The foreshore is Port Phillip’s most prominent public space and needs to be carefully managed so that it is safe and welcoming for everyone, and resilient to climate change.

Extending for over 11 kilometres from Port Melbourne through St Kilda to Elwood, the foreshore is often referred to as Melbourne’s playground. Landmark destinations include St Kilda Pier, Station Pier, Catani Gardens and Point Ormond. These spaces, together with facilities such as pedestrian and bike paths, lifesaving clubs, restaurants, cafes, and play spaces, help activate the foreshore year-round.

Each local beach has its own unique character and setting. The natural coastal dunes and vegetation of Sandridge contrast with St Kilda’s more formal spaces and heritage buildings which play host to major sporting and cultural events.

Locals and visitors participate in a diversity of recreational pursuits, ranging from beach tennis, beach volleyball, stand-up paddle boarding, kite-surfing, triathlons, sailing to skydiving. The Bay Trail connects the foreshore and provides a much-loved promenade for walking, running and bike riding.

Planning for spaces along our foreshore needs to:

• Ensure our foreshore is a safe and welcoming place for everyone, particularly when spaces are crowded during events and hot weather.
• Balance the needs of different users: from spaces to exercise dogs off leash and formal sport, to quiet spaces for yoga and respite, and protecting the access and amenity of locals.
• Make the foreshore environment and infrastructure more resilient to sea level rise, severe storm events and increased visitation.
• Address the increasing demand for events and from commercial recreation operators, and for upgraded facilities to support more diverse activities. This must be carefully managed as we also know the community expects public access to the foreshore to be maintained, and the natural environment and heritage to be protected.

What Council is already doing

• Introduced alcohol and glass bans to make the foreshore a safer place.
• Redeveloping the South Melbourne Lifesaving Club – including new kiosk, a multi-purpose room for community use, accessible public toilets and improved landscaping. The St Kilda Lifesaving Club redevelopment was completed in 2017.
• Planning for renewal of the St Kilda Marina – developing a vision, along with the community, to create a key destination along the Bay Trail with a diversity of businesses and experiences on offer, anchored by a working Marina.

Opportunities

Ways we can enhance our foreshore as a key public space include:

• Considering the need for a coastal event centre – a designated place with infrastructure that facilitates the delivery of events - improving the visitor experience whilst reducing environmental impact.
• Enhanced foreshore landscaping that strengthens historic patterns of planting, increases shade, and helps protect the beach and dunes from erosion.
• Reinforcing the foreshore as a series of distinct areas, building on each location’s unique sense of place, heritage and use.
• Re-imagining key foreshore destinations such as St Kilda Pier / Pier Road, Princes Pier and the St Kilda Triangle.

Thought prompters

• What do you consider are the priorities for how we enhance the foreshore as a key public space?
• Are there specific opportunities you would like to see implemented and where?
• Do you have other ideas?

Return to Have Your Say on the Public Space Strategy main page.