The density question:   The compact city in Australia

Over the years, the concept of the compact city has become formally codified into three general principles: 1) dense and contiguous development, 2) linked by good public transport systems, and 3) providing good accessibility to services and jobs. But this characterisation took some time to develop and had a number of sources.

In Australia the idea of ‘urban consolidation’ developed in the 1980s, arguing for higher densities in initial development, and seeking opportunities for renewal and redevelopment across the existing urban fabric.

Australian cities are among the lowest density in the world.

There were two main reasons for this. The first was the assumed saving in infrastructure costs that had been such a heavy charge on state governments in the rapid expansion of cities during the long boom. The second was the need to provide a wider variety of dwelling types and tenures for an increasingly diverse range of household types.

Sustainability had become a hot topic by the 1980s and a green paper by the European Commission on the urban environment in 1990 argued that the compact city provided both environmental and quality-of-life benefits.

Another powerful input into the development of the concept was the publication in 1989, by two Australians, of a book drawing a simplistic correlation between overall urban density and car use, showing that higher density cities around the world had much more use of public transport.

With these new drivers, a full-blooded application of the principle of increased density to the total form and structure of the city took place, and the term ‘compact city’ was in international use by the early 1990s. However its specific and detailed character took time to develop and has significant differences between countries and between the cities within them.

Source: SGS Planning, July 8, 2016 at https://www.sgsep.com.au/publications/urban-density-structure-and-form-six-cities-compared

Australian cities are