‘Field Notes’ is a fortnightly column in which Regen Melbourne’s Lead Convenors provide on-the-ground updates and insights from their work and focus areas.

At the Sustainable Living Festival in late February, Regen Streets Lead Convenor Nina Sharpe was invited on a stroll through Braybrook – and asked to consider what a regenerated Ashley Street precinct could look like with people and nature at its core.

On a summer Sunday during peak Taylor Swift mania in Melbourne, another pocket of brilliance was emerging over on Ashley Street, Braybrook, in the city’s west.

The ‘Co Designing Our Streets’ workshop at the Sustainable Living Festival was an opener for an emerging partnership between social enterprise Green Collect, community organisations Bike West and Better Streets, City of Maribyrnong and Regen Melbourne, who together imagine a very different future for Ashley St. from what we see today.  

Community members were invited to meet at Tottenham Station where they were given an introduction to the street itself by Bike West member, Elena Pereyra, who provided some history and context before leading the group on a walk. As we walked, we got to know each other, shared our connection to place and our ambitions for the future. 

We lived the experience as pedestrians and observed the experience of others. We were told stories of a data collection efforts that highlighted how female cyclists cross at the pedestrian crossing instead of using road rules due to risk, and we witnessed a pedestrian on a walking frame risk her safety by crossing the road (stopping in the middle to let traffic pass!) to get to a bus stop (she was too far away from a safe crossing point).

Despite it being a Sunday morning, we saw the street in action.  

Our walk concluded at Green Collect, where we were welcomed by Sally Quinn, the organisation’s co-founder. We gathered in the lively seating space out the front of the offices, where office waste has been given a second life as bench seats (made from CDs and still-labelled video cases) and native plants created a cosy spot for people to sit. Sally described the impact this spot, which is more than just a nice place to sit, has had on the community. Since building it two years ago, damage to the adjoining bus shelter (a regular occurrence in the past) has completely ceased. It seems even the smallest, considered and respectful changes to a place can send a bold message to the community.  

We moved inside to pivot from the active walk to activating our minds. Participants were asked to record their experience of Ashley St. by reflecting on both the positive and negative features, materials and social conditions that were observed. It marked a point in time – one of no return – and was considered a time capsule that we can look back on from this day forward to measure how far we have come in implementing positive change. 

Together we noticed a lack of bike paths, an environment not conducive to walking and too-fast driving behaviours. We observed cracked paving, damaged fences and empty, run-down shops and noted the noise, exhaust smells and lack of greenery. But there were many positives to note too: people were walking and riding already and there is an existing bike path with potential for expansion. There were established trees, cared-for front yards and plenty of nature strips. A mix of residential and commercial spaces worked well alongside one another, there was an established trader village and a wonderful diversity of people. A great start for what could be. 

Two words were put to everyone to begin to make the change we want to see: imagine if.

Imagine if everything turned out okay. Imagine if Ashley St. truly represented the needs of the whole community. Imagine if this place could become an example of how we can start shift within the safe and just space of the doughnut. 

“Our youngest imaginer wished for more animals in general, with a specific request for dinosaurs and five-humped camels. What a joy to have this three-year-old imagination, and her contribution to the group.”

These two words provided an invitation to drop what we know as the current status quo to design the future we wish to live – for now and for generations to come. With a map and post-it notes, we painted a picture of what could be by showing the boulevard that connects Tottenham train station to Maribyrnong River, including the Borderland that draws a line through the middle and indicates the sacred boundary of Wurundjeri and Bunurong lands.  

Together we concocted a vision for Ashley St. to become a destination of choice and to imagine it as the most generous of streets. A fun commercial hub with thriving local business, social enterprise and a community that has equal access to both blue and green spaces in the vicinity.  

We imagined playgrounds, outdoor exercise equipment, water drinking stations and plenty of open space. We imagined a street where kids could safely move around and where transport would be accessible for all. We imagined more on-street commercial activity and for sections of strip shops to be connected.  

There was a great yearning for more green spaces as native landscapes, large trees, chirping birds and flowers all create a biodiversity corridor. A longing for cars to slow down to 40km p/h and conversion to a two-lane road with extra space utilised for walking and cycling.  

We discussed the need for a better connection between the river and our everyday activities, and for the waterway to be restored, rewilded and alive, and once again inhabited by dolphins as it was in the past. Our youngest imaginer wished for more animals in general, with a specific request for dinosaurs and five-humped camels. What a joy to have this three-year-old imagination contributing to the process.

Our imagining also invited some simple starting points: identifying a vacant industrial space that could be converted into a pop-up park, and highlighting an easement in front of Green Collect that could evolve into a pollinator corridor. As complex as this work is, it’s these smaller wins with clearer endpoints that start catalysing the change.  

We closed the morning by watching Together We Cycle, a film made in 2020 when the entire world was living through a pandemic. Offering a glimpse of a hopeful future, the film investigates the critical events that led to the revival of Dutch cycling culture which is now a symbol of the Netherlands. Despite what you might think, this was not a natural phenomenon but a conscious cultural shift driven by the people, who were determined not to let the future belong to the car. Of course there is not one simple explanation as to how this happened. There are many factors, events and circumstances that worked together – socially and politically – over the decades. For the Ashley St. audience, this film provided a living example of what happens when multi-layered stakeholders come together and commit to taking a stand and advocating for another way. In this case, it led to a city that now has a distributed transport network and the rest of the world looking enviously to the Netherlands, wondering how we can do the same.

The morning’s walk took us through the streets themselves, yes. But it also invited futures thinking and imagining, and a beautiful example of what could be thanks to our Dutch friends. Leaving their names and details to be part of what is next, participants took their hopes and ideas for this beautiful transformation home with them. Here we have the humble beginnings of a Regen Street – the rest of the magic is soon to come. 

If you live in the west or feel connected to what will be for Ashley St. in some way, please do reach out to me at nina@regen.melbourne  

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