Organisation
Australasian Urban History Planning History Group
Conference paper
"Grow your own"
Increased anxieties over contemporary crises such as climate change are generating interest in urban agriculture in Australia. The connection between suburban food producing environments and the urban environment is complex and often misunderstood. The food system is multi faceted and frequently intersects with economic, political and cultural aspects of society. By looking at historical events...
Conference paper
Assessing the tourism potential of an Australian industrial icon
In 2015, the remote mining community of Broken Hill became the first Australian city to be inscribed on the National Heritage List. The City Council’s strategic plans reflect an expectation that the inscription will lead to an increase in tourism. A better understanding of the core dimensions of a successful and sustainable cultural heritage tourism...
Conference paper
Locating the national in the urban
The ways that the past impacts the Australian city in the present, sparking the historical consciousness of its residents and rulers alike, has its own social history. No doubt this history is tied to nineteenth-century Britain, the National Trusts and other voluntary organisations, and the farsighted local figures that drew attention to aspects of the...
Conference paper
From eyesore to icon: reappraising Sydney’s Sirius Apartments (1975-80)
The paper discusses the Sirius apartments located in Sydney’s historic Rocks precinct. It is informed by personal communication with the building’s architect, Tao (Theodorus) Gofers. The paper situates the building in the context of the 1970s redevelopment plans for the Rocks, its critical reception as an urban eyesore and its re-evaluation as an iconic Brutalist...
Conference paper
Architecture and national identity in an era of globalisation
The Sydney Exhibition Centre by Philip Cox was conceived as an iconic building and recognised by the Sulman Award for its innovative steel technology, logical response to function and distinctive roofscape. It was one of a number of buildings constructed at Darling Harbour for Australia’s Bicentenary in 1988, intended to showcase the best in Australian...