Albert Road Reserve re-imagined

A post for World Water Day 22 March 2025

Construction of Anzac Station has been completed, one of five new stations of the Melbourne Metro, due to open in 2025. The station is complemented by a transformation of the station surrounds. There are many dimensions to this significant public realm transformation, for transformation it is. Formerly, Albert Road Reserve was incidental to through traffic and carparking. Now, it has become a valuable public space for workers and residents alike, rich in cultural meaning.

A skillful re-allocation of space brings all the movement functions to the northern side of Albert Road. There’s room for everyone: a generous footpath, protected bike lanes in both directions, parking, and a single lane each way of east/west traffic.

This post looks at just one, foundational, aspect of the re-design of the Albert Road Reserve which slopes gently downhill from St Kilda Road to Kingsway.

The landscape is about Connecting with Country, Bunurong country. The theme is Lost waterways.

At present, the way water is managed is largely invisible. Rain falls on streets and is hastened into stormwater pits, into pipes and out into Port Phillip Bay.

The interpretative panels remind us that once Albert Park Lake was not an isolated water body, but part of a network of swamps and wetlands. This design re-connects the water and landscapes of Albert Road Reserve and Albert Park.

In the re-design of this Reserve, water is not only made visible, it is celebrated.

A cue is taken from the way rain constellates and falls from the branchlets of a casaurina tree.

The central feature of the Reserve is the Casaurina Pavilion, designed by Jefa Greenaway. The pavilion references the Sheoak. Water would fall from the tree and be collected in a vessel or tarnuk. A tarnuk was made from the burl of an old tree.

After the overnight rain I watched the water concentrate and fall into the vessel below.

Curved channels between the footpath and the garden receive the rain as it flows down the hill towards Kingsway. The receiving rain gardens are planted with grasses, reeds and sedges which thrive on the inflow of water.

Bunurong water words are inscribed on the seats. At a convenient height, the low walls were well used by people at lunch time. Not a straight line in sight in this landscape.

Some of the other word phrases inscribed on the seats are

krunkun bottom of water

obian parn drinking water

boolook swamp

The welcome rain was an opportunity to watch how water was received in this new public space.