The State of Australian Cities (SOAC) national conferences have been held biennially since 2003 to support interdisciplinary policy-related urban research. This third conference was jointly hosted in Adelaide by the University of South Australia, the University of Adelaide and Flinders University.

Papers from all past and subsequent SOAC conferences can be found at the State of Australian Cities Conferences Collection on APO.

SOAC 3 focused on the contemporary form and structure of Australian cities and refereed papers were grouped into six key sub-themes: 

• City Economy - economic change and labour market outcomes of globalisation, land use pressures, changing employment locations.
• Social City – including population, migration, immigration, polarisation, equity and disadvantage, housing issues, recreation.
• City Environment - sustainable development, management and performance, natural resource management, limits to growth, impacts of air, water, climate, energy consumption, natural resource uses, conservation, green space.
• City Structures – the emerging morphology of the city – inner suburbs, middle suburbs, the CBD, outer suburbs and the urban-rural fringe, the city region.
• City Governance – including taxation, provision of urban services, public policy formation, planning, urban government, citizenship and the democratic process.
• City Infrastructure – transport, mobility, accessibility, communications and IT, and other urban infrastructure provision.