Regulating Urban Containment in Australia Brisbane and Melbourne Compared

Abstract

Queensland's South East Queensland Regional Plan, 2005- 2026 (SEQ Regional Plan) is the latest in a crop of regionally based, urban planning documents across Australia. Like other states, Queensland has finally acknowledged the environmental and economic consequences of urban sprawl. It has now accepted that solutions need to be managed and implemented on a regional scale that transcends existing local government boundaries. The SEQ Regional Plan canvasses a variety of measures and policies to address these issues.1 This paper compares the SEQ Regional Plan with its Melbourne equivalent, Melbourne 2030, and examines the legislative and regulatory measures flowing from each document. While the two documents differ on some details, overall they exhibit a very similar agenda. This may indicate an emerging 'Australian' approach to urban containment.