Conference

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

Owning Institution

The State of Australian Cities (SOAC) national conferences have been held biennially since 2003 to support interdisciplinary policy-related urban research. SOAC 7 was held in the City of Gold Coast and hosted by Griffith University.

The 164 peer reviewed papers were organised into seven broad themes but all shared, to varying degrees, a common focus on the ways in which high quality academic research can be used in the development and implementation of policy. The conference featured leading national and local politicians and policy makers who shared their views on some of the current challenges facing cities and how these might be overcome in the future.

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

Conference paper

Physical determinism and Australian cities

11 Dec 2015

Patrick Troy

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

The growth of Australia’s major cities is revealing a number of problems. For most of the post WWII period they grew in accordance with the form and structure of highly centralized cities.

Conference paper

A temporary city: temporary use as a tool for urban design in the creation of convivial urban space

11 Dec 2015

Hannah Shaw,

Alpana Sivam

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

Informed by interviews with eleven key industry stakeholders, this paper presents an analysis of the current approach to temporary use in the case study of the City of Adelaide and provides recommendations for a best practice approach to their efficient implementation and management.

Conference paper

Confirmed at last: green roofs add invertebrate diversity

11 Dec 2015

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

Drawing on classical ecological theory, this study assesses the factors which influence invertebrate diversity and composition on bare and green roofs in urban Sydney.

Conference paper

Urbanising nature: a political ecology case study of Sydney Park

11 Dec 2015

Catherine Evans

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

Drawing on evidence in planning documents and design reports, this paper documents the various ways in which formations and recreations of ‘nature’ were articulated, modified and inscribed into and onto Sydney Park between 1979 and 2010 to direct specific social, ecological and economic outcomes

Conference paper

Growing food in a residential landscape

11 Dec 2015

Ian Sinclair

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

Using the Sydney peri-urban area as a case study, it will be shown that this food is grown in a landscape that is mostly rural residential in use. The juxtaposition of rural residential land use to food production creates land use conflict.