Mango Hill shapes as one of the nation's largest applications for 2018

Mango Hill shapes as one of the nation's largest applications for 2018
Mark BaljakApril 29, 2018

Brisbane's outer suburban Mango Hill is playing host to a major development application that is likely to rank amongst the largest Australia-wide for 2018. The application also reinforces the trend of large-scale apartment projects landing in growth corridor suburbs on the perimeter of Brisbane and Sydney in particular.

Moreton Bay Regional council fielded the application in the past fortnight for 700 plus apartments in the staged development.

Entity Mango Hill Property Pty Ltd is backing the development which is sited across a massive vacant 41,710 square metre plot which has multiple street frontages. Brisbane City-based Ellivo Architects has designed the development which is expected to be delivered over 13 separate stages.

1785 Anzac Avenue, Mango Hill application summary

Mango Hill shapes as one of the nation's largest applications for 2018
Application image: Ellivo Architects
  • Site area: 41,710sqm
  • Anzac Avenue & Mango Hill Boulevard frontages
  • 13 buildings to 6 levels in height
  • 715 apartments: 179 x 1BR, 480 x 2BR, 56 x 3BR
  • 2 retail tenancies amounting to 183.7sqm
  • 843 car parking bays across basement levels
  • 4 communal spaces
  • Total GFA: 62,698sqm

Design intent

Within this framework, Ellivo Architects developed an overall vision for the project which, identifies the key design themes and traits that will help create unique sense of place within the community and establish the bench mark for higher density residential development within the Mango Hill / North Lakes area.

Amongst other things, the vision document identifies the following key design elements which have informed the overall aesthetic and design:

  • Precinct Creation – Each of the communal areas are linked through a consistent landscape expression that continues through the site.
  • Cohesion, simple and refined – It is important to establish a common thread of materials and forms that are refined and recognisable.
  • human scale individuality – The units located on the lower two levels of each building will directly interface with the street edge.
  • An entry within the landscape – each entry is to sit as a feature within the landscape, marking the entry to each building as a focus point that draws you into the building.

PSA Consulting Australia - Planning report

Mango Hill shapes as one of the nation's largest applications for 2018
Staging plan. Image: Ellivo Architects

Popular in in QLD and NSW, but not so Victoria

The Mango Hill application is very much reflective of the development model applied to outer suburban apartment projects nationwide in that multiple medium-rise buildings are envisaged in order to roll the project out progressively. 

The strengthening trend of low and mid-rise higher density apartment developments creeping into peripheral suburbs across both Brisbane and Sydney is not necessarily the case in Melbourne's outer suburbs though. Comparatively few apartment projects have made it into Melbourne's growth area corridors.

MAB Corporation's Merrifield and GPC's Mason Point developments well north of Melbourne's CBD is the notable exceptions; since inception they have included higher density living options.

The Mango Hill proposal inserts itself into an area light on for high density development, but heavy with other uses such as education, retail and transport. It underlines Brisbane's drift toward peripheral higher density living, but Sydney is by far and away the most advanced Australian city in this regard.

Multiple locations can be cited where greenfield development applications are heavy with apartment projects. Camden City council's Leppington is a prime example; Urban.com.au keeping tabs on six separate major projects amounting to 1,200 plus apartments within the suburb which is  55 kilometres south-west of Sydney's CBD.

Mango Hill shapes as one of the nation's largest applications for 2018
Leppington's 202 Byron Road. Application image: Rothelowman

Mark Baljak

Mark Baljak was a co-founder of Urban.com.au. He passed away on Thursday 8th of November 2018 after a battle with cancer. He was 37. Mark was a keen traveller, having visited all six permanently-inhabited continents and had a love of craft beer. One of his biggest passions was observing the change that has occurred in Melbourne over the past two decades. In that time he built an enormous library of photos, all taken by him, which tracked the progress of construction on building sites from across metropolitan Melbourne.

Editor's Picks