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<\/p>\nBut cabinet papers from August 1990 \u2013 one month before Melbourne lost the bid to Atlanta \u2013 show there was deep division within the government.<\/p>\n
In a scathing internal briefing from August 3, 1990, the Department of the Premier and Cabinet warned that creating the authority was \u201cirresponsible in the current economic climate\u201d and would fuel unrealistic development expectations.<\/p>\n
John Hartigan, of the department\u2019s development branch, wrote: \u201cThe government is faced with competing priorities for capital funds for new initiatives, such as infrastructure in the 28 outer suburban growth areas, and will clearly be struggling to meet much publicised capital commitments such as a new museum and library.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow one can justify raising expectations concerning a new massive property project like Docklands in the midst of possibly the largest real estate slump in recent history is beyond this department\u2019s comprehension.\u201d<\/p>\n
The documents reveal that many within the department viewed the legislation as a \u201cbureaucratic agenda\u201d that used the Olympic bid as a convenient excuse for urgency.<\/p>\n
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A map of an early-1990s proposal for Docklands \u2013 including a university and casino.Credit: Public Record Office of Victoria<\/p>\n
Hartigan also raised concerns about announcing the authority before the International Olympic Committee\u2019s decision, warning it would \u201cseriously damage\u201d the bid by sparking controversy over its \u201cill-defined and confused\u201d powers.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the government proceeded with the authority, but it was formed after the bid was lost to Atlanta.<\/p>\n
A new vision<\/p>\n
While credit for converting the derelict industrial site into Docklands has rightly been credited to former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett, documents show planning was already well progressed in the dying years of the Labor government.<\/p>\n
Cabinet papers from 1991 and 1992 pull back the curtain on a forgotten version of future Melbourne: a high-tech city powered by a state-of-the-art optical fibre ring and a global \u201cteleport\u201d satellite hub. The plan was designed to lure world-leading research in everything from new medicines to transport.<\/p>\n
The preferred plan set out in 1992 planning documents argued Docklands should be a \u201clow-rise environment\u201d with relatively few buildings above 12 storeys.<\/p>\n
Housing should be medium density, and two or three-storey structures should predominate in places where a pedestrian character was sought, the documents said.<\/p>\n
The Docklands Authority also proposed at least 10 per cent of housing should be public, and that at least half of all residential development be priced below $250,000 (in 1992 dollars).<\/p>\n
Under this plan, what is now Marvel Stadium would have been a mixture of residential and office buildings.<\/p>\n
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Central Pier, pictured here in 2022, was among locations considered for a casino.Credit: Jason South<\/p>\n
At the heart of the Docklands vision was a 24-hectare education and research precinct. A 1990 proposal suggested a \u201cDocklands campus\u201d shared by Victoria\u2019s universities, located between Victoria Dock North and Moonee Ponds Creek \u2013 near what is now New Quay Promenade.<\/p>\n
By 1992, the plans had shifted toward a postgraduate campus or an international institution.<\/p>\n
Planners also fought to locate the planned Melbourne casino in Docklands, arguing the site had the \u201cgreatest capacity to cater for the traffic generated by a major open casino\u201d compared with any city centre location.<\/p>\n
A number of areas were proposed, including the Spencer Street rail yards, along the Yarra River, at North Wharf, or at Central Pier.<\/p>\n
Transport was equally ambitious, with planners proposing a \u201crapid transit link\u201d to Tullamarine Airport and insisting all work at Spencer Street Station accommodate a future \u201cvery fast train\u201d terminal. Both proposals remain unfulfilled more than three decades later.<\/p>\n
A $245 million tunnel was also discussed as an alternative to what would become the Bolte Bridge, built by the Kennett government, specifically to allow cruise ships to access the inner docks.<\/p>\n
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The construction of Docklands Stadium – originally slated to be a residential and office precinct. Credit: Julian Kingma<\/p>\n
The market takes over<\/p>\n
The dire state of Victoria\u2019s finances \u2013 marked by the collapse of the Pyramid Building Society and the forced sale of the State Bank of Victoria \u2013 coupled with the Kirner government\u2019s defeat in 1992, ensured these ambitious plans never left the drawing board.<\/p>\n
Warnings from the Treasury at the time state that installing the basic infrastructure required to kick-start the development would have cost the taxpayer at least $300 million over six years. When Kennett took office in late 1992, he brought a different philosophy to the waterfront, imagining Docklands as a market-driven development that required no government subsidy.<\/p>\n
To make the massive undertaking commercially viable for the private sector, the site was carved into seven large precincts and sold to major developers.<\/p>\n
The economic constraints first identified by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet in 1990 would ultimately dictate the suburb\u2019s fate. The Labor vision of low-rise housing, public quotas and educational hubs remained on paper, replaced by the high-density towers and private investment-driven planning that would come to define the Docklands of today.<\/p>\n