Melbourne Uni walks away from Fishermans Bend

2 weeks ago 3

The troubled Fishermans Bend urban renewal project has been dealt a fresh blow by the University of Melbourne’s suspension of plans to build a large and vital part of the precinct.

The university said on Tuesday it would pause work on the seven hectares it bought for $49 million in 2018. The institution cited a “constrained revenue environment driven by evolving regulations in the sector”.

Melbourne University’s planned Fishermans Bend campus.

The university had planned a campus teaching advanced manufacturing, design, engineering and other technologies, intended to work alongside companies such as Boeing and General Motors Holden in a technological and educational precinct.

Plans for the $2 billion project were already well behind schedule.

The university said in 2019 that it expected thousands of students to be studying at the site by 2024, and 10,000 staff and students there by 2031.

But when the university said on Tuesday it was walking away from the development, at least in the medium term, some site clearing was the only work that had been completed.

The decision is a serious blow to the efforts of the state government and the cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip, which have been working jointly for more than a decade to transform the rundown former industrial precinct into a thriving community of 80,000 workers and an equal number of residents by 2050.

The project, first conceived by the Baillieu/ Napthine Liberal government in 2013, has already had one major reset, and the state’s auditor-general found in a report published in June that the 2050 timeline had been pushed out by at least five years, with many key projects facing long delays.

University vice president Katerina Kapobassis said the institution remained committed to Fishermans Bend, but any resumption of the project was at least five years away.

“After carefully reviewing the prioritisation of our major infrastructure projects, the University of Melbourne has made the difficult decision to pause work on the Fishermans Bend campus,” Kapobassis said.

“The university remains committed to the precinct and this decision will allow us to better align with the timing of key government and industry investments necessary to develop the Fishermans Bend precinct.

“Careful financial management is paramount as the university adapts to a more constrained revenue environment driven by evolving regulations across the sector.”

Kappobassis said the university might revive the project some time in the 2030s.

“The Fishermans Bend project will be reassessed as part of the development of the university’s next 10-year strategy from 2030,” she said.

Guy Naselli is president of the Fishermans Bend Business Forum and managing director of NSL Property Group.

Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece said the decision was disappointing, but it made sense for the university to wait until key state transport infrastructure projects were under way “so students, residents and workers can easily get to the precinct and the campus”.

Reece said it also made sense that the university would wait for certainty over international student caps before making a massive investment.

Last month, the federal government announced a modest increase to new international students, rising from 270,000 in 2025 to 295,000 in 2026, with a range of caveats in place.

“For the record, we want to see more international students, not less, in the City of Melbourne,” said Reece.

Guy Naselli, Fishermans Bend Business Forum president and managing director of NSL Property Group, said the decision was a further blow to the precinct getting off the ground, but it wasn’t surprising.

“Unless there is public transport that comes out of the CBD and these students can get to and from the university, it’s understandable this decision has been reached,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we see so many investors and high-net-worth developers that would be happy to spend money in the area, but they won’t push the button on any of these projects unless they see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.”

He said stakeholders in the Melbourne University project would have to put their plans on hold, and the reality was that the “big wheels would move even slower”.

City of Port Phillip Mayor Louise Crawford called on the Victorian government to build confidence in Fishermans Bend by urgently delivering the tram and finalising infrastructure funding arrangements.

“The completion of the precinct planning and a commitment to Metro 2 will also go a long way to rebuilding that confidence,” she said.

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