Its position ticks the boxes: central, next to the Yarra River, abutting a rare CBD park.
But for all the enthusiasm of previous years, the slice of the city known as Rebecca Walk – beneath the six-track Flinders Street railway bridge, along the riverside Batman Park between Spencer and King streets – never took off and locals warn it’s now unsafe and needs urgent attention.
Architect Rob Page, of Peddle Thorp Architects, beside the rail bridge at Rebecca Walk.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Fifteen years since development giant Far East Consortium installed dozens of red and orange commercial pods, only one is leased: a bicycle tour company at the King Street end. The remaining sheds carry remnants of past businesses that never made it: a kebab shop, a hairdresser, an eyebrow salon.
The dark, noisy undercroft of the low rail bridge has long been a magnet for graffiti, drug activity and rough sleeping.
Peddle Thorp Architects director Rob Page works in the nearby building at 525 Flinders Street and says staff don’t feel safe walking towards Batman Park. There have been confrontations in the building lobby and an employee’s car was stolen.
Page, who has been at Peddle Thorp for 18 months, has been drawing up ideas for revitalising the area and hopes to attract interest from the City of Melbourne and the private sector.
Some of the untenanted commercial pods at Rebecca Walk.Credit: Wayne Taylor
He wants improved lighting and better connections to the river and park. The greatest obstacle is the rail bridge, he says, and solutions to minimising its impact could include constructing a building in and around it, or developing sports grounds underneath.
Page says the Greenline’s shelving was particularly disappointing as the $316 million City of Melbourne project would have involved reinvigorating Batman Park. He still hopes some of the ideas put forward can be achieved.
The pocket provides crucial riverside open space for the apartment buildings popping up nearby, but the kiosks, although well-intentioned, don’t work because they look temporary and sporadically placed, he says.
“This part of the city has evolved to need a more permanent structural investment. It’s such a little gem for the city ... and we need to unlock it. It just shouldn’t feel unsafe.”
Far East Consortium executive director Craig Williams says the company still manages public car parking and the sheds, via a lease with the state government, but the railway and lack of sunlight have been a challenge for the area.
Williams says Far East would be willing to help finance a new, commercially viable plan.
“Would we like to see something better there? Yes,” Williams says. “If anyone could think of something clever to do there, I’m all ears.”
Property investor Joe Cairns is taking ownership of the office building at 525 Flinders Street in November after buying it for $33 million.
“I can see the value in it long term, it’s overlooking the Yarra … and you’ve got Southern Cross and Flinders Street Station up the road.”
Rebecca Walk faces Batman Park on the Yarra River.Credit: Wayne Taylor
Cairns is motivated to see the Rebecca Walk “dead zone” transformed and is willing to contribute financially with leadership at a local or state level.
“The area’s got so much potential, it’s just never been done properly,” he says.
Architect Rob Adams, who led urban design at the City of Melbourne for 40 years until he left the council in 2023, says building under the rail bridge is particularly tough.
An artist’s render of how the shelved Greenline project could have transformed the park by Rebecca Walk. Credit: City of Melbourne
He recalls in the ’80s looking at ways to reduce its impact by embedding it within the structure of a building – as the Sea Life Aquarium did in 1999.
“You might need to sacrifice some of [Batman Park] to create a high amenity, but the result is better parkland and a nicer edge,” Adams says.
“Generally viaducts have dark areas underneath that are not pleasant places to be.”
He says the commercial sheds have been on the site for too long, and it’s time to reimagine the precinct.
“Temporary containers are just not doing it,” he says. “The nature of it is no one has spent any money on it, nobody’s curated it and it’s therefore failing, and in failing, it becomes even more of a distraction.”
The Rebecca Walk and Batman Park area is on Crown land with a mix of responsibility arrangements, including management by City of Melbourne, Metro and Far East Consortium.
A spokeswoman for Metro, which is responsible for the bridge, says 4000 square metres of graffiti had been removed from the structure so far this year.
“The illegal graffiti on our train network is an ongoing frustration we share with the community,” she says.
Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Nick Reece says a building near the site was the council’s largest single graffiti removal project, and the council is in discussions with Metro Trains.
“Rebecca Walk is an area with enormous potential – but it’s falling well short of that,” he says.
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