Kerry Tier and Melanie Gottfried ride into the KFC drive-through on horseback to collect their meals. The pair used to go to Hungry Jack’s, but a new manager who arrived from out of town banned them.
“She had a coronary when she saw us,” Tier says. “People think we’re weirdos.”
The scene captures an inescapable tension in Melton, which was once a quiet country town but has now come to epitomise the chaotic sprawl of Melbourne’s suburbs – and the growing pains that go with it.
“When I grew up the streets would go from dead end to paddocks, but Melton just isn’t country any more,” Tier says.
Melton enjoyed five minutes of global fame earlier this year, when Melbourne suddenly overtook Sydney to become Australia’s most populous city – on a technicality.
Behind the headlines was a simple boundary change. The Australian Bureau of Statistics updated its definition of Melbourne to include Melton, on the city’s north-west fringe.
Assimilation into the Victorian capital thrust Melton’s eye-watering growth into the spotlight. The population has swelled from about 35,500 in the 2006 census to more than 76,000 in 2021. Even more pronounced is the influx into its broader council area, which has grown from about 79,000 residents in 2006 to an estimated 205,000 this year as a smattering of new suburbs and housing estates sprouted up.
Melton is a bastion of affordable housing within commuting distance to Melbourne’s CBD – about a 45-minute drive on a good day – and growth shows no signs of slowing. The council calculates that each week about 50 families move into the area and 50 babies are born, and the population is expected to balloon to 440,000 by 2051.
Yet Melton has no public hospital, and plans to electrify its train line have dropped off the Victorian government’s priority list, leaving the area with fewer (and often-crammed) services to the city.
Local residents old and new say the state government still delivers funding as if Melton is still a small town where people get around on horseback.
‘Most announced hospital’
As he speaks in the office of his GP clinic, Marcus Watson’s two great passions become apparent within minutes: the Richmond football club and Melton getting a public hospital. Watson is furious that the government has not delivered the hospital despite years of promises.
“We’ve been banging our head against a brick wall but they don’t really seem to care,” Watson says, the walls behind him plastered with Tigers memorabilia.
Watson has worked in general practice for 35 years. He says Melton residents increasingly have to dash to hospitals in Ballarat, Sunshine or inner Melbourne for urgent medical care, and a shortage of local doctors means people tend to visit their GP only sparingly.
“When the urgency is brought home to you every day in the practice it’s very hard to ignore,” he says. “Without a hospital there’s a flow-on. People put up with more before coming to the doctor.”
In the lead-up to the Victorian election in November, the Andrews government committed to opening a 274-bed public hospital in Melton by 2029.
But advocates were hoping it would open sooner, and some, including Watson, are dismayed at the proposed size. Even government documents reportedly acknowledge that given Melton’s growth the hospital will need 554 beds to meet projected demand by 2036.
Watson has been a prominent voice for years among a collective of locals campaigning for a hospital. “People still come up to me and congratulate me,” he says. “They think we’re about to get the big hospital we’ve been wanting. But what they don’t say is it’s still six years away and will be too small by the time it opens.
“This has got to be the most announced hospital you’ve ever heard of.”
A Victorian government spokesperson said the hospital had been “extensively planned” and that it was “confident that it will meet the needs of the growing community”.
Watson believes the area has been overlooked because it was considered safe by Labor: the state seat has been held by the party for 30 years.
He has actively supported the independent candidate Ian Birchall, who challenged for the seat in 2018 and placed third with 10.5% of the primary vote. Watson then managed Birchall’s 2022 campaign, which largely centred on the hospital and infrastructure neglect. But Labor, having suffered a 15% swing away from the party in 2018, put significant resources into the seat and retained it comfortably.
Birchall says there has been a severe lack of investment in infrastructure in Melton at both state and federal levels. “Anthony Albanese talks about western Sydney all the time, but you never hear about western Melbourne,” he says.
“To have no Tafe, no university, no hospital – we miss out on everything and it’s just not fair.”
He says new estates keep springing up but with no amenities, “no pub or milk bar or service station”, so everyone has to go to the town centre. “If you go to the supermarket in Melton now the car park’s full. It’s crazy.”
‘Like an island out here’
Trains get from Melton to Melbourne’s Southern Cross station in about 40 minutes. But the station isn’t part of the Metro Trains network, partly because the track to Melton isn’t electrified.
This means trains run every 20 minutes at peak times, otherwise every 40 minutes, and once an hour at weekends.
As Melton only gets diesel-powered V-Line regional trains – and sometimes just three-carriage services – journeys to and from Melbourne can often be claustrophobic, standing experiences.
Its service is in line with that of regional towns, but the line functions largely as a commuter service.
The Andrews government promised in 2018 to build an electrified line – in addition to the existing line – to bring Metro services to Melton. But a government spokesperson confirmed electrification was no longer the priority. A new line was not on the agenda, nor electrification of the existing track, they said.
Some upgrades still stand as government commitments, including level crossing removals on the Melton line by 2026 and platform upgrades to allow nine-car regional trains to serve Melton by 2028.
During the July school holidays, Kelly took her daughters Skyellen and Shaelen into Melbourne to go shopping (the family asked that their surname not be published).
Despite timing their run to the station for a timetabled service, the family was left waiting on the platform.
“It’s completely unreliable,” Kelly says. She says it is not safe for her daughters to rely on the train to from the city.
“On the weekends when they go in you want them home at a reasonable hour.”
Also waiting on the platform is Ranabir Mondal, an IT worker who moved from India to Melton last year. He says long gaps between trains make it difficult to plan journeys.
The patchy train service and poor connections between new housing estates around Melton have led to a culture of car dependency. Local roads connecting the town with highways are particularly clogged, Jonty Pitman says.
Pitman, 29, moved to Melton five years ago. “It can feel a bit like an island out here,” he says. “The V-Line schedule offers no flexibility. If you just miss a train on a weekend, it’s a 50-minute wait. You need a car.”
Pitman was among those drawn to Melton for its affordability. He was joined by friends Daniel Molivas and Jamie Ross – the trio were part of the band Masketta Fall – and the musicians have struggled with the lack of infrastructure in the area.
Molivas, 33, moved to Melton from Werribee, buying his home five years ago. But the musician has chronic health issues, and often finds himself driving three hours on round trips to see specialists.
He says he routinely waits four or five days to see a GP because they are booked out.
“It’s just stupidity. They know the population is growing … it’s not like these problems have snuck up on them,” Molivas says of the government.
“You just assume [Melton] will have services like Melbourne, but it hits you the second you start living here that’s not the case.”
Molivas is sceptical of the commitment to the hospital and promises of improving train services.“My fear is the government is in debt. How far off is Melton hospital from the chopping block?” Molivas says.
The three men enjoy their lifestyles but they are reconsidering their future in Melton.
“It’s great if you don’t want to leave the suburb and can work from home,” Ross, 33, says. “But there’s nothing to do entertainment-wise, nothing really for the performing arts.”
Pitman says he has talked with his partner about bringing up a family in Melton, and “the answer is probably no”. He fears things will only get worse.
“I don’t want to have a sick child and potentially not be able to get them to a hospital, or an overcrowded one, in time. The only thing it’s got going for it is housing affordability.”
Back on her horse, Bella, Tier is still getting used to the new Melton.
Riding Bella is a reprieve from driving. When she picks up her eight-year-old son Jordan from school, he runs to the car so they don’t get caught in traffic on the narrow roads leading to the school. Tier says some children don’t arrive home until 4.30pm because of the jams.
Tier says she cares deeply for the land around Melton, especially due to her Aboriginal identity, and aches from the consequences of insufficient growth planning. “All we want is our land looked after,” she says.
“It feels like we’ve been swallowed by Melbourne. But at the same time we’re not good enough to be treated like part of a city.”
• This article was updated on Monday 7 August to add a further response from the Victorian government.
