The Making and Unmaking of East-West Link

The definitive account of a hotly debated political project in Melbourne.

The Making and Unmaking of East-West Link delves into Melbourne's aborted East-West Link, the massive, multi-billion-dollar inner-city toll road project that promised to knit Melbourne closer together. From the beginning, it was divisive, leading to intense picketing and protests, multiple court challenges, breathless media coverage, and bitter politicking that consumed the Victorian parliament for years. The project's controversy contributed to the downfall of the single-term Baillieu-Napthine Liberal government, and its cancellation cost the state half a billion dollars. It lives on in infamy, becoming a byword for brinkmanship, waste, and the politicisation of infrastructure.

But where did this notorious megaproject originate, and what explains its fate? Was it hand-picked by state premiers who miscalculated its electoral value? Was it imposed on the government by cunning roads bureaucrats unprepared for public backlash? Or did opponents of the project win by making it an election issue? James C Murphy explores the saga from competing vantage points, detailing the layers of politics that saturate infrastructure policymaking in Australia.