Parks Victoria is currently master planning three new regional parks for Melbourne – Merri Creek Parklands, Toolern Creek Regional Park and Werribee River Regional Park. The first stage of each of the parks will open in mid 2010.

Parks are a fundamental part of our way of life. They give us environments in which to ride our bikes, play , come together with family and friends and take time out and enjoy nature. Parks create important places to connect with the broader community. Importantly, they also provide a home for a diverse range of flora and fauna including many rare and endangered species.

Melbourne's urban park system has been developed as a network of interconnected open spaces to ensure that as a broader community, Melburnians are connected to one-another and to the natural world. This world class park system has been achieved through the foresight and careful planning of generations of Melburnians, starting with the 1929 Plan for Melbourne which planned a series of park corridors that we are still adding to today.

Parks and open spaces are the foundation of urban liveability, providing social, ecological and economic benefits that are essential to the healthy functioning of urban communities.

In recognition of the importance of urban parks Parks Victoria coordinated the preparation of Linking People and Spaces 2002, a strategy that provides a 20-year vision for Melbourne’s open space network. In 2009 the strategy will be updated to reflect the new challenges facing Melbourne’s park network – climate change, increasing population, and increasing financial pressures on communities.

The 2002 strategy identified an inequity in access to urban parks in Melbourne’s west, north and south-east. Based on these findings the State Government, through the Melbourne 2030 plan , identified the need for six new metropolitan parks. Land has been identified for three new parks and sites are being investigated for a further three.

In May 2006 Great Parks for a Liveable City was announced with the Government committing $10.43 million to the planning and establishment of the first three new metropolitan parks in the growth corridors of Melbourne’s west and north – Merri Creek Parklands (Campbellfield/Thomastown), Toolern Creek Regional Park (Melton) and Werribee River Regional Park (Werribee). The first stages of each of the parks will be open to the community in mid 2010. The full realisation of the parks will take up to 20 years, depending on funding, rainfall and population growth in the surrounding areas. With Melbourne’s population expected to be 5 Million by 2030 the development of these parks will ensure that the park network grows to keep pace with the growing city.