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The purpose of this paper is to review sustainable planning literature and investigate a major development in an Australian regional city, looking for broad sustainable insights to improve urban growth management.

First, the authors sketched the backdrop to Ipswich and looked for the drivers propelling its rapid growth. They then generated a sustainability framework from the urban regeneration literature. In the empirical phase, they analysed a major development – the Icon project. They evaluated three of five regeneration domains using secondary sources, site observations and interviews with stakeholders and experts.

First, each city’s situation is unique, so the authors proffer no simplistic development formula. Internally, cities, including Ipswich, are spatially fragmented. Second, urban regeneration extends temporally and spatially beyond the project site boundaries or deadlines. Diminished property-driven regeneration neglects the social dimensions to sustainable housing or relegates it to an afterthought, but community participation is insufficient. Government needs to seed or drive (directly or via incentives) substantive social transformation. Projects supported with credible community social development are less risky, but, in competing for investment funds, local government can rush approve unsuitable projects.

The analysis focused on the planning and urban design aspects of the project. Only limited demographic, economic and social analyses were conducted, and the study would also benefit from interviews with a broader sample of experts.

Sustainable urban regeneration needs to consider not only the unique mix of regional growth drivers and constraints, but also specific local precinct characteristics. Intelligently configured community consultation should inform but not dilute design leadership.

This work investigates appropriate urban responses to growth pressure for sustainable outcomes in fast-growing regional cities.

This paper examines the impact of urban form on disaster resiliency. The literature shows a complex relationship between urban form factors such as density and diversity and disaster recovery. The empirical analysis in this paper tests the impact of land use mix, population density, building type and diversity on the reconstruction progress in three, six and nine months after the 2010 flood in Brisbane and Ipswich as proxies of disaster resilience. Considerable debate exists on whether urban form factors are the causal incentive or are they mediating other non-urban form causal factors such as income level. In view of this, the effects of a series of established non-urban form factors such as income and tenure, already known as effective factors on disaster resilience, are controlled in the analysis.

The structure of this paper is based on a two-phase research approach. In the first phase, for identification of hypothetical relationships between urban form and disaster resiliency, information was gathered from different sources on the basis of theory and past research findings. Then in phase two, a database was developed to test these hypothetical relationships, employing statistical techniques (including multivariate regression and correlation analysis) in which disaster recovery was compared among 76 suburbs of Brisbane and Ipswich with differing levels of population density and land use mix.

The results indicate that population density is positively related to disaster resilience, even when controlling for contextual variables such as income level and home ownership. The association between population density and disaster reconstruction is non-linear. The progress of reconstruction to population density ratio increases from low, medium to high densities, while in very low and very high density areas the reconstruction progress does not show the same behavior, which suggests that medium-high density is the most resilient.

The originality of this paper is in extracting hypothetical relationships between urban form and resiliency and testing them with real world data. The results confirmed the contribution of density to recovery process in this case study. This illustrates the importance of attention to disaster resiliency measures from the early stages of design and planning in development of resilient urban communities.

Since its inception in 1876, Queensland’s premier agricultural and pastoral show and largest annual event, the Brisbane Exhibition, has provided a forum in which to observe and reflect on the achievements, values, development and scope of Queensland’s education system. The inaugural constitution of the Exhibition’s host body, the National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland, drafted by the first headmaster of Brisbane Grammar School, Thomas Harlin, listed among its objects: ‘To award prizes for the attainment of proficiency by the youth of the colony in specified subjects’. In its first twenty‐five years of annual shows, the Association met this objective at a modest level through its schoolwork category, with the notable exception of 1883, when it sponsored a highly successful Juvenile Industrial Exhibition. Examination of both the regular schoolwork category and the Juvenile Exhibition reveals the elements of the local curriculum that the Association deemed appropriate for inclusion in its annual shows, while comments from newspapers, educators and other individuals on the quality and nature of the schoolwork displays offer insights into the context of and aspirations for the colony’s education system.

Many cities across the world are actively investing in ways to excel in the innovation economy through the development of innovation districts as one of the most popular policy options. While innovation districts are among the leading drivers of innovation activities in cities, they are also high-cost and high-risk investments. Besides, holistic approaches for assessing these districts’ multifaceted performances are scarce. Bridging this knowledge gap is critical, hence, this paper aims to explore how innovation district performance can be assessed through a classification framework.

The paper introduces a multidimensional innovation district classification framework and applies it into Australian innovation districts with divergent features, functions, spatial and contextual characteristics. The study places 30 innovation districts from South East Queensland under the microscope of the framework to assess the multifaceted nature of innovation district performance. It uses qualitative analysis method to analyse both the primary and secondary data, and descriptive analysis with basic excel spreadsheet calculations to analyse the validity of the data.

The data analysis clusters 30 innovation districts from South East Queensland under three performance levels – i.e. desired, acceptable and unsavoury – concerning their form, feature and function characteristics.

The results disclose that the framework is a practical tool for informing planners, developers and managers on innovation district performances, and it has the capability to provide guidance for policymakers on their policy and investment decisions regarding the most suitable innovation district types and characteristics to consider.

The purpose of this paper is to present a novel approach that examines the vulnerability and interdependency of critical infrastructures using the network theory in geographic information system (GIS) setting in combination with literature and government reports. Specifically, the objectives of this study were to generate the network models of critical infrastructure systems (CISs), particularly electricity, roads and sewerage networks; to characterize the CISs’ interdependencies; and to outline the climate adaptation (CA) and flood mitigation measures of CIS.

An integrated approach was undertaken in assessing the vulnerability and interdependency of critical infrastructures. A single system model and system-of-systems model were operationalized to examine the vulnerability and interdependency of the identified critical infrastructures in GIS environment. Existing CA and flood mitigation measures from government reports were integrated in the above-mentioned findings to better understand and gain focus in the implementation of natural disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies, particularly during the 2010/2011 floods in Queensland, Australia.

Using the results from the above-mentioned approach, the spatially explicit framework was developed with four key operational dimensions: conceiving the climate risk environment; understanding the critical infrastructures’ common cause and cascade failures; modeling individual infrastructure system and system-of-systems level within GIS setting; and integrating the above-mentioned results with the government reports to increase CA and resilience measures of flood-affected critical infrastructures.

While natural DRR measures include preparation, response and recovery, this study focused on flood mitigation. Temporal analysis and application to other natural disasters were also not considered in the analysis.

By providing this information, government-owned corporations, CISs managers and other concerned stakeholders will allow to identify infrastructure assets that are highly critical, identify vulnerable infrastructures within areas of very high flood risk, examine the interdependency of critical infrastructures and the effects of cascaded failures, identify ways of reducing flood risk and extreme climate events and prioritize DRR measures and CA strategies.

The individualist or “pigeon-hole” approach has been the common method of analyzing infrastructures’ exposure to flood hazards and tends to separately examine the risk for different types of infrastructure (e.g. electricity, water, sewerage, roads and rails and stormwater). This study introduced an integrated approach of analyzing infrastructure risk to damage and cascade failure due to flooding. Aside from introducing the integrated approach, this study operationalized GIS-based vulnerability assessment and interdependency of critical infrastructures which had been unsubstantially considered in the past analytical frameworks. The authors considered this study of high significance, considering that floodplain planning schemes often lack the consideration of critical infrastructure interdependency.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the responses from the urban planning and design professions in Brisbane to the impacts of climate change and the implications of the 2011 flood. In the past decade, the ramifications of climate change have already left a scar on some of the urban regions round the world. The Australian continent has been regarded as one of the most affected regions in terms of climate change implications. The 2011 Queensland floods of historic proportion, which came after a decade of extreme drought, raised many questions about the future development of cities. For the past decades, Queensland’s economy was largely based on property-led development. The flood plain land situated along Brisbane River has been developed and overburdened with building infrastructure contributing to the magnification of the flood events.

The research methodology is based on identification of the problem and the major objective. To address the objective, this study concentrated mainly on the use of qualitative research methods. The major qualitative research methods include literature review, qualitative analysis and observations. Brisbane, the capital of the Australian state of Queensland, has been selected as the case study area.

The paper revealed strong regional and city-wide planning directives addressing climate change which has not yet been fully been translated at the local-neighbourhood level.

This paper provides a deep insight analysis and evaluation of the design and planning measures currently used to combat the impacts of climate change.

Much research has focused on the reasons for child labor. This paper, in examining the experiences of late nineteenth century Australia seeks to ask the alternate research question: “What are the factors that cause managers to desist from the use of child labor during periods of initial industrialization, even where the society is characterized by a youthful demography and low levels of manufacturing productivity?”.

This study measures the incidence of child labor in Queensland, Australia's third largest state, through an examination of the censuses for 1891 and 1901. It then locates the results of this analysis in the nineteenth century Australian peculiar pattern of economic investment.

It is found that industrializing Australia had an extremely low incidence of child labor. This is attributed to the highly capitalized nature of the Australian rural and mining sectors, and the linkages between these sectors and the wider economy. This suggests that counties, or regions, with a highly commercialized primary sector, and with manufacturing establishments with high skill requirements (even if characterized by low productivity), will have a low incidence of child labor.

The most effective policy for reducing the incidence of child labor is to enhance capital investment in the primary sector and enhance the need for workplace skills in the secondary sector.

The International Labor Organisation suggests that there is currently a revival in child labor. This paper suggests that the most effective policies for reducing the incidence of child labor are ones that seek to foster increased levels of capital investment in the primary sector, rather than ones directed towards legal restriction or poverty alleviation.

This study aims to develop a photo-based methodology to identify occupants' collaborative image of the energy-efficient small-size housing.

Employing qualitative and quantitative approaches, 24 photos were randomly selected from different urban areas of Brisbane (Australia) city for an online survey. A total of 36 participants evaluated the photos 159 times.

Conducted content analysis resulted in the identification of 5 attribute-based factors, generated from 16 semantic categories and 74 attributes. Using a non-parametric Chi-square test, the factors were categorised in two levels, i.e. (1) envelope elements (primary and secondary) and passive climatic principles; and (2) architectural composition principles and neighbourhood quality.

The discussion on the results via the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) suggests that regarding the external aspects, the people's image of energy-efficient housing could be influenced by their perceived control over changeable and adjustable attributes.

The photo-based methodology developed by this paper has the potential to quantify occupants' collaborative image of small-size housing energy efficiency, which would be essential in assisting them to adjust their dwelling units regarding the congruity of the energy efficiency attributes with their preferences.

The purpose of this study was to propose a benchmark model for the process of post-migration social adjustment based on the points of view and experiences of young individuals from forced-migration backgrounds.

Twelve young adults (18–24 years) living in Australia with an experience of forced migration and from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds were recruited. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed through thematic analysis.

The results showed that post-migration social adjustment requires effective interactions within individual, family and community domains. The participants proposed specific characteristics, enablers and barriers for each domain that can affect the process of social adjustment after the experience of forced migration.

Based on the reported points of view and experiences of participants in this study, the authors proposed an ecological model that can be considered as a preliminary benchmark to inform policymaking, research and services focusing on the social adjustment of young refugees. The practical implications for resettlement programs are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to find an answer the question of whether an educational institution of a fair socio-economic mix of pupils, and an institution favoured with powerful political connections, made any difference to access, equity, and exclusivity in relation to the transition into secondary education. It undertakes this purpose as a historical investigation of Junction Park State School in the early twentieth century combined with statistical analysis of family backgrounds of scholarship holders and their cohorts from 1915 to 1932.

The socio-economic study uses a published list of scholarship holders from Junction Park State School for the years 1924-1932. The study compares the scholarship groupings with their different school cohorts for the same years using the data on parental occupations, extracted from the Junction Park State School Admission Records 1915-1931. After refinement the study examines a cohort data set of 4,531 pupils which includes 287 scholarship holders. Parental occupations are categorised into socio-economic groupings with high and low occupational ends. There were 237 parental occupations described among the cohort, 1915-1931, from the admission records.

The statistical chance of obtaining scholarship is increased for a pupil from “commercial low” and “industrial low” background when the school starts with a cohort that has a large representation from such backgrounds. Pupils who were at the lower end of the socio-economic scale at Junction Park State School did much better in scholarship outcomes than for the state. However, pupils whose family background was at the high end of the professions did marginally better than the state result. For the school between 1915 and 1932, in most socio-economic groupings, the boys outperform the girls in the like-to-like comparisons.

The numeric value is excessively low for the primary producers (high) category and numbers in cohort groupings vary. This study deliberately applied like-to-like comparisons: the number of scholarship holders compared to their own gender for the same socio-economic cohort. Percentile in relation to the study’s total was not used due to numeric variations between cohort sizes. The study is a historical investigation of a formative period before Junction Park State School developed its reputation as a scholarship school in the 1940s, and historical factors relating to the post-Second World War era would have different results for a similar statistical analysis.

The paper presents a case study of particular historical significance; however, a generic principle that institutional status can change access and equity opportunities can be tested within the historical setting. The paper claims that historical investigation provides the groundwork to establish the distinctive actuality. Historical investigation picks up on unusual patterns over time, not necessarily to disprove the sociological model, but more to test the model against actual events.

The Queensland social history is connected to the study’s statistical analysis. The data are considered from a perspective that, first, Junction Park had a diverse population of pupils from different socio-economic backgrounds. Second, the school had a solid reputation as a leading school, partly from the political standing of the school leadership, and partly from the strength of its scholarship teachers. Together these factors suggest that pupils at Junction Park State School from the socio-economic backgrounds less inclined to foster educational values were given greater support to achieve better scholarship outcomes.

Statistical analysis is rarely brought to academic history work. There are greater risks in misinterpreting the data. There is also a difficult enterprise of extracting the required information. Nevertheless, the reward from this paper is an insightful view of a large and an innovating Queensland primary school, picking up the details in the life experience of pupils. In that historical process there is a greater degree of accuracy and better interpretive value which can be applied to the sociological model.