New Epping

Traditional Owner Engagement, Codesign

Riverlee engaged Greenshoot to support the embedding of local First Peoples knowledge and culture across the development and to build an ongoing relationship with the site’s Traditional Owners, the Wurundjeri people. 

Completion / current
Client / Riverlee
Traditional Owners / Wurundjeri 
Collaborators / Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin, Uncle Colin Hunter Jnr, Craig Murphy
Landscape Architect / Tract
Location / Wurundjeri Country / Epping, Victoria

New Epping is a 51 hectare brownfield development site, approximately 18km north of Melbourne. Riverlee is rehabilitating and transforming the site into a world-class mixed-use development.

Greenshoot led the establishment of a governance model to help guide project development and ensure reciprocity and value exchange opportunities were maximised

Greenshoot undertook research on the site’s pre-colonial history to identify preliminary cultural themes to inform consultations with Traditional Owner groups. Greenshoot then developed a First Peoples Engagement Strategy and designed and conducted Traditional Owner workshops to expand on these themes and explore the site. This allowed our team to map opportunities identified by Traditional Owners and First Peoples stakeholders to key Narrative opportunities for the project.

These workshops identified critical success factors for the project to work with Traditional Owners going froward and facilitated embedding of Traditional Owner knowledge and culture into the redevelopment of the site for the life of the project.

We collaborated with Wurundjeri to incorporate cultural designs within the public space as part of Stage 1 of this project. In Stage 2, Greenshoot is working in partnership with Wurundjeri on Edgars Creek Corridor to:

  • Develop design narratives that were embedded within the masterplan

  • Codesign shelters and landscape designs

  • Deliver the rejuvenation of landscape along the creek with a focus on ecological design, restoration of native fauna habitats and incorporation of the cultural design, in collaboration with Tract.