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Melville City Centre - Library and Cultural Centre

Melville City Centre

We have a bold vision of a future Melville City Centre that will see our current Civic Square Library site transformed into an exciting new library and cultural centre.

The future Melville City Centre will be a place for people to gather and connect, experience culture, arts, events, entertainment and excellent dining, and will be a place to enjoy and celebrate with friends and family.

With the Westfield Booragoon Shopping Centre expansion now approved by the WA Planning Commission, we are working with Scentre Group to make our vision for the future Melville City Centre a reality.

Our Cultural Heart

The proposed library and cultural centre, will become the Cultural Heart of our future Melville City centre, responding to our community’s aspirations as identified in our Strategic Community Plan: People, Places, and Participation 2016-2020. The new Centre will contribute significantly to our City's cultural vitality, giving our community a stronger sense of place and belonging and a cultural identity that will be unique to Melville.

The Melville City Centre includes Westfield Booragoon Shopping Centre, the City’s Civic Centre and the surrounding area bordered by Riseley, Almondbury, Marmion and Davy Streets in Booragoon, which will grow into a mixed-use centre with opportunities for people to visit, live and work in.

With an expansion of the Westfield Booragoon Shopping Centre now approved by the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC), this investment will provide encouragement for a range of commercial, retail, community and residential uses on surrounding land, adding to the attraction and range of community services in the area.
 
A focal point of the Melville City Centre will be a vibrant high street and town square, linking the retail and entertainment precincts to the cultural and civic spaces and enhancing integration with Yagan Mia Wireless Hill. The centre will be a place for people to gather and connect, experience culture, arts, events, entertainment and excellent dining, and will be a place to enjoy and celebrate with friends and family.

The plan to build the new library and cultural centre will be known as the Cultural Heart Project and will result in exceptional learning and creative spaces for City residents and the wider community of Perth to come and enjoy, experience and learn in.

The City has been developing the Cultural Heart concept after it was identified in the Culture Plan – Creative Melville 2018-2022 which was informed by a unique community consultation event-  2017 MERGE Festival - which over 16,000 people experienced.

The Cultural Heart Project will deliver a new library and cultural centre that will build on connections with existing libraries, galleries, museums and performance sites across the City and will include an interactive and expanded library, gallery, museum, performance, development, and flexible creative spaces.
 
The bold and ambitious project will increase Melville’s cultural capacity and identity, providing improved access for all to the latest resources, and new ways to interact with and discover the breadth of our arts programming, events and experiences.
 
The City’s Cultural Infrastructure Strategy, which was endorsed by Council in November 2022 following input from the community, recommends the new library and cultural space in the Melville City Centre include flexible spaces for artmaking, performance and general community use.

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The library and cultural centre

The City has a long term vision to support cultural vitality through an investment in Arts, Culture, History, Literature and Learning across our City.

The future library and cultural centre is a significant project for the Melville community and an important investment in their wellbeing.

The cultural centre will be a public space that will offers strong social benefits including a sense of connection and belonging, and community new opportunities to connect and engage in one central space.A space that is safe and trusted, vibrant, accessible,  inspiring and enriching.

The facility will specifically address many of the City’s Corporate Plan and Strategic Community Plan objectives.

The library and cultural centre will form part of the Melville City Centre area

  • To develop an iconic facility with its own identity
  • To provide a place for people within a mixed use precinct of retail commercial and residential
  • To have active street frontages and mirror the precinct with extended hours
Merge Festival Lights

Westfield Booragoon

An important project related to the future Melville City Centre is the redevelopment of Westfield Booragoon Shopping Centre, which will seamlessly connect with the future library and cultural centre.

The City welcomed a major milestone for the expansion of the Westfield Booragoon Shopping Centre, after the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) approved the development plans on Thursday, 9 February 2023.

The approved development includes a shopping centre expansion, including additional retail and commercial tenancies, an outdoor dining and entertainment precinct, and additional parking.

The development approval will allow the City to continue its plans to invest in the community’s cultural vitality through the Cultural Heart Project, which will result in a new library and cultural centre in the Melville City Centre.

Community consultation

In 2017, more than 16,000 people came along to our MERGE festival, a family-friendly festival of possibilities which marked the start of extensive engagement on the new Melville City Centre.

The community generated more than 2,100 ideas about what they would like to see in the future City Centre, with the proposed library and cultural centre becoming a key catalyst in our cultural plan, Creative Melville 2018-2022.

Merge Festival
  • MERGE was an innovative engagement exercise where the City Centre precinct was turned into a festival of possibilities.
  • We asked residents and visitors what they would like to see themselves doing in the future space.
  • The Festival allowed people to expand their thinking to what could be possible in a future City Centre and generate more ideas.
  • There were over 16,000 attendees who experienced and re-imagined the space.
  • The Festival questioned existing norms by pushing the traditional library outside, converting the existing library building into an up late Jazz Bar, converging the arts, museums and library into a festival that allowed our community to dream about what would be possible in a future space.
  • Over 2,100 community ideas were generated on the day.

FAQ's

When will construction works for the new library and cultural centre begin?

An important project related to the future Melville City Centre is the redevelopment of Westfield Booragoon shopping centre, which will seamlessly connect with the future library and cultural centre. Following the WA Planning Commission’s approval of the Westfield Booragoon Shopping Centre expansion, we will work with Scentre Group to make our vision for the future Melville City Centre a reality.

Will I have to find another library during redevelopment of the site?

A temporary library is planned to open in the foyer of the City of Melville Civic Centre.  The temporary library is anticipated to provide a boutique collection of books, magazines, newspapers and audio.  Returns and checkout facilities, some reading/study spaces, public computers and WIFI will also be available.  With planning and design underway, final services and operating hours will be confirmed at a later date.

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