Westgate Park

Westgate Park is a 40-hectare urban nature park located beneath the West Gate Bridge on the Yarra River in Port Melbourne, City of Port Phillip, Victoria. Created from former industrial land, it is notable for its revegetated wetlands, salt lakes including a seasonal pink lake, and extensive native plantings. Managed by Parks Victoria with the Friends of Westgate Park, it offers walking and cycling trails, birdwatching and views of the bridge and city skyline.

Visitors can expect a largely natural, open parkland with a network of walking and cycling trails around freshwater and saltwater lakes, wetlands and revegetated bushland. The park features bird hides overlooking wetlands, picnic and barbecue areas, and elevated views of the West Gate Bridge, Yarra River and Melbourne skyline. The landscape is flat with mixed sealed and gravel paths, native eucalypts and saltmarsh vegetation, and seasonal colour change in the salt lake.

Westgate Park was established in 1985-1986 on reclaimed industrial land and former salt-affected wasteland beneath the West Gate Bridge, which opened in 1978. The park was transformed through a major community revegetation program led by the Friends of Westgate Park, who have planted more than 300,000 indigenous trees and shrubs to restore the Yarra River floodplain ecosystem.

The park is a significant example of community-led urban ecological restoration in Victoria, demonstrating volunteer-driven revegetation and wetland creation. It provides an accessible natural and educational space for residents and visitors, highlighting indigenous flora, wetland ecology and the industrial history of the Port Melbourne and Fishermans Bend area.