Just off the Melton Highway, a clumsily placed electronic road sign marks the entrance to Hillside’s newest development. The Banchory Grove Shopping Centre finally, officially opened earlier this year. The project, a 10,200 sq m full-scale supermarket and a series of specialty stores, was first proposed back in 2009, but has taken this long to come to fruition.

In Melbourne’s west, housing demand has consistently outpaced the development of community facilities. While some delay is inevitable, it has become a troubling pattern.

Travis Conway, Acting Director of City Futures at Melton City Council, says the new development provides long-standing residents of Banchory Grove services that they can benefit from, and provides an alternative to the nearest large mall, Watergardens. Watergardens Shopping Centre has been the subject of frustration from locals who struggle to find parking at the centre, which became more of a problem when parking at the nearby Watergardens station was restricted from May to September this year. Some residents took to Reddit to complain of a lack of parking, with some saying they have to park up to 2km away from shops.

The centre’s location was considered as part of the ‘City of Melton Retail and Activity Centres Strategy’, Conway tells upstart.

“This centre has a different role and function to that of Watergardens. This centre is more of a ‘local’ centre, whereas Watergardens is larger and draws on a much larger residential catchment.”

On community Facebook pages, many residents praised the Banchory Grove centre as a “welcome addition” and “fantastic news for Hillside.” However, not all feedback is positive, there are several concerns around the centre’s accessibility and the delay from planning to the finished product. Emily Vella, a long-time Sydenham local, has frequented its local shopping centres for years. She says the traffic surrounding Watergardens Shopping Centre is “horrendous” and welcomes the new centre.

“Banchory Grove, in comparison to Watergardens is a breath of fresh air,” she tells upstart. “Even though I live walking distance to Watergardens, driving there to do my grocery shopping is the same amount of time to drive to Banchory Grove.”

She also says the convenience of readily available parking and shorter lines at the checkouts is something she now looks forward to on her weekly shop.

Sydenham local Susan Malley has seen her suburb drastically change over the nearly 20 years she has called the west of Melbourne home. Some changes she noted were the level crossing removal in 2018, which better allowed people from surrounding suburbs to access Sydenham and the expansion of the Watergardens station, which equally brought more people to the region. Malley tries to steer clear of the new hustle and bustle any way she can, opting for the Banchory Grove shopping centre as a way to avoid busier local centres.

“It’s probably further to travel, but because it’s quieter and has good parking, I prefer to go there to get groceries,” she tells upstart.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that seven of the largest suburbs by population in Australia are located in the west of Melbourne. These fast-growing suburbs are filling with high-density housing, but infrastructure simply can’t keep up. Mt Atkinson, Truganina and Tarneit are all areas within the west that have been promised facilities that are yet to be fulfilled. Residents are often forced to travel to more established suburbs for simple things like groceries.

Urban planning expert Stephen Glackin from Swinburne University says the delay in infrastructure stems from low population density in new suburbs, which takes time to build.

“Developers generally don’t have to put anything except houses in, sometimes parkland,” he tells upstart. “Councils can mandate more if it’s a really big build. But most greenfield doesn’t achieve that.”In the case of Banchory Grove, residents couldn’t afford to wait for the council to mandate the build. As a result, they have built their lives around the facilities accessible to them. Centres like Watergardens and Woodgrove are having to deal with this influx of people.

Conway sees the centre as “providing more options and convenience” for residents in Hillside and the surrounding area.

Seventeen years after the initial proposal, Banchory Grove has finally opened, in a region where infrastructure has struggled to keep up with its population growth. This should serve as a message to councils to stop allowing developers to prioritise high density housing over residential amenities.

However, Stephen Glackin speculates the issue will remain for years to come as a result of homeowners wanting to buy affordable land.

“Sprawl is continuing in low amenity areas and the local services will not catch up for some time,” he says.

Article: Obiora Eze is a second-year media and communications student majoring in creative and professional writing. You can follow him on X at @obiora_ezee.

Photo: by author