Eco-City Melbourne

A VISION for a suburb of the future with no cars, an 80 per cent reduction in carbon emissions and the ability to grow its own food has been unveiled by a State Government-funded thinktank. And it could happen on a site just two kilometres from the centre of Melbourne.

A 20-hectare site for the new green suburb has even been identified on land owned by VicTrack, the government body that owns the state’s rail assets. The lease on the site known as E-Gate, just off Footscray Road, expires in 2014 and Major Projects Victoria has been working with VicTrack on possibilities for the land.

Now, the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab, a university-based thinktank funded by the Government, has come up with ideas for a new environmentally friendly suburb at the site.

An exhibition of the proposals from 200 university students, known as Eco-City Melbourne

The lab’s director Professor Chris Ryan said a new sustainable suburb could be created at E-Gate, including a ban on cars.

“No cars on the site — the site is made for walking, cycling and we are going to provide on the site free, small, electric vehicles that can be picked up by any resident on the site and roamed around on the site,” he said.

He said it was only a 25-minute walk to the central business district and there would be cars available on the suburb’s fringe for residents to book. “If this was a standard development, you would have 4000-5000 cars.”

Professor Ryan said the medium-density suburb would have buildings of up to eight storeys and a centralised heating and cooling system.

He said the site would also treat all its own sewage and use some of the resultant methane for power production. There would also be urban wind towers and solar panels to produce electricity.

Another innovative feature would be the suburb’s ability to produce food, with mini urban-farms spread across the development and a “multi-storey farm”.

– from theage. 25 Feb 2009