Sustainable Cities

Anyone who has travelled in Western Europe will know that compact cities can be vibrant, dynamic and wonderful places to live. The state government's Melbourne 2030 is a 30 year plan which aims to manage sustainable growth across the metropolitan area.


Many key elements of this plan, for instance encouraging housing density around activity centres, make ecological sense. We must slow further developments on the fringes of Melbourne and low density sprawl in general and instead re-focus our attention on building up around public transport and other social infrastructure in appropriate locations. Further development on the fringes of Melbourne destroys farmland, bushland and coastal amenities and heritage.

Low density, disorganised sprawl needs to stop. We oppose any expansion of the current urban growth boundary.

Relative population densities of some cities around the world (all figures found on the relevant Wikipedia site for that city).

Melbourne:     1,566/km² (4,055.9/sq mi) (2006)
London:         4,761/km2  (12,331/sq mi)
Amsterdam:    4,459/km2 (11,548.8/sq mi)
Copenhagen:    5,908/km2 (15,301.6/sq mi)
San Francisco:     6,688.4/km2  (17,323/sq mi)

Take action

We are slowly adding resources and information to this site. In the meantime, it would be great if you would consdier doing any of the following:

  • sending a submission on the proposed expansion of the urban growth boundary (info here), and 
  • emailing key members of the Victorian government, urging them to adopt 8 star or higher energy ratings for new houses (info here).
  • we released our report,  Towards  climate  safe  homes:  The  case  for  zero  emissions  and  water  saving  homes  and  neighbourhoods,  in September 2009. It is a collaboration between the  Alternative  Technology  Association  (ATA),  Australian  Conservation  Foundation  (ACF),  Environment Victoria, Friends  of  the  Earth  (FoE)  and  the  Moreland  Energy  Foundation  (MEFL).   You can find our press release and a link to the report here.
  • check here for local community campaigns from around Melbourne.