Regional Planning in Australia: Evolution and Challenges

This article discusses the evolution of regional planning in Australia since its independence, focusing on the concepts of regionalism and regionalization. It explores the different approaches to regional planning and the challenges faced in achieving coordinated governance. The case of South East Queensland is highlighted as an example of successful regional planning. The importance of regional planning in managing pollution impacts is also emphasized.

Running Head: UXH433 REGIONAL PLANNING
UXH433 Regional Planning
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The main focus of week 3’s lecture is the issue of regionalism and regionalization in
Australia: the two socio-political processes that have supported the evolution of regional
planning in the country since its independence. Regionalisation is a process of creating a region
and engaging in successful operations, which would lead to efficient policy implementation and
management of programs, where as regionalism refers to a collaborative process in which
members of a regional community actively participates in decision making (Campbell, 1996). A
regional self-organisation usually stems from local community to promote a particular purpose.
The regional planning approach in Australia has been changing since its independence in
1901. The administrative decentralisation approach post-independence laid focus on national
development through a coordinated approach. During the 1940s, centralisation gave way to
regional economic development through the administrative decentralisation approach. The
regional organisation of councils approach during 1972-75 focused in interest groups in the non-
metropolitan areas of the country. During the 1990s, strategic participatory frameworks were
created for industrial-sectoral regional planning (Enright & Roberts, 2001). With the widespread
growth of metropolitan areas, emphasis was laid on the integrated planning approaches for cities
and urban regions since 2000.
One of the prominent examples of a self-governed region in Australia is South East
Queensland (SEQ). The earliest regional planning process for SEQ was based on a collaboration
and understanding between the regional community and different levels of the government- the
commonwealth and the State. Voluntary growth management was initiated with SEQ for the first
time in 1990 with the SEQ 2001 conference (Australia, 2019), which led to the endorsement of a
framework of Regional Growth Management by all the governments by 1995.

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Since 2000, regionalism in Australia has taken different forms in urban regions as
compared to rural regions. Being under individual regional governance, approaches to the
planning and administration of metro regions vary from state to state.
The emergence of large global urban regions has majorly been a result of metropolitan
plans created by the states and territories for the planning and development of their capital cities
(Grant Wyeth, 2017). Prominent examples of this trend are: Melbourne 2030, Sydney 2036, and
South East Queensland Regional Plan 2031. The SEQ Statutory Regional Plan 2005-2026 was
the first regulation planned for SEQ. It focused on urban footprint increase, development of the
Western Corridor, regional infrastructure, and local growth management strategies. The updated
SEQ 2009-2031 plan, along with the objectives of the previous plan, laid emphasis on direct
growth in existing urban areas, with special focus on the activity areas (Australia, 2019).
Despite meticulous planning and long-term goals, the Regional governance in Australia
has conformed poorly. The process has been described by many as fragmented, inefficient and
uncoordinated. It has faced issues in the areas of economic development, transport planning,
human services, education, arts and cultural development. Due to the development of multiple
government bodies, plans and strategies, governance of development has become complicated
with divergence on objectives and structures. In order to be successful, Regional governance in
Australia needs to coordinate its activities and services to match the expanding reach and impacts
of developing technologies. Different bodies responsible must growth and development must
come under one roof to discuss and formulate one solid solution. Regional planning is still
extremely vital to manage the issue of increasing range and quantity of pollution impacts
affecting water, air, waste management and the like.

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References:
Australia, G. (2019). Queensland. [online] Rda.gov.au. Available at: https://www.rda.gov.au/my-
rda/qld.aspx [Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
Brown, A. J. (2006). Federalism, regionalism and the reshaping of Australian
governance. Federalism and regionalism in Australia. New approaches, new institutions,
11-32. (Brown, 2006)
Campbell, A. (1996). Regionalism, regionalisation and natural resource management. Centre
for Resource and Environmental Studies.
Enright, M. J., & Roberts, B. H. (2001). Regional clustering in Australia. Australian Journal of
Management, 26(1_suppl), 65-85.
Grant Wyeth, T. (2017). Time for Australia to Embrace Urbanization. Retrieved 30 August 2019,
from https://thediplomat.com/2017/01/time-for-australia-to-embrace-urbanization/