Urban Design Directions for Austrailia

Australia is an island continent with an essentially linear distribution of population. Approximately 90% of its people are located in 12 main urban centres spread along 30,000 km of coastline. In a recently published book entitles “The Coast Dwellers” by Australian architect and writer Philip Drew (1994), Drew sees Australians as quintessential “verandah people” sitting on the edge of our continent. He feels that those who see Australians in the “Crocodile Dundee” image are missing the point; that nearly all ofus live on the edge communing with the lifegiving sea rather than with the dead heart of the country. He puts forward evidence that seven out of ten Australians live in the narrow corridor of land on the eastern coast between the mountain range and the ocean, one in fifteen Australians lives within fifteen minutes drive of the beach, and most of the rest of the population live within one hour’s drive of the water.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Intl.1995.36

Volume Editors
John K. Edwards