Australasian cities have ridden a long wave of economic growth driven by the export of resources, international education, tourism, and immigration. Far from being equally shared, this growth has instead produced widening disparities within and between cities, suburbs, and regions.

This paper focuses on interviews with urban manufacturers and cultural producers in Brunswick, a gentrifying suburb approximately six kilometres north of Melbourne’s central business district.

By fixating on a narrow geographic area, policymakers have overlooked the functional diversity and spatial extent of arts and cultural clusters in large metropolitan regions. We call attention to these industrial and geographic oversights in policy by examining the intersection between cultural industries and urban manufacturing at the regional scale.

This study analyses the spatial patterns of growth and decline for key circular activity sectors between 2011-2016 using Victoria, Australia as a case study.

Australia has entered a period of reduced COVID-19 restrictions, yet both the health and economic well-being of our communities remain fragile. This research aims to assist policymakers in assessing the risk of employment vulnerability as the impacts of COVID-19 evolve.