Jimmy Barnes headlines free concert to reopen City Square after a ‘serious glow-up’

1 hour ago 2

Legendary singer Jimmy Barnes will headline a free live concert to celebrate the newly completed City Square in the heart of Melbourne.

Kate Ceberano and Ian Moss will also take to the stage on Sunday in the square opposite Town Hall at the intersection of Swanston and Collins streets from 1.30pm.

Jimmy Barnes and Cold Chisel guitarist Ian Moss will perform at City Square on Sunday.

“City Square has had a serious glow-up – it’s greener, more welcoming, a proud new gateway to the Metro Tunnel, and we’ve got some true Aussie legends to help us kick it off,” Minister for Transport Infrastructure Gabrielle Williams said.

The square was closed in 2017 to support the construction of Town Hall station as part of the Metro Tunnel Project, and the public space received a major update as part of the works.

It’s not the first time major Australian artists have taken to the City Square stages, as it previously hosted Crowded House, AC/DC, Kylie Minogue and Missy Higgins.

The centrepiece of the square is a new smoking ceremony dish surrounded by up to 12,000 custom-laid pavers developed with Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Wandin Murphy OAM.

An early architectural drawing of what City Square was designed to look like.

There is also a new two-tiered retail concourse beneath the square that is due to open in 2026.

The Metro Tunnel will open to passengers on Sunday, November 30, on a restricted summer timetable, before the full timetable is rolled out in February next year.

But public transport will be free every weekend from November 30 for every Victorian in the state, until February 1 when the new stations will be fully integrated with the existing network.

The state’s Tourism, Sport and Major Events Minister, Steve Dimopoulos, said Melbourne was the country’s cultural capital and the concert was one of several free events over summer.

The Metro Tunnel project consists of a nine-kilometre rail tunnel between Kensington and South Yarra, with five new underground stations at Anzac (opposite the Shrine of Remembrance), Town Hall, State Library, Parkville and Arden (in North Melbourne).

The Metro Tunnel links the Sunbury and Cranbourne/Pakenham lines, which will come out of the City Loop and form a new cross-city rail connection.

The full timetable has yet to be released, but the state government previously said trains would run at least every 10 minutes from 6am to 10pm between Watergardens and Dandenong.

Victoria has poured $13.48 billion into the project, which had an original budget of $10.9 billion.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.