This research investigates the potential for Australia’s regional areas to attract and sustain population and economic growth, examining whether particular international strategies and Australian models for supporting development have been effective.

Population growth hotspots can now be identified faster than ever in Australia, with the release of this index, developed by the Regional Australia Institute, in partnership with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

This research tests the usefulness of new datasets to inform the forward planning of social and community infrastructure in rapidly growing areas of Australian cities. It focusses on greenfield areas of Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth to demonstrate data sources and methods that can be replicated...

This report provides the most up-to-date estimates of New Zealand’s land cover and associated land use and changes.

Media reports and political discourse on our ageing population often adopt a tone of panic. This discussion paper untangles the facts from the myths, so that Australians can look afresh at the population ageing issue – less from a perspective of panic than one of...

Released in 2002, Melbourne 2030 - Planning for sustainable growth was the Victorian Government's long term plan for managing Melbourne's growth and development.

This paper focuses on five concerns touching cities that are rarely on planners’ screens, or given too little attention - notably fine particulate pollution, heat island effects and noise in local area settings, water quality deterioration from run-off, and the degradation of green space in...

What does sustainability mean in the context of the Victorian State Government's “Planning for Sustainable Growth” plan and what are the assumptions which underpin the plan? This paper will locate Melbourne 2030 within a much longer and pervasive history of antipathy towards the particular suburban...

Is the Australian city entering a new configuration? Or is it just more of the existing trends? This paper provides an overview of recent trends in Australian cities’ structure and the dynamics of change.

This report argues that the COVID-19 pandemic affords an opportunity for Australia to rethink the immigration policy and planning framework. The federal government’s pre-pandemic reduction in the planning cap on permanent migration from 190,000 per annum to 160,000 should be set aside indefinitely as non-binding...