This report analyses the way residents of Australia’s seven capital cities (the six state capitals plus Canberra) have travelled to work over the last 35 years. It uses data from the census, which has included a question on the mode of transport used to travel to work since 1976.

Melbourne’s metropolitan strategy Melbourne 2030 was conceived in 1999, born in 2002, pronounced dead in 2009 and finally buried, unmourned and unloved, in 2011. When the newly-elected Baillieu government announced earlier this year that it intended to scrap Melbourne 2030 and replace it with a new metropolitan planning strategy, the response was a deafening silence...

The governance and management of public transport systems is an essential component of metropolitan planning and urban management. Most metropolitan strategies in Australia and in other jurisdictions presuppose the provision of public transport. Yet there is often a disconnection between transport plans and land-use schemes. Similarly, metropolitan land-use plans that do integrate with transport plans...

As a result of recent changes to data collection and publication systems by the Australian, Canadian and United States national census agencies, it is now possible to compare urban densities and transport mode shares (for the journey to work) across the three countries’ urban areas on a consistent basis. This paper presents the results of...

This paper draws out the lessons for Australasian cities from the Vancouver success story, by examining the policies and actions taken in the areas of transport, urban consolidation and development regulation.