The aim of this review study is to assess the prospects for a formal decentralisation program for Victoria – based upon achieving planned new cities and disbursed growth to these new purpose-built regional cities.

Language describing urban planning is often reliant on organic imagery, from the 'flow' of traffic, bodily metaphors of cohesion and health, to the 'monstrosity' of unwanted or questionable urban developments. This paper explores metaphors of liquidity, flow and submergence, as used to express ideas of 'good' and 'bad' urban environments in debates around the growth...