A region can be distinguished by the diversity of landscapes that make-up that region, its degree of liveability and the elements that contribute to its liveability. These positive attributes of open space within a region can only be realised through the coherent and integrated form of a regional landscape framework. There have been a number of attempts to achieve a consolidated landscape framework in the past for the Brisbane City metropolitan region as well as for the South East Queensland region. On all occasions these regional scale initiatives were in response to rapidly changing growth pressures but most met with limited success or failed. Hence, it would be informative to establish if the lessons from these past initiatives had any relevance for the recent SEQ Regional Planning initiatives of the Queensland State Government and the region’s local governments. This paper has reviewed the principal attempts to address regional landscape and open space initiatives for the City and region in the past. The history of these attempts strongly demonstrates that community engagement through collaborative planning is the only feasible landscape management paradigm capable of successfully addressing the urban growth challenges facing South East Queensland and safeguarding its regional landscape values in their entirety. It has also been clearly demonstrated that it will be imperative to relate and address the regional landscape elements and values in the holistic context of a landscape framework. Additionally, this framework should be supported by collaborative institutional mechanisms in order to ensure the coordinated implementation of the concepts, policies and proposals. Whilst it appears that the new SEQ Regional Plan 2005-2026 and its implementation processes may provide a foundation for this to occur it is still by no means sure if the recently conferred statutory nature of the new Regional Plan will result in different outcomes to previous planning endeavours and whether these outcomes can take advantage of the lessons from the past.

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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 2 held in Brisbane from 30 November to 2 December 2005.

SOAC 2 was hosted by the Urban Research Program at the South Bank campus, Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University.

The principal intention of the conference was to lead a dialogue between leading researchers on the state of Australian cities and where they might be headed. SOAC 2 was designed to lead to a better understanding of the research needs of Australian cities and to provide those in the public and private sectors with a better appreciation of the current state and capacities of researchers.

SOAC 2 brought together participants from a wide range of fields, including:
academics, researchers, policy makers, private and public sector practitioners, leaders in government, social commentators and the media.

Conference papers published fromSOAC 2 were subject to a peer review process prior to presentation at the conference, with further editing prior to publication.