Melbourne rooftop goes green

A secret green rooftop garden is now blooming above Melbourne’s CBD, transforming the skyline with vibrant flowers and native grasses.

The City of Melbourne and the Victorian Government partnered to deliver the Green Our Rooftop project, located at 1 Treasury Place.

The green rooftop features low-maintenance, climate-resilient plants, including succulents, herbs, and native grasses. It also helps to cool the building, lower energy costs, and reduce stormwater runoff.

“Victoria was once known as the Garden State – now, we’re working to make Melbourne the Garden City,” Lord Mayor Nick Reece said.

Unused rooftops across Melbourne are a massively underutilised resource that have the potential to create new green space in the central city.

The project encourages the uptake of green rooftops across the city, providing business owners, developers, and industry with an example of how to design and build a green rooftop retrofit on an existing building.

The City of Melbourne also supports property owners to deliver new greening projects on private property with matched-funding grants through the Urban Forest Fund.

The garden above 1 Treasury Place in the CBD. Photos: Maria Vasileva. 

University of Melbourne researchers will monitor the garden’s research plots to better understand the best way to design and build low-cost, high-impact green rooftops.

Green rooftops are an important urban greening tool to help combat the effects of climate change, mitigate the urban heat island effect, reduce the risks of flood damage, and increase biodiversity.

Urban greening also supports Melbourne’s economy by lowering energy costs for businesses, organisations, and residents.

The Green Our Rooftop project was completed thanks to a joint commitment from the Victorian Government and City of Melbourne, with additional support from Melbourne Water.