Flemington Hub

The existing community centre supports a wide range of community services and activities. However, the building is struggling to meet community need. Demand for most services is high and there is an increasing need for spaces for classes, programs, training and community events.  While the sports pavilion in the park is heavily utilised, it is also in poor condition. It has no public toilets or social space and does not comply with sporting code guidelines.

The vision for the hub is create a new heart for the community and to provide a centre that brings all people together from diverse and multi-generational backgrounds. The Flemington Hub will be a vibrant, welcoming and flexible centre, with activity and program rooms, family facilities, creative spaces, consulting and office spaces and sporting facilities - as well as plenty of spaces to sit, meet friends and relax.

On the ground floor, the Hub will open into an inviting foyer with a café and space to meet friends, sit and study or work. The ground floor will feature community meeting rooms, classrooms to support family and children’s activities and other programs, consulting rooms for community organisations to provide outreach services and a prayer room available for all faiths. A multipurpose room with adjacent kiosk plus four gender neutral change rooms will support both sporting clubs and community programs. Umpires’ room, first aid and storage will also be available for our sports clubs.

Upstairs, three large community halls can be opened up into one larger space for community events, performances, dance groups, forums, conferences, workshops and more. A movable stage will provide maximum flexibility to support these events.  A commercial kitchen adjacent to the halls can be used for micro-businesses, training and catering for events. The first floor also includes classrooms for language programs, training programs and meetings, a dedicated art room and a community lounge perfect for study, reading and our youth drop-in programs. A roof terrace will provide additional open green space, places to sit and a kitchen garden.

The Flemington Hub will be a Council owned and managed facility. The Welcoming Neighbourhoods team, who are currently based at Flemington Community Centre, will relocate and offer their services from the new Hub.

From here, we'll continue working on detailed designs. We're aiming for construction to start in 2021 and could take more than 18 months. This will be confirmed when builders are engaged.

To stay up to date with project timelines, keep an eye on this page and subscribe to our newsletter.

We've committed $20 million to the construction of the Flemington Hub.

The new Hub will be located over the current sporting pavilion, adjacent to the existing carpark. It will overlook the sporting fields and sit alongside the tennis courts.

This location of the Hub needed to consider a number of factors including previous feedback from the community, technical information including soil conditions and underground infrastructure, and project cost impacts.

The chosen location provides accessibility from the existing car park, has close access from Mt Alexander Road and enables us to retain significant trees. This location also ensures the Flemington Estate is not cut off from the sports fields. After extensive consultation with key stakeholders during 2018 and 2019, these were identified as high priorities.

There are a number of opportunities that are being explored to minimise the impact on the environment including (but not limited to) rainwater harvesting, excellent solar-passive design, natural lighting and ventilation, plus designing a high performing building envelope to maximise efficiency of heating and cooling systems.

The material selection during the design process will be based on a strict criteria to ensure durability, use of recycled content, impact on biodiversity, and preference to sourcing from renewable sources  and responsible practices.

Additional trees and landscaping is also included as part of the design process which will provide a net gain of trees within Debneys Park.

We will look at minimising impact to Debneys Park, however, as a safety precaution, a section of Debneys Park will be closed while construction is underway. We will keep the website updated when this happens.

Retaining trees on site is important to us and we will be doing everything possible to retain existing trees and continue to monitor their health up to and during construction. We will be working with landscape designers to include additional plants on site.

Flemington Community Centre will remain open until the new Flemington Hub opens its doors to the public.

Both the existing Community Centre and sporting pavilion will be demolished. The pavilion will be demolished prior to construction. Flemington Community Centre will be demolished following the opening of the new Hub and the area will be returned to open space.

You can view latest updates on this webpage, sign up for our newsletter, email the Flemington Hub team at FlemingtonHub@mvcc.vic.gov.au or call 9243 8888.