New national and international economic and social forces have reshaped national geographies in general and the characteristics of cities in particular, resulting in a range of diverse social and spatial outcomes. These outcomes, which include greater differentiation across, within and between metropolitan regions and cities, have become a feature of the economic and social forces associated with post-Fordist social structures. Within Australian cities clear divisions across socio-economic lines are seen to exist, and these divisions can be seen as being reflected in a number of measures of social malaise. The analysis presented in this paper sets up a typology of advantage and disadvantage across Australia’s extended metropolitan regions and considers the way in which the broad patterns developed can be used to inform a greater understanding of disadvantage within Australian cities.