While retail form has implications for matters such as consumer accessibility, quality of service and transport patterns and has been the subject of investigations overseas, there have been comparatively few investigations into the nature of retail form in Australia and the factors that shape that form.

The aim of this paper is an empirical investigation of the changing spatial organisation of economic activities and the functions of identified employment centres within the context of a polycentric and dispersed employment pattern.

This paper critically examines the urban design of waterfront cultural and leisure precincts in Australian cities, in terms of simple functional planning matters such as use, scale and connectivity, but also examining how these are entangled in more complex representational, behavioural and political outcomes.