The saga of Waverley Park — Melbourne’s car-dependent suburban AFL stadium with a planned seated capacity of over 150,000 (not a typo!)
A really good run down by @philip on the plans by the AFL (and its predecessor, the VFL) to build the world’s largest stadium in outer-suburban Melbourne.
Unfortunately, a planned railway line past the stadium to Rowville was never built. That meant a massive 25,000-spot car park as the only real means to get there.
While most of it has been demolished and redeveloped for housing, the oval itself still used by Hawthorn Football Club as a training and administration centre.
https://youtu.be/LvvLwiRCx4s?si=x2QvxepgPtBtJZfx
@fuck_cars #AFL #Urbanism #UrbanPlanning #cars #stadium #stadia #Melbourne #sport #footy #football #stadiums #history #Victoria #VicPol #Australia #planning #Hawthorn #AusPol #CarBrain
@philip @fuck_cars And a little post-script: It’s now 2024, Waverley Park is now long gone, and the long-promised Rowville railway still hasn’t been built.
Here’s some background info on it from Melbourne’s Public Transport Users Association ( @ptua and @danielbowen ).
@ajsadauskas @philip @fuck_cars “planned railways” to significant locations are never built. Take the airport as an example.
@ajsadauskas @philip @fuck_cars Caribbean Gardens now a victim of the same problem, with them attempting to make it an event space suitable for music festivals. Thousands of people trying to catch buses up and down Stud Rd to Dandenong or Ringwood.
@nictea @philip @fuck_cars Pretty much the whole City of Knox (a large chunk of outer-eastern Melbourne) is 1970s and 1980s car-centric suburbia at its worst.
The only rail in the whole area is basically Bayswater and Boronia stations on the Belgrave line. And trains only run every 30 minutes, aside from the morning and evening peak.
Other than that, you have the SmartBus from Ringwood to Frankston, the Rowville SmartBus, and a bunch of infrequent suburban busses.
And the stroads! There’s literally a stroad called High Street Road (which is quite possibly the stroadiest name ever invented).
And all of them — Boronia Rd, Stud Rd, Wellington Rd, Burwood Hwy, Wellington Rd, Dorset Rd — are a nightmare during peak hour.
There’s whole housing estates with detached residential homes where the only practical way to get anything is to drive.
If anyone says Melbourne does planning well, take them out to Knox (you’ll need to drive) and they’ll come away with a different opinion.
#Knox #Melbourne #Urbanism #UrbanPlanning #Bayswater #Boronia #Planning
@ajsadauskas @philip @fuck_cars And in my mind the “Smart Bus” is useless enough they may as well not exist. On more than one occasion my partner or I waited until we had missed not one, but two of the connecting trains we intended to connect with. So walked home and drove into the city instead.
@nictea @philip @fuck_cars Even the 903 SmartBus only runs a 15 minute timetable during the day, which is less than the minimum 10-minute service busses should be running.
And other services in the area, like the 737 (Croydon to Boronia to Knox to Glen Waverley to Monash Uni) is a 40-minute-plus frequency during most of the day.
And people wonder why more residents in the outer suburbs use public transport…
@ajsadauskas @nictea @philip @fuck_cars has anyone ever said melbourne does planning well?! i reckon it’s top contender for most thoughtless sprawl, and sydney and Brisbane put up a fight!
@jedsetter @ajsadauskas @nictea @philip @fuck_cars depends on your idea of ‘Melbourne’. Those suburbs with AFL teams named after them are reasonably well planned, the sprawl beyond less so
@awelder @jedsetter @nictea @philip @fuck_cars You often hear from Melburnians that it’s the world’s most livable city, and how the CBD is laid out nicely in the Hoddle Grid is laid out compared to inner-city.
And how Melbourne’s inner-suburban tram network means it has much better public transport than Sydney.
And it’s true. Colonial Melbourne, funded by its gold rush, did a much better job at planning than early Sydney.
But after the World Wars, it’s a very different story.
Sydney is at least constrained by Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park to the north, the Royal National Park to the south, and the Blue Mountains to the west.
That means the only places for new sprawl are either northwest past Rouse Hill, or southwest around Campbelltown and Camden.
As a result, there’s a lot more pressure from developers to densify.
Meanwhile, Melbourne just has the Dandenong Ranges to the east and Port Phillip Bay to the south.
As a result, even right now, you have new housing estates past Pakenham, Melton, Wyndham Vale, and Craigieburn.
As for sprawling Australian capitals, I think Perth has definitely been punching above its weight since the 2000s mining boom.
There’s now continuous McMansions sprawl right down the Coast from north of Joondalup to south of Mandurah.
And there’s new subdivisions that are closer to Bunbury than they are to the Perth or Fremantle CBDs.
@ajsadauskas @awelder @jedsetter @nictea @philip @fuck_cars And Perth doesn’t even have much of a pre-car inner-city, so it’s dominated by car-friendly suburbia. The new train lines are good, but it’s a pity they run between freeways and thus miss out on local walkable neighbourhoods around them.
