The Federal Government’s Better Cities Program (BCP) of the early 1990s is credited with providing the financial stimulus that facilitated the nation’s long term economic growth. This $814m package was invested in 26 strategic projects around the country. In each case, this Federal investment was matched by state funding and provided the catalyst to unlock the economic growth potential of Australian cities and regions.

Numerous evaluation reports were carried out at the completion of the BCP in the mid 1990s. However, the flow on effects of this investment continued long after the program’s completion and have largely gone unreported. The Property Council of Australia (Queensland) has commissioned this report to examine the long term economic impacts of the BCP, some 20 years after its end.

Two of the original 26 projects have been used as case studies, to demonstrate the ongoing impacts this catalytic investment has had across the nation: Newcastle’s Honeysuckle redevelopment and Brisbane’s urban renewal area. Both were derelict industrial wastelands in the early 1990’s. Thanks to the BCP funding and the management structures created, both Newcastle and Brisbane today have thriving waterfront precincts that generate significant economic benefits to their cities, states and the nation in general.