A unique opportunity for a new type of township

Clarkefield is uniquely positioned. It has excellent transport options being located between the Melbourne-Lancefield Road and the Bendigo V-Line rail corridors. It is a standalone township, largely unencumbered, providing a rare opportunity to think differently when it comes to revitalising this special part of the Macedon Ranges.

Clarkefield is a chance to showcase how developments of the future should be in terms of their sustainability, low impact living, commitment to affordable housing and integrated transport.

A sustainable Clarkefield

The opportunity to investigate the expansion of Clarkefield has been identified in the Macedon Ranges Planning Scheme for many years. However, development has always been constrained by servicing issues.

Over recent years, APD Projects has been working collaboratively with Western Water and other authorities to identify a range of innovative servicing solutions. We can now confidently say solutions to the servicing challenges have been identified.

Western Water have advised that it is possible for Clarkefield Town Centre to be serviced by the Riddells Creek Recycled Water Plant and the Gisborne-Macedon-Riddells Creek water supply network.

This allows the community to now consider the expansion of Clarkefield and its role in the Macedon Ranges.

We propose that one of Victoria’s oldest settlements become one of its most sustainable and one of the first in the nation to be designed around responding to climate change.

About Clarkefield

The original inhabitants of Clarkefield are the Wurundjeri people who have lived within the Macedon Ranges continually for at least 26,000 years.

Since European settlement, Clarkefield was run and named after the pastoralist, William John Turner Clarke. In 1861, the railway from Melbourne to Bendigo opened with a station at Clarkefield, at that time named Lancefield Road. A short walk from the station is the Clarkefield hotel and stables which were established in 1857 and are now listed as heritage properties.

Clarkefield’s first school, known as Bolinda South, opened in 1890 and its post office, originally named Lancefield Road, then Lancefield Junction and lastly Clarkefield, opened in 1862. Both have since closed due to the lack of local demand.