About the Strategy

The City of Whittlesea is developing a new Economic Growth Strategy to guide our city’s growth and prosperity from 2026 to 2036.This strategy builds on our current Strong Local Economy 2022–2026 plan and is shaped by the community’s long-term vision:

Whittlesea 2040: A Place for All

A thriving, inclusive, and sustainable city for everyone

Located just 21km north of Melbourne’s CBD, City of Whittlesea is one of Australia’s fastest-growing municipalities. Our population is projected to grow by more than 40% by 2040, placing greater demand on services, infrastructure, and employment opportunities. While around 2,000 new jobs have been created each year over the past five years, job growth hasn’t kept pace with population growth - making it vital to plan for a more resilient and diverse local economy.

What’s in Focus

To support the development of the new strategy, we’re preparing a series of discussion papers that explore key opportunities and challenges for economic growth.

Each paper focuses on one of four priority areas:

Community Insights

To ensure these discussion papers reflect local aspirations and priorities, we’ve engaged extensively with the community and key stakeholders.

✔️12 focus groups
✔️ 4 in-depth interviews
✔️ 67 participants from across:

    • Industry and business
    • Government and education
    • Health, community and employment services
    • Property and real estate sectors

These valuable insights are helping us identify the biggest opportunities and challenges for the City of Whittlesea’s future economy.