Abstract: In recent years, despite boom times, the people of Perth have been noted for their apparent unwillingness to accept change. Large projects designed to invigorate the city of Perth have been rejected and a number of proposals to develop the city’s Swan River waterfront have failed to materialise, adding ammunition to popular media criticism that Perth is a city that always says ‘no’.

In this paper historical evidence is used to examine two of the waterfront schemes and their results. The first, the Narrows Scheme, was part of the Stephenson-Hepburn Plan of 1955 and was implemented during the years 1954 to 1973. The second, the Perth City Foreshore Project, was initiated by a major study in 1983 and resulted in the Carr, Lynch, Hack and Sandell design concept of 1991. The former was implemented, but had unanticipated consequences. The latter foundered, like subsequent plans for the waterfront.

Why was one implemented while the other failed to materialise? The paper analyses aspects of the two schemes and their reception and then speculates on the impact of the re-emergence of the notion of civil society and its corollary, pluralism in public administration, on urban planning.