Innovative sector

Royal Botanical Gardens Cranbourne. Innovation is a key focus of the quarrying industry and was also a major part of the Helping Victoria Grow: Extractive Resources Strategy. The work that was undertaken as part of the strategy sought to promote what can be achieved after quarrying ends.

Progressive rehabilitation and innovative planning can deliver assets which benefit the community for generations to come.

Strategy deliverables include The New Lives of Old Quarries booklet as well as the Quarry Transformation Grants Project which are both outlined in more detail below.

The New Lives of Old Quarries: innovative development after quarrying ceases

What happens when a quarry comes to the end of its working life?

This is a question that every quarry and the community surrounding them needs to consider. In Victoria, some of our most well-known public spaces sit on the sites of the quarries that were used to build our state.

Fitzroy Gardens in central Melbourne was one source of the sand and stone used for our earliest buildings. Previously a blue stone quarry, Fitzroy Gardens is now an impressive example of Victorian-era garden design. It attracts an estimated two million visitors each year and is just one of the old quarries that has been repurposed for uses that benefit our community.

For more stories of repurposed quarry land, download The New Lives of Old Quarries booklet below.

The New Lives of Old Quarries: innovative development after quarrying ceases (PDF, 15.4 MB)

The New Lives of Old Quarries: innovative development after quarrying ceases accessible (WORD, 72.2 KB)

Quarry Transformation Grants: supporting a positive legacy for quarries

The Victorian Government is committed to supporting industry in planning for and implementing innovative end land uses for quarries that are beneficial to the local community.

The Extractive Resources Strategy committed to:

investigating the feasibility of different legacy opportunities for quarries
developing innovative post-quarrying end land use for quarries.

Four grants were awarded to applicants for quarry site rehabilitation ideas that go beyond the safe and stable and sustainable minimum requirements under the Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Act 1990.

Innovative ideas for quarry end land use include projects and initiatives that:

provide ongoing local community access and critical local services (e.g. power generation, water management)
generate employment opportunities (e.g. residential construction)
have a direct and tangible positive impact on surrounding land and property values
improve the overall liveability of an area (e.g. open space/recreation).

The Grant winners were assessed against the following criteria:

design proposal
design innovation
design impact
net benefit.

Grants awarded

Company	Proposal title	Funding	Overview of quarry	What the funds delivered
These Are The Projects We Do Together Pty Ltd	The Quarry International Summer Camp – Beech Forest	$197,000	Quarry in rehabilitation stage since 2014	To invest and accelerate the development of the Quarry International Summer Camp. The design of the entire facility will include a raised rain-forest gully walk, a contour-path walk tracing the inside of the quarry pit, a large swimming hole, as well as a 150-seat open-air Amphitheatre constructed of quarry stone and reclaimed red brick.
Boral Resources	Wollert Quarry End Use Masterplan	$185,000	Operating quarry	The preparation of a detailed landscape masterplan for the site to integrate into the proposed Quarry Hills Precinct Structure Plan. This will enable comparison of the existing rehabilitation approval (baseline option) and the proposed alternative expansion option scenarios.
Boral Resources	Montrose Quarry - End Use Feasibility Assessment	$125,000	Operating quarry	To investigate whether the best end land use for this site is either a water storage facility or a flora/fauna habitat. The includes financial feasibility of next-uses by undertaking an economic feasibility study (including a floating solar system) and preparation of a Landscape Masterplan.
Burdett Sands Pty Ltd	Boggy Creek Biodiversity Corridor	$50,000	Operating quarry	To engage a suitable consultant to develop a concept design for the transformation of the Boggy Creek environs, an existing Melbourne water drainage easement that intersects the site, into a biodiversity corridor.