What if Melbourne had 300,000 truly liveable streets?
Imagine if our streets were designed to bring joy, connection and community action. Imagine if our streets were designed by us. This is the vision of Regen Melbourne’s newly launched 300,000 Streets Earthshot. Lead convener Nina Sharpe shares the wildly ambitious thinking behind the project, and how it aims to transform Melbourne into a thriving, climate-resilient, interconnected and community-centred city.
Taking it to the streets
Our streets are more than bitumen and stormwater drains. They’re a uniquely shared space where our private selves meet the world, and community is formed. The streets are for everyone, no matter how you use them. So, what if we allow our streets to play the vital role in life they are intended for – to animate the social, environmental and economic aspects of communities? What if the streets were our change agent for climate and social action?
Across Greater Melbourne, we have more than 300,000 streets that connect as a networked web. But as participation between the community and decision-makers erodes, fewer people feel like they have agency over shaping where they live. Despite making international headlines for liveability, research shows many Melbourne suburbs rank below five on the liveability index. Our streets are no longer fit for purpose; we are losing touch with them, and each other.
With high population density and a housing affordability crisis, our streets lack walkability, connectivity, green spaces, playgrounds and community hubs. Our current mechanisms and politics aren't getting us where we need to go fast enough. A new and responsive approach – one which centres the community’s wants, needs and vision on every single Melbourne street – is absolutely vital to design a resilient and interconnected city. To ensure our city is truly liveable.
Enter: Regen Melbourne’s 300,000 Streets Earthshot
Just like our wildly ambitious Swimmable Birrarung Earthshot, Regen Melbourne’s newly launched 300,000 Streets project, takes 12 months of sense-making, stakeholder engagement and research, and packages it into an ambitious and tangible plan to reimagine and revitalise Melbourne’s beloved-but-neglected streets.
We live in a time of intense and increasing interconnected challenges globally. We are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic, brought about by the erosion of community spaces and social engagement. Our streets offer a solution. Research shows that incorporating green spaces, fostering community engagement, and ensuring accessible public transport improves mental and physical health outcomes in urban environments. Our goal is for every Melburnian to be deeply engaged with where they live.
The 300,000 Streets Earthshot acknowledges multiple interconnected challenges, while creating a more sustainable and liveable future. It aims to transform our streets from car-focused arenas into multifunctional community spaces that:
Address climate resilience by increasing urban tree canopy and permeable surfaces.
Enhance biodiversity through native plantings and green corridors.
Promote sustainable transportation.
Create more inclusive and connected communities.
Regen Melbourne’s ‘Green Spaces in Unusual Places’ pop-up.
What on earth is an Earthshot?
An Earthshot is a term Regen Melbourne uses to describe our wildly ambitious goals (like a clean and regenerated Birrarung). It refocuses the scale and ambition of a “moonshot” back on our planet, with the aim to accelerate new ways of operating and ultimately create conditions for our city systems to thrive. It’s a declaration of intent to tackle complex social and ecological challenges that transcend any one sector or solution. It requires bold ambition, coherent collective response and a fundamental shift in the systemic conditions we operate within.
It’s shooting not for the moon, but rather a liveable planet, and a thriving, resilient and just Melbourne. Director of Earthshots, Nicole Barline-Luke, explains Earthshots in more detail here.
No postcode left behind: What does 300,000 liveable streets look like?
Our ambition is for the people of Greater Melbourne to have agency to regenerate their streets, and actively participate in decision-making and the ongoing care of their neighbourhoods. We envision every street in Greater Melbourne becoming healthy, thriving and full of life – as streets with genuine liveability, where independent children enjoy outdoor play, people take pride in collective achievements visible in the streetscape, and where community spaces and care models exist to give longevity to the shift.
What does this look like? Imagine walking out of your front door and hearing the twinkling of bird life instead of the hum of traffic. Imagine walking a few steps to your local e-bike sharing hub and tapping your phone to access your ride to work. Imagine streets shaded by tree canopies and food forests. Imagine streets designated for community celebrations, gatherings and play rather than cars.
“By viewing our 300,000 streets as an interconnected living system, we can unlock powerful network effects that transcend individual street interventions. Ensuring wealth, resources and access to quality infrastructure are equally shared across our city.”
Power to the people
To do this, we need to make sure people feel empowered to shape their neighbourhoods. Most Melburnians don't know how to advocate for their streets. While there's shared ambition to shape a better future using streets as the unit of action, our efforts have been fragmented and siloed, limiting tangible outcomes.
Decisions about Melbourne’s streets need to reflect expansive consideration and co-design with communities, and must meet the needs of our community both today and for generations to come. Without this shift, we risk increased polarisation, disengagement and threats to how we build community. And there’s never been a better time to take this kind of action. Many government plans already point to the need for street-level transformation, often prioritising the hard infrastructure over the lived experience of the street. By centering the people for whom decisions are being made in the process of transformation, the impact will be lasting and collectively distributed.
“300,000 Streets is about reclaiming our collective power to shape the places we call home.”
The real change lies in confronting entrenched power structures and institutional inertia that resist bottom-up transformation. To create pathways for hyperlocal action that genuinely transforms larger systems, rather than isolated projects that don't challenge fundamental power dynamics or decision-making structures.
Success for the 300,000 Streets Earthshot means every Melburnian has agency to participate in street-level activity and in decisions relating to their streets.
Left: Nicole Barling-Luke, Director of Earthshots; Right: Nina Sharpe, 300,000 Streets Convenor.
100-80-8
These numbers represent the final destination for Regen Melbourne’s 300,000 Streets Earthshot. They are the measurement through which our imagined state of a city of thriving, interconnected and truly liveable streets become a reality.
100: Community first
Every local government area will have more than 100 community-led initiatives. e.g. a food forest, a green laneway, a recycling hub.
80: Democratic participation
80% of final decisions in local councils are influenced by meaningful community input.
8: Liveability
There is a minimum livability index rating of 8 across Greater Melbourne.
Making 300,000 Streets a reality
300,000 Streets is about reclaiming our collective power to shape the places we call home. After a year of sense-making and relationship building, we now turn our attention towards the projects in partnership with others that will realise this vision. The question from here isn't whether we can transform every street in Melbourne. The question is: what will your street look like when we focus on the interventions that matter most?
If you’d like to discuss the 300,000 Streets Earthshot, send Nina an email at nina@regen.melbourne
