Landscape Architecture Australia – August 2019

Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing

Removal Project

Victoria

Aspect Studios

02

L

iving near the Caulfield to Dandenong Level

Crossing Removal Project and having seen

(and heard) its construction, I was curious to

experience this project’s outcome. The $1.6 billion

project has involved the removal of nine level crossings,

the realization of five new train stations and the creation

of 22.5 hectares of public space for the community in

Melbourne’s suburban south-east. At the heart of the

project has been the design of a linear park stretching 8.4

kilometres from Carnegie to Hughesdale, Clayton and

Noble Park, twelve kilometres of new shared-use pathways

and thousands of new trees. With the project spanning

a wide range of residential, commercial, transport and

parkland settings, the question of how to establish a

unified theme over kilometres of distance presented the

consultant landscape architects, Aspect Studios, with

a challenge.

02

The Caulfield to Dandenong

project creates 8.4-kilometres

of linear park beneath the

now-elevated rail line. Photo:

Peter Bennetts.

03

Local residents enjoy a

game of soccer on one of

the numerous sporting areas

nestled beneath the rail line.

Photo: Peter Bennetts.

04

The elevation of the rail

creates new connections

between communities

previously separated by the

ground-level rail track. Photo:

Peter Bennetts.

Attention to scale and a coordinated

approach to colour have created an inviting

series of spaces, well-suited to individual

and collective inhabitation.

Text Beau Beza

The design team’s decision to go “up” with the rail line

(rather than sinking the rail below ground – an option that

was available at the project bidding phase) has shaped

the fundamental design of the works. Following from this

initial decision, four design considerations helped structure

the development of their response. These revolved around

demonstrating performance, functionality, value (why this

and not that) and the maintenance of the intended project

outcomes. A significant aspect of the design process also

involved managing and integrating the concerns of the

project’s very large number of stakeholders – a task Aspect

acted on by engaging a full-time landscape architect whose

function during the design development process was

primarily to facilitate stakeholder approvals while allowing

the physical design process to continue to progress.

From both a practitioner, academic and visitor perspective,

the resulting built outcome is worth experiencing both over

the course of the day and into the night. With the rail line

going “up,” it is not intrusive, and when walking through the

space one hardly notices it overhead. I was more struck by

how noticeable the cars on the adjacent roadways, such as

Dandenong Road were – on the times of my visits (a Sunday

afternoon and weekday evening) the high level of noise was

both intrusive and unpleasant. Anecdotally, the sections of

the linear park framed by hard edges and vertical features

seem to exclude much of the noise of the surrounding urban

environment, making it easy to have a normal conversation

in the space. However, when the parkland is unframed

and interrupted with, for example, a T-intersection, one is

reminded by the sounds of the cars (and on one day I visited,

the howling wind) that this is metropolitan Melbourne! The

framing of the parkland (often achieved through plantings)

helps to humanize the more open spaces.