A New Secret Garden Has Opened on a Melbourne CBD Rooftop to Encourage More Green Spaces Around the City
East Melbourne's Treasure Theatre building is now home to a rooftop garden and green space case-study.
Melbourne's skyline is now a little bit greener, following the launch of a new rooftop garden set atop East Melbourne's Treasure Theatre building. The design is a case study for the Green Our Rooftop project, which aims to drastically increase the green infrastructure in our city by 2050.
A $2.5 million partnership between the City of Melbourne, the Victorian Government and Melbourne Water, the Treasury Place proof-of-concept hopes to inspire developers, businesses and private owners alike to adopt green spaces citywide.
The rooftop garden was designed with low-maintenance, hard-to-kill and climate-resilient plants in mind; think succulents, herbs and native grasses. The space also provides a haven for bees, birds and other urban fauna, as well as reduces energy costs by cooling the building and minimising stormwater runoff.
The Green Our Rooftop project highlights the potential of Melbourne's unused rooftops to transform the cityscape by showcasing a retrofit design on an existing building. The program also plans to attract more green spaces on private properties, with owners encouraged to apply for City of Melbourne's matched-funding grants via the Urban Forest Fund.
Following the announcement of the project in May 2019, the rooftop underwent several years of planning, research and design before launching in February 2025. As part of the planning, the government worked with industry practitioners and researchers to undergo a thorough assessment of planting mixes, green roof systems, planting installation methods and maintenance inputs.
The Treasury Place namesake will be monitored by University of Melbourne researchers, in order to form a better understanding of the most effective methods for designing and building cost-effective, impactful green rooftops going forward.
"With massive greening and cooling potential, we hope the Green Our Rooftop project will lay the groundwork for retrofitting existing buildings and integrating green roofs into new developments – following the success seen in cities like New York, Singapore and Munich," says Lord Mayor Nick Reece.
The Green Our Rooftop garden is now open at 1 Treasury Place, East Melbourne. For more information, visit the City of Melbourne website.
Images: City of Melbourne.
