Built Environment
Planning, History & Environment
city and urban planning, urban studies, Australia

Planning Metropolitan Australia

Australia has long been a highly (sub)urbanized nation, but the major distinctive feature of its contemporary settlement pattern is that the great majority of Australians live in a small number of large metropolitan areas focused on the state capital cities.

Stephen Hamnett, Robert Freestone
02 Oct 2017

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Australia has long been a highly (sub)urbanized nation, but the major distinctive feature of its contemporary settlement pattern is that the great majority of Australians live in a small number of large metropolitan areas focused on the state capital cities. The development and application of effective urban policy at a regional scale is a significant global challenge given the complexities of urban space and governance. Building on the editors’ previous collection The Australian Metropolis: A Planning History (2000), this new book examines the recent history of metropolitan planning in Australia since the beginning of the twenty-first century. After a historical prelude, the book is structured around a series of six case studies of metropolitan Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, the fast-growing metropolitan region of South-East Queensland centred on Brisbane, and the national capital of Canberra. These essays are contributed by some of Australia’s leading urbanists. Set against a dynamic background of economic change, restructured land uses, a more diverse population, and growing spatial and social inequality, the book identifies a broad planning consensus around the notion of making Australian cities more contained, compact and resilient. But it also observes a continuing gulf between the simplified aims of metropolitan strategies and our growing understanding of the complex functioning of the varied communities in which most people live. This book reflects on the raft of planning challenges presented at the metropolitan scale, looks at what the future of Australian cities might be, and speculates about the prospects of more effective metropolitan planning arrangements.

Stephen Hamnett is Emeritus Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of South Australia in Adelaide and a Commissioner of the Environment, Resources and Development Court of South Australia.

Robert Freestone is Professor of Planning in the Faculty of Built Environment at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Contents

  • Chapter 1 A Metropolitan Perspective
    Stephen Hamnett and Robert Freestone
  • Chapter 2 Beginnings: The Evolution of Metropolitan Planning to the Late Twentieth Century
    Robert Freestone and Christine Garnaut
  • Chapter 3 Melbourne: Growing Pains for the Liveable City
    Robin Goodman
  • Chapter 4 Sydney: Growth, Globalization and Governance
    Raymond Bunker, Robert Freestone and Bill Randolph 
  • Chapter 5 Adelaide: Tough Times in the City of Light
    Stephen Hamnett and Jon Kellett
  • Chapter 6 Perth: From ‘Large Provincial to ‘Globalizing City’
    Paul J. Maginn and Neil Foley
  • Chapter 7 South East Queensland: Change and Continuity in Planning
    Paul Burton
  • Chapter 8 Canberra: ‘Normalization’ or ‘the Pride of Time’?
    Karl Friedhelm Fischer and James Weirick
  • Chapter 9 The Metropolitan Condition
    Brendan Gleeson
Built Environment
Australia, cities

The State of Australian Cities

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Summary

Guest editors: Clive Forster and Stephen Hamnett
08 Apr 2014

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In their introduction, Clive Forster and Stephen Hamnett provide a snapshot of the current state of Australian cities in relation to urban growth, housing, transport, city economies, residential differentiation and social exclusion, together with an overview of Australian city planning policies. Next, Pauline McGuirk presents a synoptic view of contemporary challenges to the governance of Australian cities. Gavin Wood et al. then examine the Melbourne 2030 metropolitan strategy and the potential conflict between aiming to concentrate development around rail stations in ‘Principal Activity Centres’ (PACs), while also ensuring that lower-income households have access to affordable housing in these centres. The focus for Bill Mitchell et al. is the impact on low- and moderate-income workers of declining housing affordability in inner-city regions. Rowland Atkinson and Hazel Easthope examine the role of universities and their staff and students within broader strategic policies to promote both the liveability of cities and their creative milieux. Raymond Bunker suggests that the recent proliferation of economic, infrastructure and metropolitan strategic plans raises concerns about how readily these can be aligned and integrated. Patrick Troy and Bill Randolph propose a number of radical approaches to dealing with Sydney’s domestic water supply and the current crisis in its provision. Garry Glazebrook and Peter Rickwood examine the implications of peak oil and global warming for urban passenger transport in Sydney. And finally, Peter Phibbs provides a case study of Sydney’s cross city tunnel which, on most assessments, has been a fairly spectacular failure as a Public Private Partnership (PPP).
 

Contents

  • The State of Australian Cities: An Overview 
    Clive Forster and Stephen Hamnett
  • Building the Capacity to Govern the Australian Metropolis
    Pauline Mcguirk
  • Community Mix, Affordable Housing and Metropolitan Planning Strategy in Melbourne 
    Gavin Wood, Christian Nygaard, Mike Berry and Elizabeth Taylor
  • The Occupational Dimensions of Local Labour Markets in Australian Cities
    Bill Mitchell, Anthea Bill and Martin Watts
  • The Creative Class in Utero? The Australian City, the Creative Economy and the Role of Higher Education
    Rowland Atkinson and Hazel Easthope
  • A Plenitude, Plethora or Plague of Plans? 
    Raymond Bunker
  • A New Approach to Sydney’s Domestic Water Supply Problem 
    Patrick Troy and Bill Randolph
  • Options for Reducing Transport Fuel Consumption and Greenhouse Emissions for Sydney
    Garry Glazebrook and Peter Rickwood
  • Driving Alone: Sydney’s Cross-City Tunnel
    Peter Phibbs
  • Publication Reviews