BY BELINDA NOLAN
BRIMBANK Council is campaigning to put Brimbank on the map, in a bid to lure millions of dollars worth of investment to the city.
The council has embarked on an ambitious scheme to drum up interest in the municipality through the creation of a new brochure campaign which is being distributed to State and Federal government agencies, private developers and investors.
Dubbed “Brimbank: The Key to Unlocking the Potential of the West,” the brochure aims to raise awareness of the city and highlight areas ripe for development.
With a population of more than 189,000, at its closest point Brimbank is only 12 kilometres from Melbourne’s CBD, a distance comparable to suburbs like Camberwell, Heidelberg, Brighton, Caulfield and Doncaster.
But despite its strategic position, Brimbank remains largely unknown. New maps commissioned by the council comparing Brimbank to the inner east
reveal the latter is better connected to public transport infrastructure, including trams and smart bus routes.
The council believes that Brimbank could hold the key to managing the growth of the entire western region of Melbourne.
Stephen Sully, the council’s General Manager of City Development told Star that Brimbank was at the interface between the CBD and the West’s growth areas, with available land, infrastructure and town centres waiting to be tapped into.
Mr Sully said the brochures aimed to raise the city’s profile as a prime investment site, in the hopes of attracting new employment, goods, services and facilities.
“It’s the second largest municipality in Melbourne and yet it’s relatively unknown,” Mr Sully said.
“If you tell people you’re from Camberwell, everyone knows where it is but when you say Brimbank they’ve got a vague idea it’s somewhere in the West.
“So the idea of the brochure is to get Brimbank on the map.
“It’s about making sure everyone knows where Brimbank is and how significant it is, especially in the context of the future growth and development of western Melbourne.
“We are really at the interface and we would hope that there would be a big role for Brimbank to play in providing employment, goods and services to the whole of the western region.”
The council has identified nine key areas in the city which it believes are ideal for development and renewal, including the Sunshine and Sydenham Town Centres, Calder Park and Derrimut.
The council believes that Sunshine has the potential to become a major business hub for the West, with more than eight hectares of vacant or underutilised land.
Neighbouring Sydenham has 27.5 hectares of vacant land, while the industrial zoned Calder Park is earmarked as a major commercial and
employment precinct, with 100 hectares up for grabs.
The council has also identified the former Broadcast Australia and Solomon Heights sites as suitable locations for residential development.
Meanwhile, the former Orica factory in Deer Park could become a hive of industry and business.
Other key strategic areas include the industrial estates of Derrimut and Brooklyn.
Mr Sully said the brochures were being printed on an “as needs basis” and had begun being distributed this month.
He said the next step would involve discussions with interested investors.
“I think it’s vital for the council to raise the municipality’s profile because if we are going out and saying we are from Brimbank or Sunshine or St Albans or Sydenham, we need people to know exactly where these places are,” Mr Sully said.
