Harkness Memorial, Melbourne, Australia, for Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, with McGregor Coxall, Aurecon, Architectus, Greenshoot Consulting, and Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation

The first phase of the Harkness Memorial Masterplan concerns 128ha of land adjacent to the Gilgai Woodlands Nature Conservation Reserve. The project will address challenges posed by Melbourne’s rapidly growing western suburbs, with new and improved public spaces across the site, in a reimagining of the public cemetery. Melbourne’s largest memorial site, Harkness will be adapted as a multi-use space for memorialisation and community needs.

Who is on the project team? (designer, consultants, etc)

McGregor Coxall, Aurecon, Architectus, Greenshoot Consulting, Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation

Describe the context of this project, its neighbourhood and people?

Adjacent to Gilgai Woodlands Nature Conservation Reserve, the site will serve the environment and regional community as a place for remembrance and renewal. Design is deeply contextual, responding to a rapidly growing city and the evolving expectations of how people will use cemeteries in the future. Combined with broader challenges of climate change and population density facing cities worldwide, the demand for quality open space means single-use public lands are becoming less feasible. The Masterplan helps to address this challenge for Melbourne’s rapidly growing western suburbs. Design comprises three axes - ecological, cultural, and community - where each plays an important role in supporting the journey and connecting the site to its surroundings, its people, and its Country. Wurundjeri custodianship of these lands date back immemorial and thus played a foundational role in informing design, namely comprehensive Traditional Owner engagement and input from a range of community stakeholders. Facilitating broader community understanding of dialogues of death, design elements are embedded within the site’s local context and our lifecycle connections to nature; connecting community to Country, promoting education, storytelling, and inviting visitors to engage with the land, its ecologies, natural systems, and each another. Recognising that this site will serve Victoria for over 100 years, elements of sustainability and adaptability ensure the design responds to the needs of its community. 

Please describe your approach to this future place and its mix of uses. How will it function as a vibrant place? How does it knit into and serve the needs of the wider area?

Design followed a collaborative approach where, alongside internal client and design peer review, external reviews provided by a Design Review Panel included representatives from the Office of Victorian Government Architects, Parks Victoria, and Melbourne Water. Concurrently, ongoing engagement with Traditional Owners, community, and stakeholders established an iterative process of review and refinement. Three Advisory Groups were established to inform design – Expert and Innovation Advisory Group, Community Reference Panel, and Cultural Diversity Advisory Group. Over 100 opportunities to participate across online and in-person tools were offered, including targeted immersive user-centred design workshops using virtual reality. A key aspect of the Masterplan’s development was embedding the aspirations of Wurundjeri Elders into the design in accordance with the International Indigenous Design Charter. Elder feedback was sought and translated into meaningful design solutions. This process has created a legacy with the Wurundjeri and the local community, and will enable ongoing conversation through the cemetery’s delivery, building strong partnerships into the future. The Masterplan demonstrates this process of extensive listening, collaboration, and refinement with Victoria’s First Peoples and the local community. The Cultural Line presents a dramatic threshold that amplifies the vastness of Melbourne’s West. The Natural Axis - Arnolds Creek, is a demonstration of commitment to Caring for Country and a sustainable future. The centrepiece, the Core, elevates the beauty of the natural landscape in a celebration of Country. The masterplan has succeeded in creating an inclusive experience of international significance as it’s anchored in truth-telling through the celebration of cultural diversity. 

What is the environmental impact of the project? How will the carbon use and material impact of the development be mitigated? What is the sustainability strategy?

The Masterplan effectively addressed broader challenges of climate change, ecological restoration, water management, energy generation and consumption, and heat island effect by responding to demands for more green, open, and inclusive public spaces. Design seeks to protect and enhance the ecological values of the site, locality, and region, expanding and stitching together ecologies to combat the biodiversity crisis. Existing ecological vegetation communities that support local habitats and species are restored and protected, through the creation of vegetated corridors that connect remnant and new ecologies within the site and its surrounds. The restoration of Arnold’s Creek and the integration of the existing onsite Gilgai’s throughout the design solution for the cemetery will sustain open water areas and associated local wildlife. The reimagined cemetery will embody Circular Economy fundamentals – Regeneration, Resilience, Sustainability – to combat climate change. Aspiring to be off grid, design utilises on-site solar sources for energy and collects water for reuse to combat impacts of consumption and production on the environment. A site-wide integrated water management plan will capture and cleanse water for reuse to ensure longevity of onsite planting and ecologies. Sustainability is championed via environmentally conscious and energy efficient built form. Design offers a variety of adaptive, multi-use spaces that utilise natural, locally sourced, and recycled materials to integrate with the landscape. The Masterplan embraces opportunities for sustainable practices such as eco-burial and digital memorialisation. It strives to be a place of care, connection, adaptation, and progression woven into the fabric of western Melbourne.