so much time, but when I have to get to work or university this is the only way,” she said.
“I would like to use public transport, but sometimes even just to get to the closest train station I would have to deal with more than half an hour of traffic.”
31 May 2022
A family walks to the newly-opened Gilgai Plains Primary School along an otherwise empty footpath.
Aliya said that a lack of adequate public transport options and “busy main roads” like Donnybrook Road, which has poor pedestrian access, leaves most residents reliant on cars for even basic travel.
Although this low-density, car-dependent living is a common feature of many new estates, one study found that every additional hour a day spent in a car translated to a six per cent increase in obesity risk.
Meanwhile, every additional kilometre walked translated to a four per cent reduction in obesity.
3 June 2022
Chaos on Donnybrook Road during morning rush hour leads to a minor accident.
Even after the affected cars relocate to the side of the road, the congestion continues to worsen.
While Kalkallo residents moved to the area to create better lives for themselves and their families, many fear their safety and their dreams have been impeded by urban sprawl outpacing the abilities of developers.
A petition calling for roadwork upgrades on the Mitchell Street roundabout has now been signed by more than 1000 residents. The petition was tabled in Parliament by Ros Spence MP on 22 March.
26 May 2022
Jacobs Environmental Planner Isobel Kirkman stands in front of the construction site at Glen Huntly station.
She said that unchecked urbanisation, such as that occurring in Melbourne’s north, can cause isolation due to a lack of transport infrastructure.
“When people need to go places, they’re not going to want to take three buses; they’re going to drive,” Ms Kirkman said.
“It’s an issue because we can’t connect every piece of Melbourne, and we can’t connect where everyone is going.
“There is a lot of planning that needs to be done to improve it,” she said.
31 May 2022
To the left of Dwyer Road in Cloverton, billboards advertising future infrastructure projects stand tall on the grassy fields.
Some upcoming projects include the construction of the Kalkallo Town Centre, the creation of another eight schools to be built within the community over the next 30 years, and a second proposed train station planned for the future city centre of Cloverton.
While these infrastructure projects are a major drawcard for potential residents, they fail to meet the growing needs of current residents, who are instead forced to drive out of the estate to reach similar amenities elsewhere.
30 May 2022
At the outermost boundary of Cloverton, a “no road” sign warns drivers to stay behind the temporary fence that separates the estate from miles of unfinished construction.
Although Melbourne’s Urban Growth Boundary was extended to include Kalkallo in 2010, urban sprawl in the northern regions remains a divisive topic.
Ms Kirkman said that people often have “no choice” but to move to new estates due to housing affordability.
“The problem is, we’re going to keep going and it’s going to hit the regional areas,” she said.
“So then it becomes, where does regional Victoria start, and where does Melbourne end?”
20 May 2022
Melbourne’s CBD skyline shines in the sunlight.
“A lot of the time [the government] are just concerned with inner suburbs and inner city because if you take the Liveability Index, which they want to rank well in, it is based on the CBD,” Ms Kirkman said.
Ms Kirkman said there is a greater focus on the inner suburbs of Melbourne, leaving the outer suburbs to contend with a surplus of housing, but poor transport infrastructure.
This approach fails to account for the projected population growth of nearly 400,000 people in Melbourne’s urban fringe areas over the past decade – much of which will occur in Hume.
20 May 2022
Businesses in Melbourne CBD’s QV complex bustle with shoppers, a far cry from the quiet streets of Kalkallo.
Ms Kirkman said that unlike in the CBD, where Melburnians have built new amenities organically over time, the outer suburbs lack the population needed for the government to invest heavily in the area.
This results in housing being delivered long before essential services.
“The community won’t make that infrastructure because there is an expectation that the government will provide it to them,” Ms Kirkman said.
“But the developers are not communicating that it won’t be provided until there is enough population in the area.”
31 May 2022
A row of modern houses lines one side of a Kalkallo street.
Many experts are calling for a renewed focus on the Victorian Government’s Plan Melbourne 2017-2050, in order to keep the city compact and reduce congestion.
One Victorian Department of Transport study even found that Melbourne could fit between 1 and 2.5 million more residents just by building 4-8 storey buildings along major transport corridors.
While this would herald a change to the Australian dream of a quarter-acre block, it would contribute to a reduction in traffic congestion and boost the liveability of Melbourne’s rapidly expanding outer northern suburbs.
