Melville City Centre - Library and Cultural Centre

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 Council Plan for the Future 2024-2034. 
  
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-  MERGE Festival. 
  
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.

Further community engagement took place between Monday, 16 December 2024 and Friday, 28 February 2025. 

The City’s 2017 MERGE Festival was a direct community engagement on the future Library and Cultural Centre  development. The purpose of the festival was to immerse the community in what the Library and Cultural Centre could be, to open possibilities in a unique experience of community consultation on the site of the future precinct. 
 
There were two forms of consultation on the day: an online survey by Culture Counts and an in-person consultation on the possibilities of the future centre.  
 
Culture Counts recorded 5,600 visits to the festival with 296 survey responses. Creating Communities’ future possibilities engagement in person attracted 1,111 postcards received and 2,153 ideas generated by the participants. View the MERGE Festival Engagement Summary here.

Extensive community consultation in the 2022 Cultural Infrastructure Strategy reinforced the continuing need for a central cultural hub for the City of Melville that includes the City’s main library. 
 
During the development of this strategy, the City:

• Spoke with over 50 people from cultural groups,associations and organisations in the City of Melville.
• Received over 700 residents' comments on Melville’s current cultural infrastructure.
• Met with management from all the cultural facilities owned and run by City of Melville to discuss their ambitions for their centres.
• Held a youth workshop at the Willagee Library to discuss access and to better understand culture from a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) perspective.
• Held a workshop with members of the Chinese community in Bull Creek Library to better understand their needs.
• Consulted with Whadjuk Reference Group to better understand their needs in relation to cultural infrastructure.
• A community engagement survey was developed with the City’s Cultural Managers and the Community and Stakeholder Engagement team. The survey was conducted through the City’s Melville Talks platform and received 751 responses.

Exploration of the concepts and design, including outcomes, has included discussions with key Whadjuk Aboriginal representatives who provided input as part of the planning, concept design, functions, detailed design and landscaping discussions and workshops. This has been fundamental in ensuring the concept is grounded in First Nations people’s stories as our shared history and moving forward to truth-telling and reconciliation.

In 2025, the City, together with Christou Design Group, the project architects, undertook an extensive round of community engagement and co-design workshops with targeted community panels, internal stakeholders, and subject-matter experts to inform detailed design and technical requirements. 
 
Across late July to early September 2025, more than 20 workshops were held, with almost 300 participants including the Access Advisory Panel, Youth Steering Group, First Nations Reference Group, Children and Families workshops, Diversity and Seniors representatives, internal stakeholders and subject matter experts. This invaluable input is shaping design decisions to ensure the Library and Cultural Centre meets community expectations and delivers meaningful outcomes. This work forms part of a long-term engagement process that will continue throughout the project.

The budget for the Library and Cultural Centre is $60 million.  The City is receiving $15 million in external funding from the Federal Government through the Thriving Suburbs Program and a $2.27 million land exchange agreement contribution from Scentre Group. The City is also currently seeking funding from Lotterywest.  The remainder will be funded by the City.

While this is the largest investment the City has made in a facility to date, it’s not the largest in size, scale or when adjusted to today’s costs. We’ve carefully scoped this project to ensure it meets community needs while delivering long-term value.

We have established robust governance, clear milestones and disciplined financial controls to ensure the project is delivered on time and within budget. The project is guided by a detailed implementation plan with defined timelines, accountabilities and risk management processes. Progress is monitored regularly against key milestones and budget forecasts, with early identification and mitigation of any risks or cost pressures. We are also maintaining close oversight through regular quantity surveyor financial reporting and contractor performance management to ensure transparency, accountability and value for money at every stage.

The Civic Square Library will close in late 2026. An alternative pop-up library will be available within the City precinct while the Library and Cultural Centre is built.

An important related project is the redevelopment of Westfield Booragoon Shopping Centre, which will seamlessly connect with the Library and Cultural Centre. 
  
The approved development includes a shopping centre expansion, including additional retail and commercial tenancies, an outdoor dining and entertainment precinct, and additional parking. 
  
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. 
  
While the Library and Cultural Centre and Westfield Booragoon redevelopment will both bring vitality and vibrancy to the City of Melville, the Library and Cultural Centre project is not dependent on the Westfield project and is managed separately. The shopping centre redevelopment is a Westfield project.

The City of Melville’s future Library and Cultural Centre is moving forward as planned as a commitment to the City's cultural vitality, sense of place and belonging and unique cultural identity. The Library and Cultural Centre will not be affected by any updates to the Westfield Booragoon Shopping Centre redevelopment as these two projects are managed separately by different entities and are not dependent on each other.

The City of Melville is taking a lead in revitalising its city centre with this flagship project.

The City’s Council confirmed Christou Design Group as the architects for the project at the Ordinary Meeting of Council on Tuesday, 20 August 2024. 
  
The facility will sit across four levels with a total floor space of 5080 sqm. The new Library and Cultural Centre will retain the core services of the library, expanding to be the City’s main library, as well as additional services and facilities including the City’s municipal museum, exhibitions, creative, children‘s and youth, meeting and performance spaces and a cafe.  The facility will create space for increased events and programming, bringing together a convergence of a library, museum, arts and culture spaces in the one facility.

The Library and Cultural Centre will include the City’s central library, museum, exhibiton space and cultural space. It will include multipurpose creative spaces, customised children’s and youth spaces, multi-purpose function and performance space, and community meeting rooms, as well as a piazza and café.  The facility will connect with the City’s Main Hall and Yagan Mia Wireless Hill to create the Cultural Heart of our future Melville City Centre.