The purpose of this paper is to attempt an evaluation of the results to date of the Melbourne privatisation process, with a view to establishing whether it represents an improvement over continued government operation.

The research reported in this paper is situated at within a set of contemporary literatures concerning the spatial development of large urban areas, within the context of the ongoing restructuring of urban employment and housing markets.

According to this paper it is the relationship between multiculturalism as a policy issue and social harmony among different cultural groups, specifically that of avoiding spatial (and implicitly social) segregation, hence pluralism, that most concerns social scientists and commentators.

The debate over the costs and benefits of urban consolidation has perhaps never been more important given the rise in the importance of sustainability principles as a basis of planning, the growth of megacities and development pressure on countrysides.

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.