Return to Royal Park

The City of Melbourne and Victorian Government have been working to reinstate parkland on the site of the former Royal Children’s Hospital in Royal Park. The parkland creates a gateway to Royal Park.

The community contributed to the design of the parkland through an extensive community engagement process where they expressed their ideas and vision for the site.

The reinstated parkland reflects the broader landscape of Royal Park with gullies, grasslands and woodlands.

The features of the park, such as plants and play elements, represent the seven Wurundjeri seasons, as a way to encourage discovery and understanding of Indigenous Melbourne.

Features of the parkland include:

open grassy lawns
natural vegetation
a nature-based play space
seating
drink fountains
picnic tables
BBQs

networks of paths invite you to explore further into Royal Park.
The accessible, nature-based play space includes a climbing forest, a rocky escarpment with slides, swings and water play elements.

This is a new and growing landscape. Great attention has been given to preparing optimum conditions for planting. Plants and shrubs have been chosen with an emphasis on ensuring a healthy and robust landscape that may be enjoyed by many generations of park users to come.

The parkland will open in early March 2015.

With the ideas of more than 150 children incorporated into its design, it is no wonder Melbourne’s newest park is already getting a thumbs up from children.

“We went to over 150 children and young people to ask them what makes a park work,” said Lord Mayor Robert Doyle.

The new parkland, which cost more than $5 million dollars to create, boasts more than 1100 trees, 17,500 plants, shrubs and grassland.

A two-storey coral reef aquarium and a meerkat enclosure are also part of the attraction.

Royal Park is the biggest in Melbourne, sitting just five kilometres from both Fitzroy Gardens and the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews today declared the park open for business, and it is already proving a hit with the kids.

“This will be a space of joy, wonderment and learning,” he said.

It is the final chapter in the Royal Children’s Hospital’s billion dollar redevelopment, which began in 2005.