New Developments

Melbourne is a developing and evolving city. Embracing the best of contemporary architecture, new edifices like the Melbourne Convention Centre, Southern Cross Station and Eureka Tower are emblematic of the city’s spirit of progress.

Melbourne Convention Centre – Australia’s Best Conference Venue

Australia’s largest and most comprehensive convention facility is to be constructed as part of the regeneration of the riverfront promenade between Southbank and Docklands. The precinct will be home to a 5,000-seat plenary hall with meeting rooms and extensive banqueting facilities, a five-star hotel and an office and residential tower. This development will complete the renewal of the Yarra’s Edge district, linking the heart of Melbourne to Port Phillip Bay with a vibrant commercial and lifestyle zone.

The Melbourne Convention Centre development project will result in a:

• A 5,000-seat plenary hall that configures to suit a range of events – from full plenary or grand auditorium to smaller concurrent conferences of 500 plus delegates, cabaret or flat floor banquet.
• 32 meeting rooms of various sizes.
• A convention centre integrated with the Melbourne Exhibition Centre that will be one of the world’s most comprehensive meeting spaces. A 6 Star Green Star rated convention centre. The result will be a well balanced mix of design, function and operations, ensuring the conference delegate experiences a natural and healthy environment. The provision of fresh air at low level and a maximum of natural light provide the dual benefit; visitor comfort, and a reduction in the volume of natural resources required to operate a typical facility of this nature.
• An 18-metre high glass wall façade fronting the Yarra River.
• The convention centre floor area is 66,000m2.
• A 396 room Hilton Hotel integrated with the new convention centre.
• An 18,000 m2 office and residential tower.
• A 10,000 m2 riverfront promenade of lifestyle retail.
• A 50,000 m2 premium brand homemaker retail complex that will be one of the largest single stage retail developments ever completed in the Melbourne’s central business district.
• A pedestrian bridge linking the north bank of the Yarra River to the south bank.
• There are three tram routes on three sides of the precinct. And Southern Cross Station is a five minute walk to the precinct.
• The precinct is a 20 minute drive to the airport.

The centre has already attracted 18 international conventions, bringing more than 43,800 delegates to Melbourne.

Date	Conference	Delegates
2009	Congress of the International Federation of Municipal Engineers	700
2009	World Congress of the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy - ISSHP	1,000
2009	International Geomorphology Conference (IAG)	600
2009	2009 IFSCC (International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists) International Conference	500
2009	Parliament of the World's Religions 2009	10,000
2010	International Congress for Chemistry of Crop Protection	2,500
2010	Congress of the Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists and Molecular Biologists -FAOBMB (Symposium)	1,500
2010	International Conference of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology –IUBMB	2,000
2010	International Congress of Parasitology -ICOPA 2010	2,000
2010	2010 International Congress of Applied Psychology (ICAP)	2,000
2010	World Congress in Internal Medicine 2010 (WCIM)	4,000
2011	International Conference of the International Federation of Operational Research –IFORS	800
2011	General Assembly of International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics – IUGG	4,000
2011	World Congress on Human Reproduction	1,500
2011	4th International Congress of the Asia Pacific Society of Infection Control	1,000
2011	Asia/Oceania Regional Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics	1,200
2011	International Botanical Congress 2011	3,500
2013	International Congress of Paediatrics	5,000

The City within the city – Melbourne Docklands

Finally Melbourne is a place that makes geographic sense – a waterfront city. The former site of one of the busiest commercial ports in the southern hemisphere is now a thriving hospitality and tourism precinct. Docklands is home to a myriad of funky restaurants and bars, commercial office space and technology centres, marinas full of pleasure craft and more than 20,000 residents.

The recently completed Waterfront City, a $1- billion mixed-use precinct developed by ING Real Estate, proved a perfect vantage point to view the incoming yachts from the Volvo Ocean Race early in 2006 and will act as the main public gathering place in the ever-evolving Docklands region.

More Fish to Sea – Stage Two of the Melbourne Aquarium

Already one of Victoria’s most popular tourist attractions, the Melbourne Aquarium is embarking on a substantial expansion set to revitalise the northern bank of the Yarra River. Located in the bustling entertainment district on the river’s banks, the Aquarium (the only Southern Ocean aquarium in the world) will host new exhibits that are sure to be popular with locals and visitors alike.

As part of this project, the King Street vehicular overpass has already been removed, increasing pedestrian accessibility in the area. When the expansion is completed, a sky bridge will spirit visitors from the existing section of the aquarium to the new addition.

A Shimmering New Blanket for the ‘Great Iron Way’ – Southern Cross Station

The roof at the new Southern Cross Station (previously Spencer Street Station) glints and glimmers in the sun like a platinum blanket undulating over busy city commuters below. As part of a $700 million redevelopment, the new station includes a world-class transport interchange that echoes the best of the old European railways and the latest in contemporary architecture. It really is something to behold.

When complete, it will also house office accommodation, a residential/ hotel tower and a retail plaza and serve as a link from the CBD to the Docklands precinct on the city’s western edge. The station offers airport-style rail services for international, interstate, regional and suburban visitors and has the capacity to handle 30,000 passengers an hour.

Feel the Heartbeat – A New Stadium for Australia’s Sporting Capital

Sport is the lifeblood of Melbourne, and its flow leads directly to the sports precinct nestled upstream on the Yarra’s banks.

Already home to the mighty MCG, Melbourne Park, Olympic Park and Vodaphone Arena, the area will soon incorporate a stadium suitable for soccer, rugby league and rugby union.

The new facility will be almost unrecognisable as sporting stadium, representing a quantum leap in design with a geodesic shell that will cover seating areas for 20,000. The new stadium promises to be an exciting addition to a city that already boasts hosting an Olympic Games, a Commonwealth Games, AFL Grand Finals, the Boxing Day Test Match, the Formula One Grand Prix, Australian Open tennis, Australian Masters golf, World Cup soccer qualifiers and other internationally renowned events.

Find It? You Can’t Miss It! – Eureka Tower

Rising 300 metres and 92 storeys above the ground below, Eureka Tower is one of the tallest buildings in the world.

This elegant blade of blue glass topped with a crown of gold stands as a talisman for Melbourne, visible for miles in every direction. The observation tower at Eureka will open soon and the fastest elevator in the southern hemisphere will race visitors to heady heights in less than 40 seconds.

The 360 degree view from the top is breathtaking. It takes in Port Phillip Bay, the Dandenong Ranges, the You Yang mountains and Mount Macedon, as well as stunning vistas of the city itself. Once the Observation Deck is open, developers will install a walkway over the top of the building. The Eureka Skywalk will be 350 metres from the ground and rival the London Eye or the Eiffel Tower climb.

Traveller's Tales of Melbourne

One of the world’s great multicultural cities, Melbourne has been home to proud Aboriginal nations for thousands of years and more recently has welcomed immigrants escaping strife, seeking gold or just a better way of life.

Their passages to this southern city are depicted in a new artwork by acclaimed artist Nadim Karam which adorns Melbourne’s historic Sandridge Railway Bridge.

Called ‘The Travellers’, it is a series of ten stainless steel sculptures that move across the bridge in a fifteen minute sequence. Each sculpture tells the story of a group of people who have called Melbourne home – from the land’s first inhabitants and those who arrived during the war years of the 20th century to present day students and professionals. Complementing the artworks are 128 glass panels explaining the various journeys of more than 200 different nationalities represented in this city.