The Melbourne Pollinator Corridor (MPC) is an Australian-first innovation which will be, when completed, an 8km-long, ecology-centred, community-driven wildlife corridor for our native pollinating insects that are so important yet declining rapidly.

We are aiming for 200 gardens that will connect two large but isolated green patches that run along the Birrarung (Yarra River), Westgate Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.

We work within site constraints, transforming barren pieces of public and public private land into gardens of buzzing, wriggling beauty!

Above is a map of the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor. The green lines are the MPC “zone” where the 200 gardens will go, the yellow circles are gardens already created and the purple circles are some of the sites we are ‘in conversation’ about.

The design and approach of the MPC took about 2 years and incorporates the knowledge and expertise of about 30 specialists and scientists.

We work with many stakeholders including residents, businesses, schools, kindergartens, local organisations, developers and public housing.

While beautifying this highly urbanised part of Melbourne we are also restoring local ecosystems - the MPC is a fantastic mix of urban biodiversity conservation, landscape design and grass roots street gardening!

So far, we have created 46 gardens of the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor that cover over 1600m2, more than 6 tennis courts over 3 suburbs!

Heartscapes manages most of these diverse, indigenous-focussed gardens and we couldn’t do it without the invaluable support from our dedicated and generous volunteers.

What Experts Are Saying…

“The Melbourne Pollinator Corridor is a ground-breaking and vitally important project on many levels.”

— Fiona Brockhoff, landscape designer

“It has been remarkable to witness Heartscapes’ capacity to make positive impact as they restore nature in even the most constrained city spaces.”

— Dr Kylie Soanes, urban wildlife ecologist

“The Melbourne Pollinator Corridor is a working example of successful collaboration; bringing together a raft of expertise from the science community, filtering to the residents as citizen scientists and inspiring volunteer action.”

— Dr Meg Hirst, plant ecologist

The Melbourne Pollinator Corridor is helping to address numerous crises: the climate change crisis, mental health crisis and biodiversity crisis. Our work is about providing nature to all and engaging and educating local communities and visitors around the importance of having nature in cities.

Through our innovative work with this project, we are creating systemic change, helping to shape the future of public realm and creating something that locals can love and all Australians can be proud of and inspired by.

Our native pollinating insects - along with all of our insects - are absolutely crucial to our ecosystems, being the base of the food web. Because we are supporting these fantastic and incredibly varied critters, the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor is actually connecting, strengthening and deepening all local urban communities of fauna, flora and fungi….as well as our human communities!

“The Melbourne Pollinator Corridor is a lovely long stretch of snacks to invite our most precious pollinators into our backyards and veggie patches.”

— Jenny Lyon, Green magazine

“The wildlife corridor spanning an area just south of Melbourne’s CBD demonstrates the role that open-ended design processes and the fostering of caring relationships with public landscapes can play in the empowerment of ecologies and communities.”