The Origins of Australia's Capital Cities is a comprehensive survey, well illustrated with maps and plans, which aims to answer two questions. First, why Australia's eight capital cities are situated where they are, and second, how they were established. Pairs of chapters on each of the State capitals - Sydney, Hobart, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane - are accompanied by studies of Canberra as the federal capital and Darwin as a territorial capital. A capital is the administrative centre of a political entity, and in Australia, unlike many overseas countries, a uniquely high proportion of the population resides in the capitals. Companion chapters examine the causes of initial European settlement in each area, and reasons for the actual establishment of each capital city. Attention is given to such topics as planning and layout, the basis of growth, potential rivals, the social nature of the cities and the nature of their spread. While there have been no other volume covering all the capitals to seek answers to the same basic questions. This will therefore be an invaluable source book, and provide a stimulus to further enquiry in the social history of Australia. An introduction by the editor pulls together the general strands which link the chapters, and highlights the ways in which the Australian experience contrasts with the urban experience overseas.

The Foundation of Australia’s Capital Cities is the story of how the places chosen for Australia’s seven colonial capitals came to shape their unique urban character and built environments. Tony Webster traces the effects of each city’s geologically diverse coastal or riverine landform and the local natural materials that were available for construction, highlighting how the geology and original landforms resulted in development patterns that have persisted today.

This comprehensive survey aims to answer two questions. First, why Australia's eight capital cities are situated where they are, and second, how they were established. Pairs of chapters on each of the state capitals--Sydney, Hobart, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Brisbane--are accompanied by studies of Canberra as federal capital and Darwin as territorial capital.

How do you creatively plan for a population of 62 million by 2100, Australia's current major city planning frameworks only account for an extra 5.5 million people. Whether we want a 'Big Australia' or not, Australia's 21st century is likely to see rapid and continual growth - and if we want liveable, high functioning cities and regional centres we need to think outside the box. Richard Weller and Julian Bolleter (Australian Urban Design Research Centre) offer optimistic and creative solutions for the future with one imperative: what we build this century will make or break our country.

Fields, Capitals, Habitus provides an insightful analysis of the relations between culture and society in contemporary Australia. Presenting the findings of a detailed national survey of Australian cultural tastes and practices, it demonstrates the pivotal significance of the role culture plays at the intersections of a range of social divisions and inequalities: between classes, age cohorts, ethnicities, genders, city and country, and the relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The book looks first at how social divisions inform the ways in which Australians from different social backgrounds and positions engage with the genres, institutions, and particular works of culture and cultural figures across six cultural fields: the visual arts, literature, music, heritage, television, and sport. It then examines how Australians' cultural preferences across these fields interact within the Australian 'space of lifestyles'. The close attention paid to class here includes an engagement with role of 'middlebrow' cultures in Australia and the role played by new forms of Indigenous cultural capital in the emergence of an Indigenous middle class. The rich survey data is complemented throughout by in-depth qualitative data provided by interviews with survey participants. These are discussed more closely in the final part of the book which explores the gendered, political, personal and community associations of cultural tastes across Australia's Anglo-Celtic, Italian, Lebanese, Chinese and Indian populations. The distinctive ethical issues associated with how Australians relate to Indigenous culture are also examined. In the light it throws on the formations of cultural capital in a multicultural settler colonial society, Fields, Capitals, Habitus makes a landmark contribution to cultural capital research.

The issue of capital city relocation is a topic of debate for more than forty countries across the world. In this first book to discuss the issue, Vadim Rossman offers an in-depth analysis of the subject, highlighting the global trends and the key factors that motivate different countries to consider such projects, analyzing the outcomes and drawing lessons from recent capital city transfers worldwide for governments and policy-makers. Capital Cities studies the approaches and the methodologies that inform such decisions and debates. Special attention is given to the study of the universal patterns of relocation and patterns specific to particular continents and mega-regions and particular political regimes. The study emphasizes the role of capital city transfers in the context of nation- and state-building and offers a new framework for thinking about capital cities, identifying six strategies that drive these decisions, representing the economic, political, geographic, cultural and security considerations. Confronting the popular hyper-critical attitudes towards new designed capital cities, Vadim Rossman shows the complex motives that underlie the proposals and the important role that new capitals might play in conflict resolution in the context of ethnic, religious and regional rivalries and federalist transformations of the state, and is seeking to identify the success and failure factors and more efficient implementation strategies. Drawing upon the insights from spatial economics, comparative federalist studies, urban planning and architectural criticism, the book also traces the evolution of the concept of the capital city, showing that the design, iconography and the location of the capital city play a critical role in the success and the viability of the state.