The Central Business District of Melbourne and the Dispersal and Reconcentration of Capital

Abstract

This paper is a discussion of the complex spatial dynamic at work in the second largest state capital in Australia. What is happening to the central business district, it is argued, has to be seen in the context of the interaction between the state government and private capital. The evolving sociospatial structure of Melbourne will continue to be conditioned by the changing balance between the opportunities for capital which arise in the course of suburbanisation and the need for the state government and large-scale property interests to maintain a higher rate of investment in the central area.