This book examines failed new city proposals in Australia to understand the hurdles - environmental, societal, and economic - that have curtailed such visions. The lessons from these relative failures are important because, if projections for Australia's 21st century population growth are borne out, we will need to build new cities this century. This is particularly the case in northern Australia, where the federal government projects a four-fold increase in population in the next four decades. The book aims that, when we commence 21st century new city dreaming, we have learnt from the mistakes of the past and, are not doomed to repeat them.


Dr. Julian Bolleter is the Deputy Director of the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC) at the University of Western Australia. His role at the AUDRC includes teaching a master’s program in urban design and conducting urban design-related research and design projects. He has completed a PhD on Dubai’s urban development (which will be published in late 2018) and has commercially published three other books including ’Made in Australia: The future of Australian cities’ (with Richard Weller), ’Take Me to the River: A history of Perth’s foreshore’ and ’Scavenging the Suburbs: auditing Perth for 1 million infill dwellings.’