In 1973, a small group of urban activists from North and West Melbourne wrote an influential paper known as CAN – Citizens Action Plan for North and West Melbourne. It was based on the idea that what was truly important was:

“…human values, not material wealth, nor status, nor freedom at the expense of others; but a life that sees social values as distinct from economic ones as the prime objective”.

So, why was the CAN Plan so influential? It was written as a contribution to the Melbourne Strategy Plan, published by the City of Melbourne in 1974, but largely ignored by the elected council of the day. It was not until a decade later that a review of the original Melbourne Strategy Plan was undertaken, and a revised strategy launched in 1985, with many of the ideas from the CAN Plan being adopted as policy.

The goals of the CAN Plan included facilitating population growth in a diversity of public and private housing stock and developing community and leisure services for people of all ages and backgrounds. It encouraged higher density development accessible by public transport and walking, while emphasising the importance of retaining the existing dominant built-form character and street networks.

In short, the CAN Plan aimed to put people at the centre of planning decisions. * These initiatives are now credited with laying the foundation for what we know and love about inner Melbourne today – globally recognised as a vibrant, cosmopolitan, diverse, and inclusive city with the arts, sport, and culture as its lifeblood.

Two of these activists, Ruth and Maurie Crow, also wrote a monthly newsletter known as Irregular, and later, Ecoso Exchange, with planners, architects, engineers, politicians, academics, and trade unionists among its subscribers. It is from that newsletter that this new hyperlocal event of ideas and actions for North and West Melbourne has been named.

* With thanks to Dr Jane Homewood’s essay “Radical Roots to Urban Change” and Lecki Ord’s essay “Taking Council” in “Urban Choreography: Central Melbourne 1985-: Edited by Kim Dovey, Rob Adams and Ronald Jones,

Melbourne University Press, 2018