Melbourne’s Going Green—Here’s How It’ll Change Your Summer

Melbourne loves to boast its 'garden city' title, but the last few heatwaves have been putting that claim to the test. However, a new wave of greening projects aim to reclaim our fair city, cooling it down, and hopefully changing how we experience our streets.

Setting the standard for efforts across the city, the pilot of the Green Our Rooftops initiative, at 1 Treasury Place, showed how easily dead space can be flipped into living infrastructure. Building temps were lowered, biodiversity was boosted—and they managed to create a rooftop you’d actually want to have a few drinks on. More rooftops across the city are expected to follow, so it might just be your workplace or apartment building getting an upgrade next. 

Back at street level, the Urban Forest Fund is putting real money behind trees and pocket parks. Here at Urban List, we are passionate about getting our 10k steps—and shaded streets mean we are all the more likely to walk to our local, take our lunch break outside of the office, or pull up a seat on the pavement and people watch.

If you'd prefer to take a look at the bigger picture, the Growing Our Garden City strategy is scaling it city-wide: pocket parks in concrete-heavy neighbourhoods, greenery popping up in laneways, and an expanded canopy across the inner burbs. While these sorts of initiatives are vital for climate resilience, it's a change in the small things that make them special: no more office fits drenched in sweat from your commute to work, and a balcony view that looks a whole lot better than it used to (and costs exactly the same). 

We recommend keeping an eye on the City of Melbourne's sustainabiliy and climate action plan, to check out what green spaces you'll be seeing next. 

Main image credit: City of Melbourne | Website