Posted: 14 September
BioMelbourne Network joined with 17 institutions resident in the Parkville Biomedical Precinct to advocate for the redevelopment and reform of the infamous Haymarket Roundabout on Flemington Road.
The Parkville Biomedical Precinct is now a globally recognised innovation precinct and home to numerous medical research institutes, the University of Melbourne, University High School, and four major hospitals. It will also soon be host to Australia’s largest biotech company, a biotech incubator, the Australian Institute for Infectious Diseases, and the Parkville metro station.
All the new development plus the existing institutions are bringing rapid growth – generating jobs, economic development, and research outcomes. But they are also exponentially increasing the daily pedestrian, cyclist, motorist, and public transport movements into and across the Haymarket Roundabout. The BioMelbourne Network has added its voice to a lobby representing the thousands of patients, clinicians, researchers, employees, and visitors who interact daily with the roundabout – and we are seeking an urgent review of the design of the roundabout, to enhance pedestrian and cyclist safety as well as facilitate improved thoroughfare, allowing the free flow of movement among precinct tenants. Over and above that though, while the Parkville Biomedical Precinct is already world-class, we believe there is a real transformational opportunity to be had in the renovation and renewal of the roundabout. Geographical clusters of research, clinical, educational, and industrial facilities – where the free flow of people is enabled and encouraged – actively drive and support the exchange of ideas and create a powerful cross-functional knowledge ecosystem. Further, whilst already the gateway to Melbourne, we believe the opportunity exists to make the roundabout into an iconic centrepiece of the precinct; safe, globally recognisable, and synonymous with the Australian health and medical research excellence.
