Our Green Wedge
Kingston is proud to be home to one of Melbourne’s valuable ‘Green Wedges’ – one of 12 protected segments of land that, collectively, form a ring around our urban city, set aside by the State Government for non-urban use to help combat climate change, ensure food security and improve liveability.
Kingston’s Green Wedge provides:
- Environmental value – open space and conservation zones that protect and enhance biodiversity
- Health and wellbeing benefits – exercise, recreation and outdoor activities
- Farming and agriculture opportunities – protecting the food bowls of Melbourne
- Tourism opportunities – aiding economic development
Our Chain of Parks
A key feature of Kingston’s Green Wedge will be the Chain of Parks – a project that will see more than 300 hectares of land transformed into linked open spaces for the community to enjoy.
The Chain of Parks will span from Karkarook Park in Heatherton through to Braeside Park.
The project will see the end of the waste industry in our community, with former landfills in Kingston’s Green Wedge being transformed into contemporary parks and beautiful open spaces, as set out in the Chain of Parks Masterplan(PDF, 32MB).
It has taken decades of effort working alongside community groups to make the Chain of Parks project possible. Kingston City Council and the Victorian State Government have purchased hundreds of hectares of land to make the vision a reality. The long-awaited project is now underway.
Watch this video to learn more:
FAQs
Green Wedge
What is a green wedge?
A green wedge is an area of land set aside for non-urban use including parks, agriculture and other special uses.
In the late 1960s, the Victorian government designated 12 areas, covering 17 municipalities around Melbourne, as ‘Green Wedge’ land set aside for recreation, conservation, farming and resource utilisation purposes.
Where and how big is Kingston’s Green Wedge?
Kingston’s green wedge covers 2070 hectares in Kingston’s northern suburbs in parts of Heatherton, Clarinda, Dingley Village and Braeside plus two small areas of land in Aspendale Gardens/Waterways and Patterson Lakes. The area is the size of 1,035 MCGs and makes up around 23 per cent of Kingston.
View a map of Kingston's Green Wedge(PDF, 327KB)
Who owns Kingston’s Green Wedge?
The large area falls under a range of private, federal, state and local government ownership.
For example Karkarook Park and Braeside Park are both owned and managed by Parks Victoria and Moorabbin Airport is owned by the Australian Government and leased on a 99 year agreement. The remaining Green Wedge is 66 per cent held by private owners, 20 per cent held by the Victorian Government and 14 per cent held by local government.
Chain of Parks
What is the Chain of Parks?
The Chain of Parks is an exciting vision for a series of linked parks that was first proposed in the early 1970s. Successive councils, state governments and the community have supported the concept.
Once complete, the Chain of Parks will stretch for over 300 hectares from Karkarook Park in Heatherton through to Braeside Park.
It aims to see old landfills rehabilitated and transformed into a series of linked parks that offer a wide range of recreational facilities and open space within our green wedge, creating a network or ‘chain’ of parks.
What will the Chain of Parks look like?
The Chain of Parks Masterplan(PDF, 32MB)
includes:
- an area of more than 300 hectares (the size of about 242 MCGs) of publicly owned land to create continuous park ‘spine’ from Karkarook Park in Heatherton to Braeside Park, Dingley
- two major regional parklands: Karkarook Park and Braeside Park, with a range of parks to complement these and other conservation and recreation areas
- six broad park themes including:
- regional parklands
- an outdoor adventure/education area
- an area developed for family/fun/theme park activities
- central pedestrian and bicycle trails/shared paths over the 10 kilometre length of the linked parks with secondary trails and links to the surrounding communities.
Why were there so many landfills in Kingston?
Kingston’s Green Wedge is located in Melbourne’s sand-belt, and the area was heavily mined for sand during the 1900s.
The large holes left in the ground from mining were then used as landfills for the region. Various types of waste was accepted, from inert materials such as construction waste, to putrescible waste, which decays and rots, such as household garbage.
Why use the old landfills for parks?
Former landfill sites are not suitable for constructed or heavily paved surfaces because (as waste settles in the landfill) the surface becomes uneven.
Parks are an excellent end use for remediated landfills. In fact, many of Kingston and Melbourne’s parks are former landfills.
From the time a landfill has closed, it can take anywhere from 10 to 40 years for the site to be considered safe for parkland, and it takes significantly longer for them to be safe for constructed facilities. This is due to the environmental standards in place to rehabilitate landfill sites and the constraints on what can be built on old landfill sites due to the capping.