Seminar Five - Australian Planning History

After reading Robert Freestone's "Progress in Australian planning history: Traditions, themes and transformations, I thought i would be helpful to summarise his thinking regarding the development of Australian planning.

Freestone argued that the development of Australian planning history can be set against the broader history of Australian urbanisation, land settlement, and planning.

The colonial era  produced a foundational network of urban places largely without the integration of function (layout, infrastructure, governance), environmental responsiveness (design, site constraints and opportunities) and foresight (town extension, longer term vision) as would be expected in modern day planning.
 

After it's establishment, the Commonwealth government had no interest in planning other than that of Canberra, and so in the first half of the twentieth century it was actors drawn largely from the architecture, engineering and surveying fields, as well as state and local government who campaigned for better urban management processes and outcomes.  Driven by problems associated by the accelerating unplanned urbanisation brought on by the growth of mercantile and resource sectors of the economy, the coastal capital cities with their burgeoning populations and administrative importance became the natural focus of these campaigners, who through lectures, conferences, exhibitions, publications and general lobbying tried to raise the issue of slums, transport infrastructure, civic design and land use zoning.  However, these efforts had little effects on policies and protocols covering building and subdivision, although some tangible outcomes were evident in the creation of a number of planned states, housing developments, urban renewal projects, civic improvements, open space and improved transport infrastructure.

The second half of the twentieth century saw some return on the propaganda efforts of the earlier part of the century.  By the 1940's, planning was widely accepted as a legitimate activity of the state, although the extent of regulation was keenly debated.  Planning became incrementally institutionalised through legislative reforms at the state government level, with the evolution of government departments, statutory authorities, advisory panels, commissions and committees, however planning in practice encountered familiar political and financial constraints.

From the 1970's onwards, urban and regional planning became ascendant to deal with a wider set of city and development problems.  Specific Australian context environmental issues started to be considered, such as drought, bushfire, and flooding and more recently climate change.

Planning in Australia continues to be organised on a state level, with no one unified planning system bu multiple jurisdictions which have evolved according to their state and territorial context, with the state capitals as the dominant center of attention.

Thus while there are certainly convergences of planning theory and practice between Australia and other English speaking countries, notably England and America, the distinctive characteristics of Australian planning are around a high level of state control, with reliance on the state to supply and coordinate infrastructure, and detailed attention to spacial planning in suburban developments.