A water sensitive community

Fishermans Bend is Australia’s largest urban renewal project covering approximately 485 hectares and consisting of five precincts in the heart of Melbourne. 

It's expected that by 2050, Fishermans Bend will be home to approximately 80,000 residents and provide employment for up to 92,000 people including 12,000 university students.

The Fishermans Bend vision is for “a thriving place that is a leading example for environmental sustainability, liveability, connectivity, diversity and innovation”. We believe that water is pivotal to the design of this community and we're proposing an integrated water system, which leverages the entire water cycle, to achieve this vision. You can read more about the framework for Fishermans Bend here

By investing in this project, we'll help to create a water sensitive community that secures Melbourne’s liveability and sets a new benchmark in sustainable urban design.

Supplying recycled water and rainwater to 
Fishermans Bend

Some new apartments in Fishermans Bend have been built with separate pipes to deliver drinking water and recycled water. Recycled water is non-drinking water that will be delivered to toilets, to a tap to connect to a washing machine in the laundry, and garden spaces. It’s produced by treating the wastewater from homes and businesses to a high quality Class A standard and supplying it back to properties for reuse.  At Fishermans Bend, rainwater is captured off apartment building roofs, collected in a large tank and then supplied for use through the building’s recycled water pipes. If the rainwater tank is running low or is empty, we’ll supplement the supply with recycled water through these pipes. 

Recycled water will be available in Fishermans Bend once a local water recycling plant is built. Until then, we’re supplying drinking water through the recycled water pipe. 

You can learn more about water here.

How we measure water use

A meter on your building’s rainwater tank measures how much rainwater is used. We split this volume between each apartment and common area and subtract it from the total water used through the recycled water pipe. This way you won’t pay for any rainwater use on your bill.


Our plans for Fishermans Bend

We’ll design, construct and operate an integrated water system to deliver a reliable recycled water supply. The water system will use smart grid technology to maximise rainwater capture for reuse in properties, while mitigating localised flooding.

We’ll also build a treatment plant to mine the city’s sewage and treat it to class A recycled water standard. The precinct scale size of the plant means we can do this at a lower cost than smaller building-scale systems. It will also allow us to supply recycled water to properties and outdoors to create drought-resilient green spaces which enhance liveability.

Major community, commercial and environmental benefits

An integrated water system will make the most of locally available water, minimising water and sewerage loads, reducing flooding and transforming urban amenities. Outcomes include:


Supporting the vision of all our stakeholders

By enabling a more sustainable, resilient community with more efficient use of assets, an integrated water system fulfils the vision of numerous government and planning agencies, building owners and developers including:

Victorian Government, City of Port Phillip, City of Melbourne, Melbourne Water, City West Water, Environment Protection Authority Victoria.

A Green Star Communities rating

An integrated water system will help enable Fishermans Bend to attain a Green Star Communities rating, which benchmarks community development projects against a framework of sustainability principles.

It will help achieve credits for planning, design and delivery in the following areas:

  • Sustainability awareness
  • Adaption and resiliance
  • Ecological enhancement
  • Heat island effect
  • Greenhouse gas emissions
  • Potable water consumption
  • Stormwater
  • Waste management
  • Innovation

More information

Read the Fishermans Bend Framework for more information.

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