Melbourne dairy farm to become 1600-home estate

A dairy farm on Melbourne’s southeastern fringe will be turned into a housing estate guided by COVID era living over the next nine years.

The 270-237 Hardys Rd estate is still in planning stages, but has been canvassed with a proposed 6000sqm town centre and residents club, a school, childcare and parks.

The proposed 116ha, 1600-home development in Clyde North is also expected to feature community co-working spaces and multipurpose facilities inspired by the work-from-home ethos embraced across Melbourne during this year’s COVID-19 lockdowns.

Frasers Property Australia executive general manager development Cameron Leggatt said the features were among the long-term legacy he expected the virus would leave behind.

“It is starting to inform people’s thinking about where they live and how they live,” Leggatt said.

Frasers Property Australia is overseeing the redevelopment of the Burwood Brickworks.

Houses being built in new estates are also expected to embrace home offices and studies above and beyond what is seen today, with the areas moving from occasionally used features to considered must-have inclusions – but that wouldn’t suit all work requirements.

“People are going to crave a bit more flexibility and that will be there, in regards to how people go to work in the future,” Leggatt said.

“Co-working arrangements will be a part of it.”

The developer noted living locally during lockdown had led many Melbourne residents to show greater appreciation for their local community and it was expected neighbourhoods would be looking for ways to stay connected into the future.

“Community facility elements will become a much more valuable piece of infrastructure,” Leggatt said.

The developer’s Burwood Brickworks plans include a rooftop farm.

Land sales are not expected to commence at the Hardys Rd estate until next year, and the project will take between seven and nine years to complete.

First-home buyers as well as those upgrading from existing homes in the city’s southeast are expected to seek out homes in the estate.

Frasers Property is a Singapore-based development group, the Australian branch of which has been developing land for 90 years.

This article from The Herald Sun originally appeared as “Dairy farm on Melbourne’s southeastern fringe will house 1600 homes”.