00:00 Flash and panache. Tourists and locals love Melbourne's laneways. But could Bankseas and
00:07 Banksias thrive side by side and this be the future for hundreds of walkways?
00:13 It is a breath of fresh air.
00:16 It makes these areas far more attractive and appealing for locals.
00:22 Five years ago the Melbourne City Council started a $2 million program to help residents
00:26 green four CBD laneways like Guildford Lane. And the results are both obvious and invisible.
00:33 For me it's actually not about the plants anymore, it's about the people. The meeting,
00:39 the connections, the learning has been profound.
00:43 So it's expanding the program and issuing greening permits that will allow residents
00:47 to plant with guidance and support.
00:51 For former Mount Eliza resident Darren Morgan, inner city living has come at a cost.
00:55 A big culture shock. No green, no bird life.
00:59 But his laneway is the first to get a permit.
01:01 People are starting to get lorikeets back in here, which is great. And we've got a resident
01:06 carawong in the area now, which is fantastic.
01:10 The city has some 1700 laneways and the council says the pavements add up to 70 hectares.
01:16 But the walls equate to 150 hectares of potential plant space. Space that when explored, businesses
01:22 say can attract a different kind of green.
01:25 It's a real sort of green splash and beacon. So people get kind of drawn along into the
01:30 laneway and so they end up in our venue and all the other venues in the laneway surrounding
01:36 us.
01:37 These greener laneways really do help us reduce the heat island effect in the city. They help
01:42 us manage extreme weather events, particularly storms, more efficiently. And it's really
01:49 a tick tick plus plus benefit benefit.
01:52 The council says it's not choosing greenery over graffiti. In fact, nothing's changing
01:56 when it comes to Melbourne's famous graffiti-laden laneways. What it does want is, however, for
02:02 some laneways to evolve to the point where art and plant co-exist.
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