Sunday 16th October 

Departing from 1.30pm from Centrepiece Melbourne Park 

Pre-Conference Tour: Yarra Waterways 

All aboard for an afternoon tour of the lower Birrarung, where we will explore the opportunities and challenges of managing an operational maritime precinct in a fast growing city.  Key topics for discussion will include management and operations of the river, activities on the river, Docklands Harbour activation, and the visionary Greenline project.  

  The City of Melbourne’s vison for The Greenline Project is to create a 4km public promenade linking diverse, vibrant riverside destinations while providing opportunities for environmental improvements and cultural connections.  Aboriginal heritage and contemporary culture will be celebrated, as will the river’s maritime history and ecology.   

 Boat Tour 

Max Capacity: 30 

Wednesday 19th  October 

10am – 3pm – departing from Centrepiece Melbourne Park 

Tour 1: Melbourne City Bath, Melbourne Squares and Carlton Gardens

Join us on a walking tour to explore contemporary use of historic parks and places – Carlton Gardens, Lincoln Square, University Square and the Melbourne City Baths. Enjoy exploring on foot this special part of Melbourne.  

  The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens are a world heritage listed site, recognised for their association with the 19c International Exhibitions .  Visit the gardens, learn about the new Master Plan and explore a major heritage garden in an urban setting.  We will then visit two smaller squares in Carlton which have recently undergone major transformation, retaining both historic  landscape features and adapting to current and future demands.    

  The Melbourne City Baths is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and has provided bathing, swimming, health and fitness services to the community since 1905.  The building has been renovated and expanded over time including a major addition in the 1980’s.  We will examine contemporary use of a heritage place and what is on the horizon for this remarkable building.   

Walking Tour 

Max Capacity: 20 pax 

Tour 2: Walking Tour to Explore Melbourne’s Iconic Green Laneways 

Join us on a walking tour to explore the City of Melbourne’s iconic green laneways and learn about green infrastructure along the way..  

 Laneways, facades and rooftops are often underused for inner city greening. To explore and realise these opportunities, the City of Melbourne established the Green Your Laneway program to help transform city laneways into leafy, green and welcoming spaces for everyone to enjoy. Together with the community, four pilot laneways in Melbourne’s CBD were chosen to receive a greening makeover and a wide range of innovative green infrastructure solutions, place-making interventions and community participation models were trialed. Now, five years later we would love to journey with you through the established green laneways and share what we have learned from these exciting projects.  

 Walking and Public Transport Tour 

Max Capacity: 30 

Tour 3: The Australian Garden Cranbourne 

The Australian Garden exclusively focuses on advancing the utilisation, conservation and display of Australian flora and aims to capture the beauty and diversity of Australian plants. This tour offers a unique opportunity to be guided though the Gardens incredible living collections of Australian plants and being late September, the gardens will be ablaze with spring wildflowers of every shape, size and form.    

Bus Tour 

Max Capacity: 30  

Tour 4: Wyndham Parks and Coastal Discovery Tour 

Join our tour to explore Wyndham Council’s major new parks and unique coastal sites. The tour begins at Lawrie Emmins Reserve motocross track, a safe and legal dirt bike facility, for riders of all abilities. Enjoy lunch at Wyndham Park, while discovering our transformational renewal project to create a recreation and events space of regional significance. Visit Werribee South Beach where the coast meets the market gardens and learn about Councils plans to better connect the Wyndham community to its coastline. 

Bus Tour 

Max Capacity: 30  

Image provided by Phoenix Aerial Imaging

Tour 5: Yalukit Nature Reserve and Booran Reserve

The transformation of former Elsternwick Golf course into a flourishing parkland and nature reserve is the realisation of a shared vision driven by Bayside City Council, local community organisations and other key stakeholders.

Elsternwick Nature Reserve Masterplan unites landscape, recreational parklands, nature-based solutions and Water Sensitive Urban Design, benchmarking achievements in regional water management, ecological resilience, and public amenity through a functional yet elegant design.

This technical tour of the Elsternwick Parkands Nature Reserve will showcase and focus on the Chain of Pond’s feature of the site which has been designed and constructured as holistic blue-green living infrastructure through an integrated design approach to achieve water management, biodiversity and social outcomes for the community and environment.

Booran Reserve was formally a service reservoir for the Caulfield Area that was constructed in 1883. It had the capacity of 15 Olympic sized pools and was decommissioned in the 1970s.

It has now been transformed into a vibrant open space that provides a range of play, social and recreational opportunities. Elements of the reservoir remain including the easter walls, central sluice gate and concrete base. 99% of the old reservoir materials were re-used in the construction of the open space.

Booran Reserve includes a 500,000-underground water tank, LED lighting, solar panels and secluded biodiversity corridor for native fauna.

Bus Tour 

Max Capacity: 30