Positive Planning in Australia: A Review of Historical and Emergent Rationales1

1. This is a revised version of an earlier working paper entitled “Public Land Agencies in Australia: The Key to Positive Planning?” published by the authors through the Urban Research Program at Griffith University in 2005.

Abstract

The role of public land agencies in Australia has ebbed and flowed over the past few decades broadly reflecting political cycles. Initially, in the early 1970s, the Land Commission Program (LCP) was established under the Whitlam government on a rationale with two broad bases: to create more efficient and fairer land markets; and to produce higher quality design outcomes. At the end of the Whitlam era—partly resulting from objections from the private sector, government-sponsored critiques of the land program and the ideologies of conservative governments—the influence of government in land development was substantially reduced. Today, although the variety of activities of public land developers is considerably wider, there remains significant scope for increased government involvement in land development, based on the emergence of new imperatives arising from complex shifts in social conditions, community preferences and scientific knowledge. Furthermore, the imperatives that led to the establishment of the LCP in 1972 are still relevant today.

Keywords:

• Public land development
• public real estate development
• positive planning
• Australia

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Nick Buchanan and Kylie Rolley for their research assistance in the preparation of this article. Professor Pat Troy provided invaluable first hand historical insights for which the authors are very grateful. Also the authors would like to thank the two anonymous referees for their kind and helpful comments.

Notes

1. This is a revised version of an earlier working paper entitled “Public Land Agencies in Australia: The Key to Positive Planning?” published by the authors through the Urban Research Program at Griffith University in 2005.

2. Established to oversee the cooperative development by Japan and Australia of a multifunctional high tech city on largely state-owned land 12 kilometres from the centre of Adelaide. The polis was to serve as a centre for cultural and technological exchange in the Pacific and a model for new urban life and industry in the 21st century (Parker, 1998).

3. Comparative analysis of private Master Planned Community developments (Johnson, 1997; Minnery & Bajracharya, 1999; Gwyther, 2005) and of large scale greenfield public land developments in meeting such aspirations and comparison along dimensions such as sustainability, governance and equity is warranted.