Master planned estates in Point Cook – the role of developers in creating the built-environment

Point Cook has developed as a consolidation of many master planned estates (MPEs) by private developers within the policy framework of Wyndham City Council’s Point Cook Concept Plan (PCCP). Strategic planning and development in Point Cook has unfolded in stages and controlled by a group of individual private developers who have invested huge capital to deliver high class physical and social infrastructure along with a range of diverse housing options as MPEs. Drawing on a qualitative research, this paper begins by examining the vision statements and objectives of the private developers which underpin contemporary master-planning in the MPEs of Point Cook by reviewing some of the contents of developer’s websites thus highlighting their primary aspirations in marketing their estates. Consequently, through a survey designed for the residents of these MPEs, these visions are put to test. This survey explores the responses of residents towards their physical and social environment and the level of general satisfaction among the residents before evaluating respondents’ ideas of neighbourhood, its physical characteristics and social structure against the developers’ imagination in their vision statements and marketing testimony.