Walking in Footscray

Walking Strategy now out for public comment

The Council's Walking Strategy is now out for public comment until 31 August 2010.  Click here for more information.   

In April 2010, Maribyrnong City Council created a Walking Survey to find out the community’s view of walking in local area neighbourhoods and shopping areas. The survey is intended to provide community input into the development of a municipality wide Walking Strategy.  Click here to see the results of the survey. 

Maddern Square

Maddern Square is a park as well as a pedestrian link between Nicholson Street Mall and Leeds Street, leading to the tram terminus, train station and Footscray Market.

This space was rebuilt in 2006. It now has improved view lines, lighting, new trees, a lawn area and new seats. It has become a more interactive public open space.

Maddern Square is the site for many events and festivities including the annual outdoor movie screening ‘Footscray Flicks’ held in February.

Nicholson Street Mall

Nicholson Street Mall is Footscray’s primary public space. It was rebuilt in 2008. The pedestrian experience has been improved with wider kerb outstands at the main intersection of Nicholson, Droop and Hopkins, and an all pedestrian phase ‘Barnes style’ crossing across this intersection. Lighting has been significantly upgraded so that the space can be enjoyed all day long. New concrete paving provides a level walking surface. The furniture and fittings have been organised to allow for good visibility across the space. Also new seats, trees, and way finding signs have been installed.

There is an integrated artwork in the seats around the large trees, and a graffiti mural in Chambers Street. A temporary laser projection art project will be on display until mid 2010.

Regular Tai Chi classes are being held in autumn, summer and spring, and Parkour classes have been held in winter. The Mall is an easy and interesting walking environment with some fun activities to participate in.

Bunbury Street

Another important pedestrian street in Footscray is Bunbury Street. It is a wide and generous residential street, with mature street trees and links the central business area to the Maribyrnong River and the Footscray Arts Precinct.

Barkly/Hopkins Street

As a part of the Greening Footscray strategy (stage1), Council has seen the installation of 11 unique hand woven planter baskets planted out with olives. These planter baskets run from Moore to Donald Street. The planter baskets have been specifically designed to be transient greening structures which can be relocated when events are being held to close streets to formalise the public activity.

Albert & Droop Streets

Following on from the planter baskets in Barkly/Hopkins Street, Albert and Droop Streets (Stage 2) were recently fitted out with Bay Laurel Trees as the next stage of Greening Footscray. These streets now have a collection of single and triple tree clusters to reinforce the value of greener streets in central Footscray.

Grab a Pair of Walking Shoes and do the School Run….

Maribyrnong City Council is working with a number of local primary and secondary schools to reduce car trips and encourage more environmentally friendly and healthier ways of travelling to school, such as walking and cycling. In a pilot program for the municipality, schools are being helped to create School Travel Plans and to set targets for the amount of students they want to walk and cycle to school.

As part of this project we have taken to the streets to do our own Walking Audits around our schools, in fact we have completed four audits so far. We have identified all kinds of issues such as bumpy footpaths, unfriendly intersections and also some quiet streets which are great for getting to school. The issues have been raised with local council traffic engineers and also VicRoads.

Before                                                           After

Difficult to ride, impossible to scooter             A smooth path to school

Rethinking Safety
People often think that walking and cycling to school is more dangerous than driving. If fact, Australian Bureau of Statistics (2005) data shows children who died from injuries are more likely to have died in transport accidents, but most deaths involved the child being an occupant of a motor vehicle.

Rethinking Time Constraints
If you live within 2kms of the school, walking and cycling will often take only a little longer than driving, when you take into account getting the kids in the car, traffic and parking. If you live one kilometre from the school it is only a short 15-minute walk. Try swapping a car journey for walking once a week and see how good you feel when you get to school.

Real Benefits for Kids and Parents!
There are huge benefits for children who walk or cycle: they learn healthy exercise habits, practice the road rules, learn about their local area and arrive at school more awake and alert. With fewer cars around the school, it increases the safety for kids walking and cycling because they don’t have to worry about double parked cars and traffic chaos.

If you have to drive to school, think about parking a little further away from the school and walking instead, you still get benefits- even from a short walk.

For more information about the School Travel Planning Project, please contact Karen Kenny, School Travel Planning Officer on 9688 0573, or email Karen.Kenny@maribyrnong.vic.gov.au

For more information about Walking in Maribyrnong, please visit our website  

Australian Bureau of Statistics: Australian Social Trends: Mortality and Morbidity: Children's
Accidents and Injuries, 2005.