Love Sydney Road

Love Sydney Road is a program to clean up and beautify an iconic part of Merri-bek - the Sydney Road shopping strip from Brunswick Road, Brunswick to Bell Street, Coburg, so it’s a great place for people to live, work, visit and enjoy.

You told us this section of Sydney Road needed some love and we’ve listened.

Through Love Sydney Road, we are:

• Street cleaning daily from Monday to Friday in the 4-kilometre Sydney Road shopping strip and in public spaces in Victoria Street Mall, Dunnes Lane and Page Street, Coburg, Brunswick Mechanics Institute and Sparta Place, Brunswick.
• Removing graffiti from public infrastructure like footpaths, street furniture and bins and from public buildings. Larger pieces of graffiti on public infrastructure will be removed by Council’s dedicated graffiti removal crew.
• Undertaking a street furniture and infrastructure audit to assess what needs to be maintained or repaired, and signs and poles that can potentially be removed to reduce visual clutter.
• Supporting local traders through help with shopfront improvements and to assist them to remove graffiti from their buildings.
• Creating 2 new murals as part of the RenuWall public art program to beautify public spaces, adding to the 3 new murals that were created along Sydney Road in July 2024.

All while continuing our daily street sweeping, and our rubbish collection services.

Love Sydney Road has been developed with community input, including feedback from local traders and through contributions to our Community Budget Ideas program.

In addition to Love Sydney Road, we have delivered other significant improvements to the area, including a new park in the heart of Brunswick, The Michelle Guglielmo Park, at 260 Sydney Road, as part of the A Park Close to Home program to create and improve access to open space.

Love Sydney Road StreetShow

The Love Sydney Road StreetShow event held in April 2025, invited traders of Sydney Road Brunswick and Coburg to explore ways of improving their shop fronts and help beautify the Sydney Road retail precinct. Facilitated by Mainstreet Australia, leaders in promoting and advocating for shopping strips, the event featured a panel of retail experts who offered fresh and insightful perspectives on how to elevate shopfront visual presentations.  

Business owners who attended were inspired to look at their businesses from a customer’s point of view, shown how to amplify their unique offerings and prompted to collaborate with neighbouring businesses for mutual benefit.  

Key learnings and takeaways from the event include: 

• Gain a fresh perspective
  • Look at your business from a different viewpoint, see it as the customer sees it.
  • Take photos of your business from different angles, print them out and look at them. Be objective, ask the opinions of others. 
  • Step outside the front door to look at your business, do this often.  
  • Imagine the space empty and start again, how would you do things differently? 
• Enhance store presentation
  • Focus on simple but impactful changes, including maintaining cleanliness, removing graffiti, and reducing clutter.  
  • Your windows are your most valuable real estate. Treat your window like the landing page of your website; make it inviting, create a desire to explore more.  You have around five seconds to grab the attention of passers-by.  
  • Remember to tell your business’ story even when the store is closed. Think of all the senses not just focussing on visuals. How does your shop smell, sound, feel? 
• Focus on uniqueness
  • Embrace your unique strengths, tell your story.
  • Understand your customer and adapt and evolve to changing customer needs.
  • Explore the 70/30 product mix, 70% for safe options you know you can sell, 30% to explore and test new ideas. 
• Precinct pride
  • Sydney Road is unique and much loved. Find ways to celebrate, be a part of and tap into that uniqueness.
  • Meet your neighbouring traders, explore collaborations and new ways to work together.

Love Sydney Road StreetShow prizes and winners

At the Love Sydney Road StreetShow, attendees were invited to apply for the prizes listed. A large number of high-quality applications were received, and we thank all the applicants and event attendees. Prizes and winners are listed below:

• Glow Up Prize from Moth Design, Brunswick

  A visual merchandising consultation as well as expert hands-on styling to level up a shop’s look and feel. Includes:
   
  2-hour onsite consultation in the recipient’s shop/business 
  4-hour implementation and provision for some materials
  Value $2,100 each (plus GST) 3 prizes on offer.

  Winners

  • Coburg Coffee & Kitchen
  • Statewide sewing    
  • Three Hands Café 

   

   

• Game Plan Prize from Moth Design, Brunswick

  One-on-one time with a retail design professional to get a fresh perspective and smart tips for layout, displays and window dressing. Includes:
   
  2-hours onsite consultation/advice for self-implementation in the recipient’s shop/business. Value $600 each (plus GST) 4 prizes on offer.

  Winners

  • Mattt
  • Miss Bella Bridal
  • Second Stitch
  • That Paper Joint 
• Squeaky Clean Prize from Zap It

  A full shopfront window and façade clean (does not include cleaning awnings or hanging signage). 

  Value $180 each (plus GST) 13 prizes on offer.

  Winners

  • Aesthtik Skin & Laser
  • Brunswick Ballroom
  • Brunswick Life Dental Clinic
  • Epic Vintage
  • Mokum
  • Oasis Juice & Smoothies
  • Onto the Next
  • Peter Watson
  • Pictures & Pages
  • Rays Bicycles
  • Salvation Army
  • Yellow Brick Road
  • Zerya The Label 

More information on Love Sydney Road

For more information about Love Sydney Road, please contact us by calling 9240 1111 or email the City Strategy and Economy team.