The Bellwether Zone? Planning Infrastructure in South-East Queensland

Abstract

The paper addresses the growing public, scholarly and policy concern over the impact and implications of urban growth in the ‘population powerhouse’ of South East Queensland (SEQ), the fastest growing urban region in Australia. Drawing on the work of Graham and Marvin (2001) around ‘splintering urbanism’, the new tendency of infrastructure development, with its contemporary economic and policy authority, to shape the conditions for planning are explored. We essay a striking example of splintered infrastructure development in the SEQ region and assess the implications for planning and for growth management generally. We choose the term ‘infrastructure development’ rather than ‘infrastructure planning’ because the genesis, financing and construction of contemporary infrastructure reflects both 1) the splintered qualities outlined by Graham and Marvin (2001), and 2) deep, occasionally catastrophic, anomalies sourced in contemporary financing models. This cannot be described as ‘planning’. In this sense, contemporary infrastructure development is simply a new form of urban development that is eclipsing planning. We do not think this phenomenon is confined to SEQ, and we consider parallels in other Australian jurisdictions.