After a decade of rapid change, the sea change phenomenon is now well established on the eastern Australian coast where its impacts have been an ongoing focus for all tiers of government. However, in January 2006, a report to the National Sea Change Taskforce called for ‘more detailed research within specific communities’ in recognition of the diverse and contextual ‘place based’ nature of the phenomenon. In Western Australia, while the wave of change has yet to be fully experienced, there are signs that the lessons learned in the eastern seaboard have yet to be absorbed by governments and policy makers. This paper reflects on impacts to date, and future signposts focussing on the City of Albany – an important regional centre some 4.5 hours south of Perth – that is currently experiencing the phenomenon and its impacts. Albany once considered itself ‘an hour too far away’ – to be affected. In fact the rapid growth and infrastructure and development demands are placing not only the fragile environment under stress, but putting the very notion of ‘Albany’ and whose community it is, under question. This paper highlights some of the intensely localised impacts and their relationship to a sense of place and sense of belonging. The research project is part of a larger 5 year international study – Sustaining Gondwana - currently being undertaken within Curtin University.

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The State of Australian Cities (SOAC) national conferences have been held biennially since 2003 to support interdisciplinary policy-related urban research.

This paper was presented at SOAC 3 held in Adelaide from 28 to 30 November 2007.

SOAC 3 was jointly hosted by the University of South Australia, the University of Adelaide and Flinders University.

Themes and Key Persons

SOAC 3 focused on the contemporary form and structure of Australian cities.
The conference proceedings were grouped into six key sub-themes, each the focus of one of more conference sessions:

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.

Paper Review Process

Conference papers published from SOAC 3 were produced through a process of integrated peer review.

There were originally 147 abstracts proposed, 143 were invited to submit papers and 107 papers were finally published.