Development Victoria offers last piece of Valley Lake
Twenty years after Development Victoria acquired the former Niddrie Quarry to replace with the Valley Lake housing estate, it is offering the last subdivided piece – a waterfront plot which has since 2006 accommodated the project’s display suite.
The 1302 square metre parcel, 45 Valley Lake Boulevard, East Keilor, is expected to sell to a medium density residential builder for more than $1.3 million.
Prospective purchasers must submit a development summary with any bid.
The vendor said it would look favourably upon proposals with a community benefit component – like a retail space.
Development Victoria, which reports to the Minister for Priority Precincts, said its display suite disposal coincides with the construction of Valley Lake’s last standalone homes.
Following any sale of the Valley Lake Blvd property, it added, planning control for the 48 hectare estate will be handed to Moonee Valley City Council.
From grazing to mining to filming to housing
The quarry had been dormant for 25 years before being acquired by the development arm in November, 2000.
In the decade prior it was earmarked as a chemical waste disposal.
With a dramatic western cliff mined to within metres of homes on Rachelle Road – a major East Keilor thoroughfare near Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School – the land and lake was a popular backdrop for filmmakers, more than once featuring in late-1990s crime drama, Halifax f.p.
According to this item in Quarry Magazine, the property had been utilised for sheep and horse grazing since the 1860s.
The Reid Brothers established it as Fowler’s Quarry in the late 1930s, selling to Boral in 1965.
It famously shut when a member of parliament demanded it, placing a piece of rock which had come through a constituent’s roof following a 2:10pm blasting on the Speaker’s table (story continues below).
Known as Niddrie Quarry at that stage, the land is at the edge of a lava plain stretching to South Australia.
Its eastern side is a valley near Steele Creek which is the Niddrie suburb border.
Valley Lake accommodated the first East Keilor homes to sell for seven figure sums.
DV’s display suite: first in, last out
Development Victoria’s outgoing and high profile site forms part of a walking track around the lake, neighbouring parkland to its north and south.
Along with a prominent public art piece, The Watcher, it was Valley Lake’s first structure.
A similar long, flat and waterside parcel, nearby, was about three years ago replaced with triple storey townhouses.
The government’s property, with north facing lake views could also find favour as an apartment complex.
Brad Teal Essendon’s Brad Teal and Tony Downward are marketing 45 Valley Lake Blvd via an expressions of interest campaign closing next month.
Development Victoria is expected to make a decision about the purchaser – and site outcome – by the end of the year.
East Keilor is about 14 kilometres north west of Melbourne.
In May receivers for failed builder Steller sold a 1.3ha part permit-ready townhouse site within cooee of Valley Lake for a speculated $5.3m.
