Melton East will bring nearly 12,000 new homes to Melbourne's booming west, with seven schools and sprawling parkland now locked in.
Melton East is officially on the map, with a new suburb approved for Melbourne’s fast-growing western fringe near Melton.
Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny has signed off on the Melton East Precinct Structure Plan, clearing the way for a full community to take shape on the eastern edge of the Melton township. It lands as one of the larger greenfield approvals in the region this year.
“We’re unlocking space to deliver thousands of more homes – as we deliver the infrastructure these communities need,” she said. “The plans for Melton East and Merrifield North are about building connected places for more Victorians to live, work and thrive.”
Once it’s fully built out, the precinct is tipped to house more than 36,000 residents and support around 1,600 local jobs – a serious chunk of growth for a stretch of Melbourne’s western suburbs that’s been expanding at pace for the better part of a decade.
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What the Melton East plan actually delivers
The numbers are big. The approved blueprint makes room for nearly 12,000 homes, seven schools and more than five MCGs worth of parks and reserves, alongside shopping options and four community hubs meant to keep everyday essentials close to home.
There’s a decent transport backbone built in too, with three new arterial roads, 14 intersections and five bridges pencilled in, plus cycling and pedestrian links threading through the precinct.
It’ll be rolled out in two stages so that houses and services go up in step with one another – the idea being that residents aren’t left stranded without roads and schools long after the moving trucks have gone.
A new address on Melbourne’s western edge
For anyone unfamiliar with the patch, Melton East sits roughly 35 kilometres north-west of the CBD, just past the existing Melton township and taking in the suburb of Grangefields. The site covers a touch over 1,000 hectares, hemmed in by Kororoit Creek to the north-east, the Western Freeway to the south, Leakes Road to the east and the Melton Highway to the north-west.
The land is the Country of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung, the Traditional Owners of this part of the west, and the plan sets aside conservation zones along Kororoit Creek to protect local biodiversity.
The whole thing has been led by the Victorian Planning Authority alongside Melton City Council, following a public consultation round and an independent advisory committee process.
Why it matters for Melbourne’s west
Melton has been one of the fastest-growing council areas in the country, and appetite for housing across Melbourne’s outer growth corridors hasn’t cooled. The Melton East tick-off forms part of a wider state push for new homes – a greenfields program aiming to unlock 180,000 dwellings across Victoria over the next ten years.
“We’re unlocking space to deliver thousands of more homes – as we deliver the infrastructure these communities need,” Kilkenny said.
The precinct also arrives as the surrounding area finally banks some long-promised infrastructure. The Melton line has been electrified and is now free of level crossings, the Melton Hospital is under construction, and a run of road and school upgrades has been rolling out across the municipality.
“We are delivering the infrastructure needed to the west so more families can call Melton home,” Member for Melton Steve McGhie said.
More growth on the way at Merrifield North
Melton East isn’t the only plan in motion. Consultation has also opened on the draft Merrifield North Precinct Structure Plan – a 970-hectare jobs precinct in the Northern Growth Corridor tipped to support more than 4,700 roles across warehousing, transport and logistics.
Locals keen to weigh in can lodge feedback via the Engage Victoria page while submissions are open.
“We are planning for the future with new homes and the schools, roads and health services needed to raise a family,” Member for Kororoit Luba Grigorovitch said.
It’s a lot of change for a corner of the city that, not so long ago, was mostly paddocks. Whether Melbourne’s west can lay down the trains, roads and services fast enough to keep pace with all these new arrivals is the question that’ll shape the next decade out here – and, in the meantime, it’s worth keeping an eye on how the area’s live music scene grows with it.
For more information on the Melton East plan, head here.
