The Americanization of Australian Planning

Abstract

A broad-brush survey of American influences on the development of Australian planning thought over the past century is presented. Set within a wider appreciation of the Americanization of Australian society, and drawing on cross-cultural urbanism and the international diffusion of planning ideas, the article chronologically explores a series of Australian encounters with American planning from the city beautiful era to the new urbanism. Parallels between American and Australian stories are clearly striking, but a major theme to emerge is the adaptation of American models to new spatial and social settings and the tensions embedded within these encounters. The borrowing process was not uncritical. Many interactions ended unhappily with planning ideology restlessly moving on to new panaceas.