Exurban Development in Australia and the United States: Through a Glass Darkly

Abstract

Exurban population growth around Australian cities has been observed for at least a quarter of a century. Low-density residential development of this type has been a concern of land use planners over the same period, with loss of prime agricultural land, costs of service provision, landscape impacts, and overreliance on transport by private automobiles being the main issues. Focusing on Sydney's perimetropolitan region, this paper presents data on exurban growth rates and intraurban migration for the decade 1981 to 1991 and also sketches sociodemographic features of exurban settlers. While the types of people populating exurbia are similar to their US counterparts, rates of exurban growth are much lower. The second part of the paper suggests reasons for this contrast. Although a number of factors regarded as driving exurban growth in the US also operate in Australia, they are argued to have less impact. Other factors relevant in the US do not appear to be significant in Australia The differing spatial structure of Australian and US cities, along with the apparently greater strength of regional planning in Australia, are argued to account for the differences.