CLUE 2014 Small Area Report: Parkville Background
Think of Parkville, think of leafy streets, beautiful heritage houses and a cluster of significant hospital and educational and scientific research facilities. Parkville is a mixed use area of residential apartments and key medical and educational institutions. Its icons include: the University of Melbourne; the University High School; the Royal Melbourne Hospital; the Royal Children's Hospital; the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research; the Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens; the Victorian College of Pharmacy; and Royal Park.
Parkville has a large student population, a significant proportion of which lives in dedicated student housing and halls of residence.
Overall space use
Parkville currently has more than 1.91 million sq m of built space and 2.75 million sq m of unbuilt space. The total built space increased by 7.1 per cent over the past two years, from 1.78 million sq m to 1.91 million sq m. Most of the growth occurred in residential accommodation (up by 37,800 sq m or 13.8 per cent), commercial car parking (up by 29,900 sq m or 34.5 per cent), private car parking (up by 22,100 sq m or 67.7 per cent) and education/research (up by 14,800 sq m or 3.3 per cent).
Education/research is the predominant space use in the area. It occupies nearly a quarter, 24.5 per cent, of the total built space while hospital/clinic and residential accommodation are key users of the built space in the area occupying more than 16 per cent each.
Residential accommodation/dwellings
Given the proximity to the University of Melbourne and other key institutions, Parkville is an ideal location for residential/student apartments. Residential accommodation space use grew by 49.0 per cent over the past ten year, or 13.8 per cent over the past two years. This resulted in a 20.2 per cent growth in the number of residential apartment dwellings, from 3900 in 2004 to 4700 in 2014.
Office space use
At the time of the 2014 census, there is only 31,000 sq m of lettable office space in Parkville. Of the total, 27,300 sq m is let and 3700 sq m is vacant. Office floor space has remained almost stable, between 25,000 sq m and 30,000 sq m, over the past decade.
Predominant space use
Having the University of Melbourne and major hospitals in the midst, floor space in Parkville is predominantly used for educational/research and hospital/clinic purposes. In 2014, nearly a quarter, 469,300 sq m or 24.5 per cent, of the total built space is used for educational/research purpose while another 308,300 sq m, or 16.1 per cent, is used for hospital/clinic purpose.
Employment
Employment in Parkville declined slightly, 3.2 per cent, over the past two years from 25,537 in 2012 to 24,733 in 2014. Health care and social assistance industry, which is by far the largest employing sector in the area accounting for 61.9 per cent of the total employment, experienced the biggest decline, down by 4.4 per cent. The decline is due mainly to the relocation of Mental Health Services from Parkville to Footscray. Female employment, which accounts for 69.0 per cent of the total, decreased by 3.3 per cent while male counterpart declined by 2.9 per cent.
Some other industries, however, experienced employment growth during the same period. Notable industries include other services (up by 27.6 per cent) and accommodation (up by 5.8 per cent)
Capacity measure
There are 41 cafes/restaurants/bistros in Parkville. They combined offer more than 2400 indoor and 1200 outdoor seats. The Number of cafés/restaurants in the area grew significantly from 31 in 2012 to 41 in 2014.
There are two food courts in Parkville with the capacity of 445 seats.