Seminar 8: The Americanisation of Australian Planning

This was the last seminar and reading that was presented to the class. There were several steps in the process of the Americanisation of Australian Planning. A few of these steps were the City Functional, War and Reconstruction, Post World War 2, Traffic studies and freeway design. City Functional was all about Governments looking at city and how it was connected and functioned. During the 1930s Australia took a few ideas from American planning such as the Radburn design, but a lot of these designs did not succeed in Canberra including the Radburn design. After World War 2, Australian planning really looked at American planning and used their ideas, urban sprawl had great growth after this period, and the first shopping malls were built in Australia during this time. With the rise of the car for individual transport, America and Australia like the rest of the Western world designed there cities based on the automobile. This led to Australia planners to learn from America planners on how to design and create efficient roads for Australia.

The concept of the car really changed how planners looked at a city and could be said that there was too much focus on the car and not enough on people. Which I explained in my last blogs was the most important concept of planning, that we plan for people. I think last concept that was discussed in the Seminar and the reading was New Australian Urbanism. It is a move back towards concentration on people. New Australian Urbanism is all about an emphasis on design of streetscape, liveability, walkability, compactness and community. I think that this new way at looking at planning is good for future growth of cities and towns. This last seminar and reading were very interesting for me.