Planning
From empty towers to a true CAD: can adaptive reuse reshape the CBD?
As the state government reviews long-criticised CBD developer incentives, a powerful new data tool from Plus Studio could help reveal which underused towers are ready to shift Melbourne from a Central Business District to a true Central Activity District (CAD).
Latest
RISING returns for another Melbourne winter arts extravaganza
Melbourne’s monster RISING Festival kicks off on May 27, with more than 100 events featuring 376 artists, seven world premieres and 11 Australian premieres over its two-week run until June 8.
Read More
How the Arslans turned gozleme into a QVM staple
Ekrem Arslan and his wife Asiye were the first in Melbourne to sell gozleme, he says. Nearly a quarter of a century on, his happy family market business has expanded but remains largely unchanged.
Read More
Mekong owner’s scholarship fund marks 20 years and opens 2026 applications
A Swanston St restaurant owner who arrived in Australia with little more than determination has spent the past two decades quietly building one of Melbourne’s most enduring scholarship programs.
Read More
Penny Wong visits Chinatown as MCBA builds links between government, business and community
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has paid a visit to Melbourne’s Chinatown for a community and industry breakfast dialogue, with the event highlighting the growing role the precinct and its business leaders are playing in broader conversations about multiculturalism, trade, education and civic life.
Read More
Council approves amended Russell St function centre, despite 36 objections
The City of Melbourne has backed an amended permit for the Space Hotel on Russell St, approving changes to a long-running proposal for a rooftop function centre after finding the revised scheme would deliver better heritage and amenity outcomes.
Read More
Is your high-rise building safe and secure?
For residents living in Melbourne’s CBD high-rise apartments, the building you call home is far more than four walls and a roof.
Read More
Reminders of wartime looms over Princes Bridge
In the early 1940s in Melbourne, as war ravages overseas, life in the city carries on as normal at the corner of Princes Bridge and Flinders St.
Read More
Cohealth can no longer outrun the questions
The immediate crisis around cohealth’s inner-city clinics may have been delayed by another $1.5 million in Commonwealth funding, but the broader crisis facing the organisation is only deepening.
Read More
Australia tightens the screws on international students
One in three international students applying to an Australian university was rejected in February 2026. That 32.5 per cent refusal rate is the highest monthly figure recorded in 21 years of tracking data, and it is no accident.
Read More
Spencer Street shutdown
If you can’t stand the heat …
Download the Latest Edition