How Geelong found its lost heart

In 2016, The City of Greater Geelong launched a campaign to find the city’s heart, to breathe new life into its CBD. Initially it was met with criticism, but looking back now, it has been an astounding success.

[The following is one resident’s vision of a revitalised Geelong and the community actions taken to achieve this vision.]

Reality check time: With this new campaign in mind, the residents of Geelong started by first taking an honest look at the current state of the city. They identified the problems they were trying to solve, as well as the city’s traits the new heart would bring to the foreground.

The bad side of Geelong

Geelong, what? The residents knew that if you traveled anywhere outside of Victoria, let alone Australia no one really knew about the city. Take the Geelong Cats out of the equation and no one had a clue about what made Geelong special.

“Nice place, beautiful waterfront, but not much else really.” — Melbourne resident about Geelong.

If you lived in Western or Central Victoria it’d be a place you visit once a year or so, at most.

It was boring. Geelong residents would travel around the world, and see smaller places of 20–50 thousand people bustling with life and energy. Walk down a small town in Europe or Asia on a Wednesday night and you see families walking and talking about their day, young couples grabbing an ice cream, and street musicians creating a warm atmosphere.

Walk down Moorabool street on a Wednesday evening and it was like stepping foot into a ghost town.

Bogans. Luckily, they were fairly benign most of the time, but Geelong was the highest people-walking-through-the-city-in-pajamas-and-barefoot place anywhere. The majority of its residents were getting tired of the reputation a small percentage of loud, rude idiots were giving the city.

Lacking in culture, music and arts. See “it’s boring” above.

Saturday-nights belong to the drunks. You didn’t go for a walk with your family down Moorabool Street on a Saturday night. You just didn’t. Nothing bad may have happened but it was never a comfortable feeling with hordes of drunks around.

There was only one sport: AFL. Sure, the city already had facilities for any recreational sport you can think of. If, however, you wanted to see some pros in action you had the Geelong Cats, and little else.

The major employers were all companies going downhill. Ford Motor Company, Shell oil refinery, and Alcoa aluminium producer—companies that built the city—were either going bust or being replaced by new technology like the Tesla electric car, and renewable energy. If you were an information worker, you got used to the idea of taking the V/Line on a daily basis. Geelong was where you lived, not where you worked.

Poorer suburbs looked like complete ghettos.
Drive — or worse yet, cycle—down suburbs like Corio, Norlane, or North Shore and you’d have all the inspiration you needed for Eminem-style rap lyrics. In fact, listening to Eminem while in these neighbourhoods, felt right in a weird way. Also, if you didn’t see at least one baby stroller or shopping trolly abandoned on the side of the road, something was wrong.

These weren’t your grungy Fitsroy/Collingwood-style white-ghettos where you can grab a delicious single-origin latte from a hipstery record music store. No, these were just sad places, void of anything that made humanity beautiful. The physical landscape was ugly and depressing.

Cycling infrastructure was terrible
The council’s idea of “bike friendly” was over 30 years obsolete. Sure, you could find some bike-friendlier paths. But there were few of them, and they were fragmented. Like the rest of Australia, Geelong was on the polar-opposite end of Copenhagen, Amsterdam and co.

The beautiful side of Geelong

Looking bleak, right? Well, there are also lots of reasons to live in Geelong.

The beautiful waterfront
If you took a look at an aerial photograph of Geelong’s waterfront you’d want to visit this place to see what it was like in person. And it is diverse! People of all backgrounds walking along the beach, playing volleyball on the sand and just hanging out.

Big enough, but not too big
At a population of 180,000 you’d get all your major services met here. Decent schools, an adequate—and improving—hospital, okay shopping, few good—but really good—restaurants. At the same time it wasn’t too big. Traffic isn’t a madhouse like in Melbourne. There’s a more relaxed vibe. People say “Good morning” as they walk past each other on a walking track.

A 1-hour drive to dense skyscrapers or serene surf beaches. You chose.
Geelong is neither of the above, and that is its differentiation. The council knew that competing with Melbourne wasn’t the way to go, and would look pretty sad. But it didn’t need to compete! It was happy to “outsource” the Formula 1, Australian Open, International Comedy Festival and so on to its bigger brother. Geelong became a place as worthy to live in as Melbourne, arguably more so, without competing with it. All it had to do was to find its niche, and boy did it find its niche.

AFL passion
Geelong is probably the most footy-mad place in the country. Geelong Cat’s Premiership win of 2011 was proof that it was possible to get this community together after all. Now we just had to think of more excuses to get people together, and places where they can do so.

Diversity
Pako Festa is a event where you can see the extent of diversity in Geelong. But there were plenty of other ways this diversity could be integrated into the community other than this 1-day-in-the-year event.

Quirky, colonial-style history
No city heart would be whole unless it paid homage to its past. Although not unique when looked at in isolation, Geelong has certain artefacts that make it unique when looked at as a whole. The bollards that talk about the history of the region (although they ignore some of its more brutal past), the Cunningham Pier gate, the lovely pool and stairs at Eastern beach.

These artefacts mix with the more recent history of AFL culture, the establishment of the Ford Motor Company plant in the 1920’s, the parade of antique cars you can spot on a beautiful sunny day, and the influx of immigrants into the region.

All these things make Geelong, Geelong. It’s important that the new city heart didn’t forget where it came from, but just as importantly it needed to paint the path for where the city would go in the future.

Okay, enough of all the backstory. Here’s how Geelong went from Melbourne’s sidekick to making the World’s Top 20 Most Liveable Cities list in the category of cities within 100–500 thousand people!

The Grand Plan for Geelong’s Heart

A city without people is a ghost town.

Geelong needed more places where people could gather to socialise, engange in activities, exchange ideas and trade (this includes “shopping” but a shopping centre isn’t the only way of attracting business).

1. Moorabool street became a pedestrian and bicycle zone.

It’s hard to imagine what the place used to look like. Here’s a photo of it from 2016 to refresh your memory:

And, now look at it! People going about their day, walking, talking, shopping, eating, laughing. It’s alive.

[Imagine a mashup of the images below in a style in line with Geelong’s positive traits listed above.]

Why did the city opt for a pedestrian area?
If you ever walked down the pedestrian city centres and squares in Europe you know exactly why. They spark life and activity into the city. They are the heart. It’s where you go for a walk with your family, where you take that girl out on the first date, where you meet with a potential client to talk about business, where the community meets to socialise and exchange ideas. Most importantly, it’s where you go to celebrate.

They’re the glue of the collective mind, and they make financial sense. In fact, since turning their main street into a pedestrian zone, business revenue within a 2km radius of Moorabool street increased by ~30%.

What happened to car traffic?
Cars, oh, their beloved cars. After a short period of change-fearing and whinging from drivers and transportation companies, traffic in the city had reduced! To minimise risk, the council opted for a staged release of the new pedestrian zone. They converted roads to pedestrian zones, one block at a time, assessed the impact this had on traffic, and would gather opinions from general public using on-the-street surveys.

“We thought the general public would appreciate the work being done to put new life into the city. But, they surprised and motivated us. The most commonly asked question wasn’t ‘Why is this being done?’. Instead people kept asking ‘How soon will the whole street be turned into a pedestrian zone?’” 
— Geelong council employee talking about findings from surveys following the completion of the first stage

“With all those secure bike parking lots, I just ride to the city now.” 
— Westfield Plaza employee

What about accessibility?
Pedestrian streets aren’t just for walking. They make life easier for everyone.

“It’s a relief. Now when I enter this street I know that I’m safe and I can walk around for hours without worrying about cars or buses.”
 — Visually impaired Geelong resident

What did the pedestrian zone turn into?
Shops, cafés, restaurants, performance, music, art exhibitions, you name it. It started slowly, one shop at a time. Two months into the change, you could walk down Moorabool street and expect to see it bustling.

The laneways added to the magic

As you can see on the map above, the smaller streets connecting to Moorabool street were also turned into pedestrian zones.

This added an element of magic and surprise to the Heart of Geelong. Think of Melbourne’s or Tokyo’s lantern-decorated magical laneways.

In all, the new pedestrian zone established Geelong as the most innovative city in Australia for 2016, and more importantly gave residents a city to be proud of.

“It’s been years since I visited Geelong. I never expected to find this place turn into one of Australia’s most culturally thriving cities.”
 — Visitor from Ballarat

“At first we were hesitant about starting our company in a city that experienced recent economic hardship. The safe option was to open our office in inner-city Melbourne. Coming here and seeing this place full of life and ambition changed our minds. We’ve got our money on Geelong.” 
— New tech startup

2. Steampacket Gardens is the place to be, and a shared gathering space for the community

Live music, theatre, movie nights, you name it! This versatile space became Geelong’s version of Central Park, Piazza del Signoria or Federation Square.

This patch of grass is where it happens! Now, every other night there is an event happening here. This is Pako Festa on a daily basis. We run music nights. People from different cultures come and share their culture. Yesterday we had a group of students from the local high schools performing Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I mean, you just wouldn’t see this stuff a few years ago.

Tonight is Somali music night, next week we have a band performing Balkan brass music and last week it was a AC/DC cover band. I can’t imagine anything like this happening anywhere in Australia. Geelong has become the poster-child of diversity in this country.

— Director of Diversitat, an organisation helping new arrivals

The pedestrian zone on Moorabool street acts as the glue between the city and the waterfront. This makes Steampacket Gardens the heart of events. If there’s a big event happening and you want to be part of it, you know you’ll find it here. Afterwards, Moorabool Street’s pedestrian zone and cafés look at you invitingly for a stroll where you can discuss the day’s events and grab a meal or coffee while you’re at it. Or, go for a relaxing stroll down Cuningham Pier or Eastern Beach. The choice is yours.

3. Walk the scenic route from Geelong Train Station all the way to the Steampacket Gardens, and beyond.

Visitors arriving by train can now see the best of Geelong CBD in one — almost continuous — walk.

A: Arriving by V/Line train—most likely from Melbourne—they’re greeted by boards of the beautiful city they’re about to see. Signs point them down the scenic route, with an estimate of how long it will take to walk to get to the heart, Moorabool Street and Steampacket Gardens.

B: Making their way through Johnstone Park and past the renovated library, another sign points them to cross the road and enter Little Malop St.

C: The whole of Little Malop St is now a pedestrian zone. From here, visitors walk around and check out the little shops and cafés.

D: They seamlessly enter Moorabool St and see the waterfront inviting them from the left. More shops, cafés and restaurants await, as well as a street photography exhibition. A street performer is playing some gentle music in the background. And, along the way to the waterfront they can read small, quirky information plaques about the city’s history.

E: The waterfront greets the visitor with wide, open water. Looking back they see the hustle and bustle of the city. People with their bicycles parked next to cafés. Others walking their dogs. What a cool place! Hmm… to go left or right down the waterfront? There’s just so much to see in Geelong!

4. Mini-hearts for every suburb

On the way to finding its new heart, Geelong didn’t shun its suburbs. The CBD and waterfront aren’t something you need to escape to, and away from the boring monotony of suburban life.

Each suburb has its own half-yearly missions. These are fairly low-budget projects. And, the community is invited to donate a day from their weekend to contribute if they like. You don’t have to contribute, but you’re a bit lame if you don’t unless you have a good excuse.

How can you help out?

Pretty simple. Each suburb has their own Facebook page, like this one. You can like the page to subscribe to updates. The council pays professionals to do intense, highly skilled work. But every month or so there’s a way for volunteers to make their suburb more beautiful. You know, simple jobs you can’t get wrong. Planting trees, painting park benches, that sorta thing.

Here is the drudgery you were once greeted with when entering Corio Village Shopping Center from the southern side:

Today, it’s a gathering spot for families:

The council is very careful here not to get into “outsourcing” territory. All the usual infrastructure and services are paid by the city. Budget is allocated towards the mini hearts. Not a great deal. But enough to be noticeable. Along with the volunteer work it has lifted the moods of residents, who haven’t seen any real improvements done in their suburb in years.

5. Proper bicycle infrastructure

The final piece of the puzzle is proper bicycle infrastructure.

“A clear pattern can be seen among the world’s most liveable cities: Highly liveable cities are bike friendly. They’re a joy to ride through on bike. Our aim is to create an extensive bicycle network that links the Heart of Geelong with all its mini-hearts. This will be a longer term project that will make it a better place to live and as importantly, the bike network will help alleviate increasing road traffic congestion resulting from our booming population.”
— The mayor of Geelong

Work is almost complete on the first connection along its bike network, connecting Geelong’s Heart to Deakin University. The city is hoping to attract state funding to complete the biggest stretch of development starting from the city, going through Pakington St, Weir Deppeler Park, and finishing at Corio Shopping Center.

“Australia is seriously lagging behind when it comes to pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. If you look at what people are doing in Germany with their bike highways, or in New York with the high line, you realise that these investments can take a significant load off roads and public transportation. It makes sense. It’s time we stopped playing catch-up with the rest of the world and set ourselves apart as the leader in this space.”
— Victorian transport minister