Open Space Strategy

The City of Maribyrnong has over 150 open spaces, covering more than 307 hectares of land. A notable feature of the open space network is the diversity of spaces, ranging from large historical gardens to the natural values of the waterway corridors along the Maribyrnong River and Stony Creek. In addition there are a number of large, high quality sporting reserves and interspersed through the neighbourhoods are smaller parks and spaces.

The purpose of the Open Space Strategy is to provide a strategic direction for the future planning, provision, design and management of open space in the City of Maribyrnong from 2013 to 2031. The strategy quantifies and describes the existing open space network and identifies improvements to provision and quality of our open space. 

Five year review

In 2020 Council conducted a five year review of the Open Space Strategy to identify what improvements have been completed, what actions are in progress, and what remains to be done from the Strategy. This document can be downloaded at the bottom of this page. 

2023 Open Space update

Since the 2020 review, there have been a number of key successes, including:

• extensive master planning ensuring Council reserves meet the needs of the current and future Maribyrnong communities
• growth in open space available to the community, with an increase of over 73,500 square metres
• open space upgrades such as the Western Lawn that transform low-performing spaces into highly functional community activity greens
• advocacy for the inclusion of open space into key development nodes including the Footscray Hospital Site, Defence land, Newells Paddock, and the Braybrook Regeneration Project
• conversion of streets into urban parks as exemplified by Birmingham Street, Yarraville

Download the 2023 Open Space update below for further information about the implementation of the Open Space Strategy since the 2020 review.