The ‘zombie subdivision’ is a phenomenon identified by the Lincoln Institute as ‘once- promising projects’ now ‘distressed’, with the fulfilment of plans or visions for the site effectively stalled. Services such as water, electricity, and roads are often absent in these areas, leaving them partially- occupied, or more often, completely vacant.

The city of Melbourne is one significantly shaped by the activities of private land developers, who undertook the subdivision, planning, and sale of residential estates which now comprise the bulk of extant suburbs. A number of these estates were highly speculative in nature, reflecting renewed public interest in real estate following each of the two...

Quarrying is a noxious industrial activity necessary for the provision of stone and clay, utilised predominately in building activities as the city grows. In post-industrial Melbourne, the extraction of these materials has left a pock-marked landscape, reflecting the fact that the city was settled upon an opportune juncture of sand-and-clay, basalt, and mudstone fields.

When ‘quiet voiced pragmatist’ Fred Pooley (1916-1998) visited Australia as guest of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in the summer of late 1981, he was recently retired from practice; a past president of the RIBA and seemingly best known for his role – such as it was – in the development of Milton Keynes...

This paper examines the history of the ‘100 years of inaction’ in Soloman Heights urban planning. With particular attention to the efforts by the current responsible Local Government Authority to broker a satisfactory outcome for all stakeholders.