The importance of apartment living in creating sustainable cities has gained wide recognition as many Australian cities are beginning to grapple with rising populations. Concurrent with this shift in prioritisation, high density housing in Melbourne has experienced increasing pressures in terms of affordability and financialisation. Many practitioners, policy makers and members of the public have...

As cities are recognised as hotspots for biodiversity, urban greening interventions are becoming more important. Such initiatives are promoted as having multiple benefits for nonhumans and humans alike, infused with narratives of climate change adaptation and positive health outcomes. Yet little research has critically examined how residents of cities respond to urban greening or rewilding...

Thermally uncomfortable outdoor environments can significantly affect liveability of cities. Australia is likely to experience between 0.6 °C and 3.8 °C increase in temperature by the end of the 21st century. In warmer climates, increased demand for indoor air-conditioning results in higher energy demand and greater waste heat production. Anthropogenic heat production in the built...

Over the past two decades, Australian planning policies have supported largely unregulated land speculation and gentrification in relatively well served inner and middle suburbs, leading to displacement of low and moderate income households and growing spatial inequalities. The current Victorian state government signalled a new direction by ‘refreshing’ the third metropolitan strategy in as many...

Informed decision-making and democratic debate relies on access to urban policy resources. Such access is critical to understanding policy context, analysing path dependencies and critiquing accepted knowledge of what is possible for Australian cities. It can support systematic historical analysis—which can be an important tool for planning practitioners (Abbott & Sydler 1989; Ward, Freestone &...