Between 1940 and 1970 the New Zealand Government undertook an extensive expansion programme of hydro-electric power infrastructure across New Zealand’s North and South Islands.

This paper locates the origins of New Zealand’s low-density urban settlement pattern or sprawl in capitalist social relations and the cultural practices of the first settlers during the 1840s and 1850s. While the grid plans of towns conveyed notions of order and regularity, the commercial imperative to maximise the profit-making potential of urban land created...

New Zealand has a rich history of natural hazard events, including flooding, coastal erosion, tsunami, volcanic eruption, earthquakes, and landslides. In many instances, these natural hazards have determined the location of our towns and cities, including relocating our towns when the risk becomes intolerable.

Place identity in Australia is currently in a state of flux, owing to the decentralization of cultural landscapes through urbanization. Indigenous caring for landscape has always been associated with the originary condition of Australian wilderness. This paper argues that an understanding of place identity in Australia can arrive from a reassessment of national cultural landscapes...

Early royal visits to New Zealand were episodes of intense symbolic activity played out on an urban scale. These events are generally understood as affirmations of British identity. However, this paper shows how the Prince of Wales’ 1920 tour of New Zealand was also used to promote the distinct character of the young dominion. The...