The environment, urban morphology, global relationships, overlaid with calls for participation in local democratic processes by community interest groups are driving changes in planning for regional cities. Taking the case of Bendigo, in Central Victoria, this paper places these new actualities into physical, spatial and temporal contexts.

Using the example of the regional Victorian city of Bendigo, this paper discusses new drivers for change in planning for regional cities. Key challenges are associated with environment, global relationships, urban amorphism, water security, sustainable growth, application of new planning policy, the clash between heritage and modernism, and calls for participation in local democratic processes...