In the Australian landscape the Gold Coast is famous for its development without a plan. This paper examines the causes and the consequences of this unplanned urbanisation process.

The paper uses a land use model developed by Auckland Council to examine how political actors, institutional and public politics influence the use of land models as an ‘evidence base’ for decision making.

This paper focuses on the concern with the present paucity of multidisciplinary discussions of the idea of the “global city” and what is perceived as a need for a more critical consideration of the practical challenges in Australian urban research.

This paper provides a brief background to what drove renewal projects in the cities of Melbourne and Adelaide and their current status, the changing priorities of government, the shifting commercial environment and current challenges faced by those seeking to plan these new urban spaces.

Using Australia’s largest city, Sydney, as a case study, this paper utilises and maps an urban form typology relevant to Australian cities before applying household behaviour indices to compare the relative sustainability merits of different urban form types. This paper will outline the methodology being used for this research before presenting some preliminary findings from...