Like other inner-suburban Councils, Monash is experiencing population growth and pressure on our public open spaces. With a continued increase in the number of registered dogs in Monash, planning and managing off-leash areas for people to walk and exercise their dogs is critical.

Monash Dog Off-Leash Policy was endorsed in November 2022 following extensive consultation with our community. This policy provides the rational for the provision of off-leash areas (OLAs) in the City of Monash, including detailing the site assessment methodology and key principles to be applied when determining and assessing OLAs in Monash.

The development of the Off-Leash Policy also included a review of OLAs across Monash, looking to increase this space and suggest changes to some sites already designed as off-leash areas.

This increased list of OLAs will come into effect from July 2023, increasing the overall number of OLAs in Monash from 31 to 45 and providing residents with improved access to OLAs.

Details of new or changed sites were included in a report to Council on 29 November 2022, note that the OLA outlined in the report for Jack Edwards Reserve in Oakleigh is smaller than the OLA that will be implemented next year. You can also see the OLAs mapped across Monash with a 800m catchment zone for each.

We’ll provide specific details about the final list of OLAs on this page in the first of half of 2023 before the new and changed OLAs come into effect on 1 July 2023.

Read more about what an OLA means here.

Work is currently underway to map and prepare for the new and expanded OLAs to come into effect in July 2023, more information will be available in early 2023 via our Monash Bulletin, social media and website.

Until then, OLAs should be observed as currently signed at parks and reserved and outlined on our website.

This work was informed by community consultation, including hundreds of pieces of feedback via our Shape Monash online consultation hub, formal submissions, and petitions. Read a summary of what we heard.

The below maps outlined 22 coloured hotspots highlight the sites on which we asked our community for feedback on. Click on a hotspot for more information.

• 14 new potential off-leash areas (brown symbols)
• 4 expanded areas (black symbols)
• 4 reduced and 1 removed area (red symbols)