Abstract: The expansion of city boundaries into its non-urban hinterland has meant that most agriculture and other non-urban activities that support urban activity, such as food production, provision of fresh water, waste management and economic services, have been forced to retreat. Yet the growth of urban populations requires more of these non-urban lands and their products and attributes. Despite knowledge that resources are finite and there are no more lands to discover, cities continue to develop with apparent disregard for the consequences of continuing this trajectory using traditional approaches. The effects of managing peri-urban land under current paradigms are demonstrated in case studies of Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. The conclusion uses international examples to suggest that new planning approaches that take an holistic view of land use management in a new paradigm are needed.