In years gone by it’s been the place for a drive-in cinema, a trash and treasure market, a caravan park and a disability support centre. But today most of this sprawling wedge of land just beyond EastLink lies empty and in ruins. Hoyts has dismantled the drive-in and the caravans have been moved on.
The shuttered disability support accommodation has been trashed by vandals and served as a home to squatters. City of Knox Mayor Jude Dwight says the outer east needs health services and affordable housing. Credit: Justin McManus A master plan to develop the 22-hectare site in Wantirna into a new “health city” for Melbourne’s outer east was first published by state planning authorities in 2020, but there is no visible progress on delivering it.
The Victorian Planning Authority’s ambitious plans included a new public hospital, allied health services, aged care, tertiary education, offices, shops, open space including a wetland, and affordable housing for essential workers. The Department of Transport and Planning proposed a planning scheme amendment in early 2023, which would trigger development of the health city on the largely surplus VicRoads land. But since then, the plan has seemingly stalled.
City of Knox Mayor Jude Dwight said the lack of communication from the state government was frustrating. The site would fill a glaring hole in this part of Melbourne for a new public hospital and for housing close to jobs, she said. “To have 22 hectares of surplus land with an area that is privately owned, all in this junction of roads that meet in this beautiful triangle, it’s really prime real estate for this kind of opportunity,” Dwight said.
The site was first identified as a possible future home for a hospital in 2014. “So we are looking at a decade already, and we’re not seeing the movement,” Dwight said. “What surprises us is that it does look like a golden opportunity for the state government.
It helps for them to deliver on their housing agenda, and it also delivers on a whole lot of jobs in a sector that’s under-resourced.” The 22-hecatre site in Wantirna has been earmarked as a future “health city” with a new public hospital. Credit: Justin McManus In a hint of progress, the Allan government wrote to the council this week, stating that in coming days a sign-off was expected on the land being rezoned into a “comprehensive development zone”.
The Victorian government said there was no truth to speculation that the rebuilt Maroondah Hospital could be built at Wantirna. “We are delivering the Queen Elizabeth II project on the existing site in Ringwood East as per the election commitment we made in 2022,” a spokesperson said. The proposal for the huge site would also include housing built by private developers Asian Aussie Group, who own part of the site.
The company’s original proposal to build 85 townhouses was rejected by the Knox City Council in 2018 after receiving hundreds of community objections. The Victorian Coalition promised during the 2022 state election campaign to spend $600 million building a 250-bed tertiary hospital and emergency department at the old Knox Drive-In site, but lost the election. Coalition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the opposition’s policies for the next election had not yet been settled, but that there is a growing need for health services in the outer east.
“Clearly we identified it as a need in 2022,” Crozier said. “There are still massive issues and ..
. the government has ignored the needs of that growing and ageing population.” Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy.
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