DUE TO THE PROXIMITY OF THE EVENT, BOOKINGS FOR STUDY TOURS NOW CLOSED

Join us for a study tour to explore more of what Melbourne has to offer.

There are some amazing tours to choose from – it will be tricky to settle on just one! 

Each tour has been designed to showcase the region – designed by planners that are locals
so you will get the absolute lowdown on whichever tour / region you chose to go on.

Tours do have limited numbers – first in best dressed – so be sure to secure your spot ASAP.

Full day tours will depart 8 – 9am and return by 4pm. Half day tours will depart at noon and return by 4pm – ensuring you will have time to freshen up before the National Awards for Planning Excellence and Welcome Function. 

All tours will have more detail provided in the new year – the below descriptions will give you an idea of the tours – so jump in early and secure your spot! 

Please note: Study Tours are an exclusive offering and available only for those registered to attend Congress. Pricing for Study Tours is listed below; these costs are not included in full registration fees and are available to purchase for the additional expenses outlined below under full or half day options.

FULL DAY TOURS

All full day tours are $120 per person and include morning tea and lunch

One of Australia's fastest growing cities, Geelong is well known to most as Victoria's second largest city and focal point for an AFL football team and several key industries including vehicle manufacturing. In a time of significant economic change, Geelong has been reinventing itself as a high-tech design hub, cultural centre for the region and home of significant insurance organisations including the NDIS and Worksafe Victoria. 

Australia's first (and only) City of Design, Geelong has been a member of UNESCO's Creative City Network since 2017. The State and City have invested significantly in Central Geelong, and the surrounding area. These include upgrades to many CBD streets, the Eastern Beach Foreshore, Kardinia Park Stadium, various laneway upgrades, railway improvements, consolidated Council offices, a new Performing Arts Centre, Hospital upgrades, a new Library and Heritage Centre and several iconic buildings. 

Private sector investment is following with the expansion of Deakin University, several new apartment buildings and investment in a wide range of other commercial buildings. 

The recently adopted Central Geelong Framework Plan – ‘Planning for the heart of Djilang’, sets a clear vision to guide growth of 60,000 jobs and 16,000 residents in Geelong’s city centre over the next 30 years. 

This tour will spend the day in Central Geelong exploring the fantastic public realm treatments, local food and wine offerings, integration of institutions, iconic new buildings, and key plans for the future.

The Way Out West takes us into some of Australia’s fastest growing urban areas as well as significant peri-urban food production systems and critical areas of native vegetation and habitat. 

For a long time Melbourne’s West was considered as an area deserving less attention for urban infrastructure and development. Yet in the 21st Century it has become one of the fastest growing, most diverse, and increasingly vibrant regions in the metropolis. 

Managing this growth and providing sufficient infrastructure, as well as protecting important natural and resource values have become critical planning challenges for Melbourne and its region. 

This tour will explore these rapidly growing areas consider some innovative approaches to Urban Development at the fringe, look at natural and cultural heritage and ask questions about the future of some of Melbourne’s last remaining food bowls in the western peri-urban region. This trip will include public transport and coach travel and we will meet with partners in local government state government and community organisations. Tour Lead: Professor Andrew Butt, RMIT University

Proudly supported by:

Come and join us in the picturesque Yarra Ranges for a study tour which will identify the planning challenges of a peri-urban location in spectacular landscapes that are grappling with emerging impacts of climate change. 

While Yarra Ranges municipality is renowned as a premium destination for tourism, agriculture, and Yarra Valley wineries it is also a highly desirable lifestyle location for the community at various stages of life. 

Learn about the breadth of planning contexts including high character townships that juggle the full gamut of planning overlays and major activity centres undergoing significant revitalisation and investment. 

Key places visited include Lilydale Major Activity Centre; Mount Dandenong (with views across Metropolitan Melbourne); Monbulk Township, and Coldstream Township in the Yarra Valley. We will also visit parts of the Yarra Ranges that have been impacted by bushfire, storms, and soil erosion, and learn about the responses in meeting these challenges. 

The day will include morning tea in Monbulk and lunch at one of the region’s wineries.

HALF DAY TOURS

All half day tours are $60 per person and include afternoon tea

The Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (GMCT) manages 21 sites comprising of 600 hectares of land spread across a 100km radius through the western, northern and eastern suburbs of Melbourne. As one of Victoria’s five Class A public cemetery trusts, it provides around 50% of Melbourne’s and 30% of Victoria’s burial and cremation services each year. 

Deathcare has gained a great deal of recent media attention due to the pandemic, increasing community interest in personalised funeral experiences, and innovative technologies that will change the way we deal with death and memorialisation. Rapid urbanisation, climate change, cultural diversification, and the declining influence of major religious denominations are also driving the reinvention of cemeteries and memorial parks function within the urban landscape. 

This study tour will introduce participants to Fawkner Memorial Park and the adjoining Northern Memorial Park. Opened in 1906, Fawkner Memorial Park is approaching full capacity. Northern Memorial Park is now GMCT’s most active cemetery, including a diverse range of grave and memorialisation formats that reflect one of Australia’s most culturally rich metropolitan regions.

Proudly supported by:

This tour will explore the Arden and Macauley precincts less than 2 kilometres from Melbourne’s central city. 

Arden is planned to become a employment and innovation precinct centred around a new Metro Tunnel station and will include 8 hectares of green open space, community facilities and a new primary school. Macaulay will be a 90-hectare mixed-use, mid-rise community to work and live. 

Collectively, Arden and Macaulay will accommodate 25,000 residents and 43,500 workers in a thriving new community beyond 2040. 

Join this tour to explore the history, evolution and future of Melbourne’s newest urban renewal precincts.

How do we solve the housing crisis? 

This tour showcases Melbourne’s unique and innovative approaches and emerging design responses to housing. Nightingale Village in Brunswick is a collective of owner-occupied apartments that do density well. With 20% community housing and studio apartments with pricing aimed at first-home owners, the model is unique for its location, services and shared amenities. Get a rare look inside a Nightingale building and see what all the hype is about! 

The tour will also visit the emerging Build-To-Rent buildings.

Join Prof. Rob Adams AM on a walking tour to discover how Melbourne has been adapting to meet the critical issues of the 21st century - climate change and liveability.

The tour will look behind 10 transformational strategies that have incrementally moved the central city towards a more resilient future. These strategies, centred on density, mixed use, connectivity, local character and a high-quality public realm, are known to deliver better economic, social and environmental sustainability to cities and have helped lift Melbourne’s global standing over recent decades.

It will also become apparent that the lessons from Melbourne are easily transferable to other cities and are not reliant on large projects and budgets.

The tour will be approximately 8kms, some of which will be covered by trams. Reasonable fitness, sensible shoes and a water bottle are advised. You will not require a tram ticket as the tram trips will be within the free tram zone.

All walkers will be issued with headset / receivers so that the walk will not stop for long periods at any one spot but will allow enough time at stops for walkers to take photos and ask questions. There will be approximately 20 short stops over the journey.

Proudly supported by:

As home to some of Australia's greatest sporting locations; the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Melbourne Park and AAMI Park in the sports precinct, just a 15-minute walk from the city centre, the Yarra Park precinct is well worth a tour to get a sense of scale and complexity in a central urban environment. 

Be it the MCG for a game of AFL between March and September; and the season closes with the spectacular AFL Grand Final, or spend summer in the stands shouting 'howzat' as international cricketers play in the legendary Boxing Day Test, or all the glitz of the Australian Open, this precinct boasts a lot of attractions. 

Powerhouse pop performances, basketball, cycling and family events also bring crowds to Rod Laver, Melbourne and Margaret Court arenas. At AAMI Park you can catch a game of the National Rugby League (NRL) team Melbourne Storm, Rugby Union team the Melbourne Rebels, and the city's A League soccer teams – Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City. 

In short, Yarra Park is one of the main public parklands in Melbourne and is located within the city’s internationally renowned sports and entertainment precinct. How did it come about what is planned for the future? 

Yarra Park has a significant indigenous pre-history and is also noted for both its landscape and sporting heritage, dating back to the 1850s. Included in this heritage, are the sporting statues that surround the MCG.

The Wurundjeri people inhabited this area way before Melbourne was founded in 1835. The area was first set aside as parklands in 1856, when it was known as the Richmond Paddock and police horses were left here to graze. 

All in all its an interesting study from a planning perspective - are you up for a walk?

BOOK NOW

Join us for the Birrarung Wilam (River Camp) Walk, The walk starts at 1.00 pm and takes you through Federation Square and down to the Birrarung Wilam (River Camp) Aboriginal art installations. During the walk, you will learn about the Aboriginal history of the Birrarung Marr (Beside the river of mists) and the Aboriginal Peoples of the Kulin Nation, guided by one of our experienced Cultural Experiences Guides. They will explain how the land on which Melbourne stands has changed over time and the significance of the Birrarung Wilam to the local Kulin peoples. This will deepen your understanding of this incredible location, which is an important gathering place for the Kulin Nation and one of Melbourne’s most popular meeting hubs today.