Melbourne’s push to become Australia’s garden city steps into full bloom

Melbourne’s long-promised transformation into Australia’s garden city has taken a major step forward, with the City of Melbourne unveiling two ambassadors to champion a new wave of greening projects – and launching a public vote to choose the city’s first official floral emblem.

The initiative, a key election pledge of Lord Mayor Nick Reece during his 2024 campaign, aims to dramatically expand green space, accelerate urban greening and embed Melbourne’s identity as a nature-rich capital.

The Lord Mayor said the city was “planting the seeds to make Melbourne the garden city – and supercharge greening across our neighbourhoods”.

Leading the effort will be Melbourne’s newly-appointed Garden City Ambassador, renowned landscape designer Paul Bangay OAM, whose global work spans more than 2000 projects.

Bangay said he was a “passionate believer in the beauty and importance of Melbourne’s parks, gardens and green spaces” and that shaping the next chapter of the city’s landscape was “a huge privilege and honour”.

Bangay will work alongside First Nations Garden City Ambassador Margaret Parisi, a highly respected Wurundjeri community member whose cultural knowledge and connection to Country will guide how the Garden City vision is delivered.

Parisi said her role was a continuation of family legacy, honouring her mother – the oldest living Wurundjeri Senior Elder – and ensuring Melbourne’s greening was deeply grounded in culture and care for Country.

“Ensuring a strong cultural lens on everything we do is how we keep our culture alive and thriving for future generations,” she said.

Together, the ambassadors will advocate for a suite of new greening measures that the City of Melbourne hopes will change the look and feel of the municipality. The council plans to cut red tape to deliver projects faster and make it easier for residents and businesses to green their footpaths, laneways and building frontages.

Its Urban Forest Fund will also allocate $1 million in matched funding for private greening projects, building on successful examples such as Project Cultivate at Melbourne General Cemetery and Lendlease’s Melbourne Sky Farm in Docklands.

In a move that blends urban design with civic symbolism, the city is also inviting Melburnians to help choose a new floral emblem from a shortlist of nine native species selected by an expert reference group.

Options range from the richly coloured Chocolate Lily and Austral Storksbill to the resilient Swamp Everlasting, Tall Bluebell and Yam Daisy Murnong. Voting is now open on Participate Melbourne until February 15, with the winning bloom to become a defining marker of Melbourne’s natural identity.

For locals wanting to see change on the ground, the city points to a growing list of new and upgraded parks already under way. Recent works include the new Bedford Street pocket park in North Melbourne and the expanded Roden Street Reserve in West Melbourne.

Greening is currently taking shape at the Swanston Street Triangle, while Mackenzie St in the CBD is set to be transformed into a new public park. Chapman Street Reserve in North Melbourne will soon be expanded by 45 per cent.

Cr Davydd Griffiths, chair of the environment portfolio, said the ambassadors would help elevate and accelerate council ambitions.

Our Garden City ambassadors will help drive Melbourne’s greening – bringing their passion and expertise to champion new projects and advocate for green spaces of all sizes,” he said. “We’re also supporting more grassroots greening projects, making it easier for our community to add flora and plantings outside their homes and businesses.

Lord Mayor Nick Reece said the vision was both practical and symbolic – and one that relied on Melbourne’s own residents.

“Melburnians already have a blooming good time in our parks and gardens,” he said. “It’s time to pick your favourite – with our new floral emblem set to become a symbol of Melbourne’s biodiversity and our love of nature.”

With two ambassadors now in place, new parks taking shape, and a citywide vote now open, Melbourne’s Garden City pledge is beginning to show its first shoots – a sign of the greener, leafier future the council says is firmly in reach. •