The Victorian government has been urged to speed up an overhaul of the way it pays for infrastructure in booming growth areas, as a key fund set up to pay for services like train stations and bus routes has not been touched for the past two years.
The ABC can reveal the state government allocated no money from its Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution (GAIC) fund in the past two budgets.
As of June 2023, the fund contains more than $481 million in unallocated funds.
The GAIC fund was established in 2010 as a way for landowners in new developments to help pay for services like new train stations, bus interchanges, buying land for schools and community centres.
They pay a fee of between $110,000 and $130,000 per hectare of land in Wyndham, Melton, Hume, Whittlesea, Mitchell, Casey and Cardinia to the fund, which is administered by the minister for planning and the treasurer.
More than $580 million has been paid out since 2010, including $9.5 million on The Grange P-12 school in Wyndham, $3.6 million on an ambulance station in Melton and $3.6 million to upgrade the Craigieburn train station in Hume.
But critics say the money is not being spent quickly enough to keep up with population in the booming outer suburbs.
The opposition's Evan Mulholland accused the government of using the GAIC fund "as an accounting trick".
"The Andrews government is hoarding almost half a billion dollars that's meant to go to growth areas, to basically prop up its budget bottom line," he said.
Mr Mulholland said Melbourne's outer suburbs are lacking infrastructure services, especially when it comes to transport.
Earlier this year, the ABC reported one woman waited in traffic for 1.5 hours while in labour, just to drive the one road out of her housing estate in Kalkallo, in Melbourne's north.
The developer has begun work on a second exit and the state government has announced it will spend $6 million to upgrade a roundabout to take pressure off Donnybrook Road.
"Whether it be in Kalkallo, whether it be in Wyndham, whether it be in Point Cook or Werribee, locals are waiting hours to get out of their own housing estates," Mr Mulholland said.
"Instead of hoarding it up [at government headquarters] in Spring Street, the government should be spending it to deliver services to these areas right now."
The government is reviewing the scheme, after a 2020 Auditor-General report on developer contributions recommended investigating reforms.
Currently, there is no way for local government or developers to make formal submissions to the fund, and the report suggested seeking greater input from councils.
Mr Mulholland called on the government to overhaul the entire system of funding for infrastructure in growth areas.
Pawan Kaur feels the effects of the lack of infrastructure in her community of Mt Atkinson in Melbourne's outer west every day.
"Life is not as easy as we were sold," she said.
The single mother moved to Mt Atkinson four years ago with her two teenage sons, and said the lack of a bus service is a huge problem.
"When kids are their age, they don't want to rely on me to get everywhere," Ms Kaur said.
She said on the days she works from home, her employer is very understanding, but she has to take a lot of breaks to pick up her children from school or the train station, because there is no bus.
"Sometimes I have to make an excuse to leave a meeting to go and pick them up," she said.
On the days she has to travel in to work, she relies on neighbours to help to get the children to school.
"We urgently need a bus service in this community," she said.
"Even to grab a bottle of milk can be 40 minutes in the car."
Mt Atkinson is part of Truganina, which was home to about 20,000 people in the 2016 census.
By 2021, it had more than 35,000 residents.
Locals say the area is growing so quickly, Mt Atkinson should be recognised as a separate suburb from Truganina.
In the lead-up to last year's state election, voters in outer suburbs told the ABC a lack of infrastructure was a key issue, especially congested local roads.
Infrastructure like train stations is not cheap.
In 2022, the government announced $200 million for the next stage of planning two train stations in the outer west - at Truganina and West Tarneit, where the population is expected to nearly double by 2040.
The government said the Tarneit West station is expected to be built by 2026, but there is no date on when the Truganina station is expected to be built.
RMIT's Centre for Urban Research Professor Jago Dodson said the fact the GAIC fund is not being spent quickly is concerning, because infrastructure should already be in place when people move in.
"Communities are moving into these new residential areas on Melbourne's fringes right now, and they're bringing their needs with them," he said.
Professor Dodson said Melbourne's growth areas were generally well-serviced when it comes to basic needs like energy and water connection.
"But we're really struggling with wider community infrastructure," he said.
"Ten, 20 years after they're built, some of them still can't even get a bus service."
He said infrastructure like sports facilities and community centres were also important, because many residents were new to Melbourne.
"Community formation is really important and a lot of these facilities are really important to provide that community connection."
The ABC has contacted the office of the Treasurer Tim Pallas for comment.