Series
Go west
In this special series, The Age focuses on Melbourne’s western suburbs to see how life could improve in Australia’s fastest-growing region.
For decades, Labor has owned Melbourne’s west. A new party plans to change that
Melburnians who feel left behind and taken for granted are coming together to try to break Labor’s stronghold on once-safe seats.
- Annika Smethurst
New mental health clinic opens in western Melbourne as demand surges
The 21-bed clinic has replaced a private hospital which entered voluntary administration last year after just 14 months of operation.
- Lachlan Abbott
This is the population boom we’re not talking about – but should be
The population of Melbourne’s west is expected to almost double to 1.8 million people by 2050. That’s more than two-thirds the size of Brisbane.
- Patrick Elligett
Infrastructure Victoria objects to government delay on key rail upgrade for the west
Plans to extend the Metro network to Melton should be accelerated, the state’s infrastructure adviser says, but the state government has said it will wait until after 2030.
- Patrick Hatch and Adam Carey
- Exclusive
From stolen cars to drugs and high-speed pursuits: A night on patrol in Melbourne’s criminal heartland
In the epicentre of Melbourne’s gang crisis, the police radio never stops.
- Marta Pascual Juanola
Isolated suburb’s fed-up residents go bush bashing to catch the train
Residents of Thornhill Park are shunning the council’s posted detour during long-term roadworks, and taking an off-road shortcut instead.
- Adam Carey
4000 homes are going begging in this suburb as developers sit on sites
The inner west is close to the city, has a new hospital and should be thriving. One issue is crippling it.
- Adam Carey and Patrick Hatch
Exhaustive reporting prompts mass venting from minister
Left fuming by this masthead’s reporting of evidence suggesting the West Gate Tunnel’s air stacks may be more style than substance, Melissa Horne let off some steam of her own.
- Grant McArthur, Kishor Napier-Raman and Gemma Grant
‘A metropolis of multiple cities’: The radical plan to fix the west’s brain drain
Planning experts say Sunshine should be Melbourne’s second CBD, while satellite cities in the outer west would allow western suburbs residents to work close to home.
- Sophie Aubrey and Gemma Grant
- Exclusive
Western suburbs rail boost pushed back to 2030s and beyond
Electrification of the Melton line will not begin until the Sunshine Superhub is built, with upgrades to the booming Wyndham Vale corridor delayed even further.
- Adam Carey, Chip Le Grand, Gemma Grant and Patrick Hatch
These ‘satellite cities’ could reshape Melbourne. Locals are pushing for jobs over housing
The outer west has absorbed more of Melbourne’s growing population than any other area. Investing in local jobs would transform the booming region.
- Adam Carey
- Exclusive
‘Segregated’ city: The west alone can’t shoulder housing boom, minister warns
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil says wealthier inner and middle suburbs must accept new housing as Wyndham, Melton and Brimbank have done the “heavy lifting”.
- Annika Smethurst
The daring vision for a second CBD in Melbourne’s west
The idea is not so far-fetched, with only a few key pieces needed to unlock huge opportunities.
- Sophie Aubrey and Patrick Hatch
- Exclusive
A second Metro Tunnel would have changed life in the west. Then the SRL came along
A rail tunnel to the CBD designed to ease commuter crush in the west and north-east, due to open as early as 2030, was shelved in favour of the Suburban Rail Loop.
- Patrick Hatch
- Exclusive
‘Like a bathroom exhaust fan’: West Gate Tunnel air stacks leave locals exposed to noxious fumes
Residents of suburbs around the West Gate Tunnel will breathe in truck pollution as twin ventilation stacks feature sleek design but no filters.
- Sophie Aubrey
- Editorial
Reimagining the west and the idea of Melbourne
The explosion in population growth in Melbourne’s west, coupled with massive underinvestment, has created challenges that need urgent attention.
- The Age's View
High-rises are coming to the inner west, but locals warn this eyesore needs to be fixed first
Residents say more investment is needed in West Footscray, Middle Footscray and Tottenham if they are to become the activity centres the government envisions.
- Lachlan Abbott
- Exclusive
The Melbourne suburbs where security guards are forced to carry guns
Security guards patrolling housing estates in the booming outer west at night will soon be armed as burglaries, carjackings and machete attacks soar.
- Marta Pascual Juanola
A sliding-doors moment changed Manny’s life. Now he wants to help others just like him
Emmanuel “Manny” Malou wants to use the clout afforded by his professional basketball career to show disadvantaged teenagers in Melbourne’s west a positive way forward.
- Marta Pascual Juanola
- Exclusive
Voices group eyes Melbourne’s inner west in first tilt at Labor seats
The community-backed Voices of the Inner West will field independent candidates at the state election as it tries to break Labor’s grip on the area.
- Annika Smethurst
It’s art, but not as you know it: Teens lead strangers in night-walking tour of Werribee
When night falls, tour the unexpected in Werribee in this Melbourne Fringe Festival event created by teenagers.
- Kerrie O'Brien
The key rail line that won’t be stopping at $4b Sunshine superhub
The Sunshine station decision has left commuters from the north-east without easy access to the Metro Tunnel and future airport rail link.
- Patrick Hatch
- Opinion
Why we need the Suburban Rail Loop in the west
Too many residents have to commute out of the region to work, putting huge pressure on the inadequate transport infrastructure.
- Steve Bracks and Peter Dawkins
This prime inner-city site could house 6000 families, but it’s a toxic mess
A former ammunition factory site on a riverside slice of Melbourne’s inner west is riddled with chemicals almost two decades after plans were made for a new suburb.
- Sophie Aubrey
Melbourne’s east may be leafy, but these parts of the west are greener
Some of the western suburbs are greener than their counterparts on the other side of Melbourne, but experts warn that their fragile native grassland needs to be protected from housing developments.
- Rachael Dexter
- Exclusive
A lifesaving service in this growing suburb has asked GPs to send patients elsewhere
Headspace Werribee can’t take any more patients on treatment plans, as Melbourne’s west grapples with a shortage of mental health professionals.
- Henrietta Cook and Broede Carmody
Why Sara had to wait months for her baby’s health check in the booming west
Big hospitals are being built in the western suburbs, but wrap-around health services are lacking, while people living further west wait longer for ambulances or in emergency departments.
- Broede Carmody and Henrietta Cook
Car, two trains and a bus: Schoolgirl’s gruelling 15-hour weekly commute to class
Many families in Melbourne’s west place a high premium on their children’s education. For some students, that can mean a daily trek to the other side of town.
- Bridie Smith
- Exclusive
Truck-busting, job-boosting freight hub for west at risk from rail line closure
The impending removal of a key rail freight corridor at Sunshine has thrown into doubt a massive logistics hub that was predicted to take 125,000 trucks off roads in Melbourne’s west.
- Patrick Hatch
- Opinion
Melbourne’s growth suburbs are a disaster, but one place offers hope
Too many of Melbourne’s greenfields suburbs are unliveable. But an emerging suburb has judiciously dodged many of the worst planning failures.
- Adam Carey
The residential road set to become a highway for toll-dodging trucks
Residents want a truck curfew on Williamstown Road, which thousands of trucks a day are expected to use from later this year to avoid costly West Gate Tunnel tolls.
- Sophie Aubrey
Melbourne’s west feels neglected by Labor, but this is why the Liberals can’t break the red wall
In the western suburbs, Labor MPs are having to work harder than ever and independents are on the rise.
- Daniella White
‘Completely destroyed’: Melton joins fight against renewable power towers on ancient volcano site
Melton council and businesses oppose a plan to build 70-metre tall, high-voltage towers as part of a transmission line through a green wedge zone in Melbourne’s outer west.
- Adam Carey
- Exclusive
How a quiet rail closure could swamp western suburbs with trucks
The move in Melbourne’s west is likely to push thousands of tonnes of goods onto trucks, worsening road congestion and pollution.
- Patrick Hatch and Kieran Rooney
These students’ superpower guarantees VCE success, but the western suburbs need more schools
In a special series on Melbourne’s west, we reveal the top VCE schools in the booming region where many students have fewer choices and face long commutes.
- Noel Towell and Craig Butt
Young tradies like Dylan and western suburbs professionals have this challenge in common
In a special series on Melbourne’s west, The Age explores how to attract high-skilled jobs, get more youths into work and improve transport links.
- Adam Carey and Sophie Aubrey
Other series
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- 5 stories