Australian Cities Research Articles

Aboriginal linguistic exchange in an Australian city

Abstract Tropical northern Australia is a region of high linguistic diversity, with dozens of language varieties each spoken by a small number of people. Traditionally, this level of diversity has been supported by egalitarian linguistic ecologies, where Aboriginal people use multiple languages alongside one another in each local region. In this study, I explore new types of multilingual practices that are emerging in Darwin, the only major city in the area. Aboriginal people from the homelands often visit Darwin, and some become permanent residents, which provides the context for new types of multilingual encounters. Kriol and English are also used as a ‘fall-back’ languages to mitigate gaps in understanding, which allows multilingual interaction to occur between people who have only partial knowledge of eachothers’ languages. I characterise these practices as ‘linguistic exchange’, used by speakers to establish their links to kin and country, while also showing respect for their interlocutor’s social connections. Linguistic exchange also supports the distinctive Aboriginal mode of demand-driven resource sharing. Aboriginal language use in Darwin suggests that urban mobility is not necessarily detrimental to the future vitality of the region’s rich linguistic heritage.

A collaborative learning model for a flourishing green roofs, walls and facades sector: Exploring two major Australian cities

The combined challenges of climate change, urban densification, and pandemic-related isolation and stress have strengthened the case for increased greening in cities where their social and environmental benefits have captured the interest of policy-makers. Green roofs, walls, and facades (GRWF) are an established solution in many space-constrained northern hemisphere cities. This is not the case in Australia where GRWF sector growth is slower. To understand how to accelerate the uptake of GRWF, we ran appreciative inquiry summits in Sydney and Melbourne. We examined (1) actions for flourishing GRWFs and (2) collaboration for rapid innovation. Our results highlight collaborative learning and link this to phases of sector evolution through government-led research partnerships, policy, and incentives; a national body advocating, and supporting, engaging, and developing expertise; and cross-sector co‑leading for alignment and building sector capacity and knowledge. We integrate these into our model, revealing adoption, legitimation, and diffusion and sector growth phases, finding stalled progress and new initiatives signalling recent change. This work is relevant to GRWF and other forms of green infrastructure in cities where these technologies are new or not widely implemented.

Pacific artistic communities in Australia: Gaining visibility in the art world

This article shows that although Pacific arts began to be largely recognised in Australia in the 1990s, Pacific artists based in Australia remained mostly invisible in the contemporary art scene until the mid-2000s. I aim to demonstrate how Pacific artists and curators—who in some cases collaborated with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and curators—have made visible myriad Pacific identities and social trajectories in Australian cities. Exhibitions reveal and highlight multiple experiences of Pacific people residing in Australia, for whom Pacific cultures are partly mediated by the experiences of their relatives, popularised by museum collections and coloured by the gaze of non-Pacific people. This article is built around two cultural events that have not previously received scholarly attention, a group show curated in Sydney by Māori artist and cultural worker Keren Ruki and a triennial in Brisbane imagined and organised by Bundjalung Yugambeh (Aboriginal Australian) artist and curator Jenny Fraser. It addresses how narratives in the 2000s were often connected to objectives of empowerment and the necessity to build a future for Pacific peoples in Australian society.

Creating hospitable urban spaces: A multicultural city for refugees and asylum seekers

Australia is one of a handful of countries offering permanent settlement to refugees. It also has some of the harshest border-controlling measures. Drawing on Derrida’s writing on hospitality, and related work on hospitality’s affective and spatial dimensions, we examine the micropolitics of hospitality towards forced migrants in an Australian city (Brisbane). Our interest is in the affordances of affective hospitality to interrupt practices of differential inclusion in the city. The first part of the paper examines practices of embedded activism in health and education encounters, while the second part explores affect’s influence on the protest sensibility in urban movements against mandatory detention. The paper furthers understandings of the embodied and affective dimensions of hospitality in social justice work performed in urban spaces.

ESTIMATION AND INFERENCE WITH NEAR UNIT ROOTS

New methods are developed for identifying, estimating, and performing inference with nonstationary time series that have autoregressive roots near unity. The approach subsumes unit-root (UR), local unit-root (LUR), mildly integrated (MI), and mildly explosive (ME) specifications in the new model formulation. It is shown how a new parameterization involving a localizing rate sequence that characterizes departures from unity can be consistently estimated in all cases. Simple pivotal limit distributions that enable valid inference about the form and degree of nonstationarity apply for MI and ME specifications and new limit theory holds in UR and LUR cases. Normalizing and variance stabilizing properties of the new parameterization are explored. Simulations are reported that reveal some of the advantages of this alternative formulation of nonstationary time series. A housing market application of the methods is conducted that distinguishes the differing forms of house price behavior in Australian state capital cities over the past decade.

Overcoming obstacles to accessibility and inclusivity in an Australian regional city: A transdisciplinary research approach

ABSTRACT This paper describes research asking what is required to overcome entrenched obstacles to accessibility and inclusivity in an Australia regional city, in particular for those living with disability. A transdisciplinary, systems thinking approach allowed a range of stakeholders, including many with lived experiences of disability, to create a collective plan of action. This plan included interdependent interventions, independent and ahead of national governance, connecting urban planning policy to education, public transport, housing provision, co-design of public buildings, community infrastructure and inclusive employment practices. Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity within regional planning research was seen as impacting the process and outcomes.

‘The Whole Concept of Social Cohesion, I Thought, “This Is So Qur’anic”’: Why Australian Muslim Women Work to Counter Islamophobia

Islamophobia is on the rise in many Western countries, and while previous research has considered the causes of Islamophobia and the impact it has on its victims, little research has investigated the attitudes and experiences of Muslims who are working to counter Islamophobia, and particularly those of Muslim women. This research investigates the motivations and intentions of Australian Muslim women who run public engagement events for non-Muslims to counter Islamophobia and build social cohesion. Data were obtained via in-depth interviews with 31 Sunni, Shia, Ahmadiyya Muslim women in four Australian capital cities. The three main themes that emerged were that the women wanted to connect with the non-Muslims who attended the events, create positive social change, and increase the knowledge that non-Muslims had about Islam and Muslims. Significantly, the women said that their most important motivator was their faith, and they rejected the idea that they were doing such work to appease non-Muslims. Instead, they saw work was an affirmation of their identity as Muslim women and their commitment to God.

Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) during landscape fire events and the risk of cardiorespiratory emergency department attendances: a time-series study in Perth, Western Australia

BackgroundLandscape fires (LFs) are the main source of elevated particulate matter (PM2.5) in Australian cities and towns. This study examined the associations between daily exposure to fine PM2.5 during LF...

The AusPollen partnership project: Allergenic airborne grass pollen seasonality and magnitude across temperate and subtropical eastern Australia, 2016–2020

BackgroundAllergic rhinitis affects half a billion people globally, including a fifth of the Australian population. As the foremost outdoor allergen source, ambient grass pollen exposure is likely to be altered by climate change. The AusPollen Partnership aimed to standardize pollen monitoring and examine broad-scale biogeographical and meteorological factors influencing interannual variation in seasonality of grass pollen aerobiology in Australia. MethodsDaily airborne grass and other pollen concentrations in four eastern Australian cities separated by over 1700 km, were simultaneously monitored using Hirst-style samplers following the Australian Interim Pollen and Spore Monitoring Standard and Protocols over four seasons from 2016 to 2020. The grass seasonal pollen integral was determined. Gridded rainfall, temperature, and satellite-derived grassland sources up to 100 km from the monitoring site were analysed. ResultsThe complexity of grass pollen seasons was related to latitude with multiple major summer-autumn peaks in Brisbane, major spring and minor summer peaks in Sydney and Canberra, and single major spring peaks occurring in Melbourne. The subtropical site of Brisbane showed a higher proportion of grass out of total pollen than more temperate sites. The magnitude of the grass seasonal pollen integral was correlated with pasture greenness, rainfall and number of days over 30 °C, preceding and within the season, up to 100 km radii from monitoring sites. ConclusionsInterannual fluctuations in Australian grass pollen season magnitude are strongly influenced by regional biogeography and both pre- and in-season weather. This first continental scale, Southern Hemisphere standardized aerobiology dataset forms the basis to track shifts in pollen seasonality, biodiversity and impacts on allergic respiratory diseases.

The coloniality of labor: Migrant Black African youths' experiences of looking for and finding work in an Australian deindustrializing city

AbstractThis paper explores migrant Black African youths' experiences of looking for and finding work in Newcastle, a deindustrializing Australian city. Data for this paper were drawn from interviews conducted with young people who migrated to Australia as temporary and permanent residents. Drawing on concepts of coloniality, racialization, bodywork, and hidden labor, this paper demonstrates how, when looking for work, participants' names get attached to their racialized bodies—a situation which deems them as suitable or not for specific kinds of work. Their strategies of finding work differ according to their migration status; that is, temporary residents draw on their personal networks, whereas some permanent residents with full citizenship rights rely on social welfare support services to find work. However, irrespective of the different strategies used to find work, they all end up doing jobs that they described as “work which others do not wish to do.” I argue that these experiences re‐articulate the coloniality of labor because, as workers in these jobs, they play a crucial role in the economic transformation taking place in the city due to deindustrialization. This is not merely because they form part of the workforce responsible for working in unwanted jobs, but because they are also consumers of Newcastle's emerging welfare support and educational services sectors. The paper contributes to an understanding of how race shapes the labor market experiences of racialized youth in deindustrializing labor markets.

Residents’ perspectives of mobile X-ray services in support of healthcare-in-place in residential aged care facilities: a qualitative study

BackgroundMobile X-ray services (MXS) could be used to investigate clinical issues in aged care residents within familiar surroundings, reducing transfers to and from emergency departments and enabling healthcare to be delivered in residential aged care facilities. There is however little research exploring consumer perspectives about such services. The objective of this research was to explore the perspectives and preferences of residents about the provision of MXS in residential aged care facilities, including their knowledge about the service, perceived benefits, and factors that require consideration for effective implementation.MethodsA qualitative study design was used. The setting for the study included four residential aged care facilities of different sizes from different parts of a South Australian city. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants. 16 residents participated in semi-structured interviews that were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were inductively derived using thematic analysis.ResultsParticipants had a mean age of 85 years, 56% were female, 25% had dementia and 25% had had a mobile X-ray in the last 12 months. Four themes were developed. Participants preferred mobile X-rays, provided as healthcare-in-place, to improve accessibility to them and minimize physical and psychological discomfort. Participants had expectations about the processes for receiving mobile X-rays. Costs of X-rays to people, family and society were a consideration. Decision making required residents be informed about mobile X-rays.ConclusionsResidents have positive views of MXS as they can receive healthcare-in-place, with familiar people and surroundings. They emphasised that MXS delivered in residential aged care facilities need to be of equivalent quality to those found in other settings. Increased awareness of mobile X-ray services is required.

Mineral content variations between Australian tap and bottled water in the context of urolithiasis.

ObjectivesThe objective of this study is to investigate the variations in mineral content of tap drinking water across major Australian cities, compared with bottled still and sparkling water, and discuss the possible implications on kidney stone disease (KSD).Materials and MethodsThe mineral composition of public tap water from 10 metropolitan and regional Australian cities was compared using the drinking water quality reports published from 2019 to 2021 by the respective water service utilities providers. Specifically, average levels of calcium, bicarbonate, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and sulphates were compared with published mineral content data from bottled still and sparkling drinking water in Australia.ResultsThe median or mean (depending on report output) mineral composition was highly variable for calcium (range 1.3 to 20.33 mg/L), magnesium (range 1.1 to 11.2 mg/L), bicarbonate (range 12 to 79 mg/L), sodium (range 3 to 47.1 mg/L), potassium (range 0.4 to 3.23 mg/L) and (sulphates range <1 to 37.4 mg/L). Calcium, magnesium and bicarbonate levels in tap water were lower than in bottled sparkling water. Consumption of 3 L/day of the most calcium rich tap water would fulfil 4.7% of the RDI, compared with 8.7% with bottled sparkling water. Consumption of 3 L of the most magnesium rich tap water would fulfil 8% of the RDI, compared with 13.6% with bottled sparkling water.ConclusionThe mineral content of tap drinking water varied substantially across major Australian city centres. Bottled sparkling water on average provided higher levels of calcium, bicarbonate and magnesium and may be preferred for prevention of calcium oxalate stones. These findings may assist counselling of patients with KSD depending on geographic location in the context of other modifiable risk factors and 24‐h urine analysis results.

Career degradation in Australian cities: globalization, precarity and adversity

ABSTRACT This paper explores the impact on urban labour markets of the closure of the Australian automotive manufacturing industry through a qualitative analysis of ex-automotive workers’ experiences of redundancy and precarious work. We locate the experiences of workers inside a multidimensional concept of precarity that can be both objectively measured and subjectively produced. These findings show the need for strong policies directed at boosting the economies of affected urban communities alongside labour market programmes able to provide secure work after large-scale plant closures. Through the voices of affected workers, we demonstrate the complex ways their lives have been affected.

Measuring the impact of heavy rail transport infrastructure on house prices in Melbourne, Australia: a case study of Mernda rail extension project

PurposeThe research examines the impact of heavy rail transport infrastructure on residential property prices in Melbourne at different stages of project development using the Mernda Rail Extension Project as a case study.Design/methodology/approachA difference-in-difference approach is used to quantitatively measure the magnitude of change in the house price at different stages of rail transport infrastructure project development.FindingsWhen controlling for a range of structural, neighbourhood, and locational attributes, the authors find that properties within 800 m from the proposed train station are 8.7% higher in value than those outside 800 m (but within 1,600 m). However, during the project's construction, the project's benefits in the form of house price appreciation are not fully realised. “Unrealised benefit” is attributed to the negative externalities of construction works and apprehensions associated with the project's shelving and time delays.Research limitations/implicationsDepending on the availability of data on residential property transactions in the future, a spatial analysis of rail infrastructure's radius of catchment effect is needed.Practical implicationsFindings from this research are beneficial for policymakers concerned with transport and land use planning, property valuation for taxation and mortgage purposes.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the knowledge of the impact of the rail project on house prices in Melbourne. While there are earlier studies on the topic, there is limited understanding of this prime Australian city attractive to domestic and foreign investors.

Applying a Place Making Sustainable Centres Framework to Transit Activated Corridors in Australian cities

The future ability of urban centres in Australia and around the globe to adapt and respond to big challenges of climate change, economic development, and social inclusion, will depend on how well we integrate and embed them within these built environments. Such a complex agenda presents a major collective challenge for designers, planners and engineers to address with politicians, developers, financiers and community leaders. Refocusing design requires collaborative processes and co-creation in a design space currently dominated by siloed approaches to traffic management, transport planning, precinct design and engineering, architecture and landscaping. With the aim of bridging these silos, an interdisciplinary research team has synthesised and then applied a set of principles of design to a range of development scenarios with the aim of delivering sustainable urban centre outcomes. This paper uses the lens of the Theory of Urban Fabrics to present a place making Sustainable Centres Framework created by the authors, comprising 7 principles and 21 associated practices of design. This formed a critical first step for a national sustainable centres research project underway at the time. The paper then presents the findings of a two-phase investigative study to apply the framework to four place-oriented urban regeneration initiatives (i.e. case study sites) that were endeavouring to enable transit activated corridors with local micro-mobility linkages, in Townsville, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. The first phase of the study comprised a desk-based application of the Sustainable Centres Framework to the four sample urban fabric types observed the case study locations. The second phase involved detailed sense-checking of the framework in the one of the case study locations (Townsville), through stakeholder workshops. The findings provide insights into opportunities and considerations for managing the complexity of urban regeneration projects. The authors discuss the potential for the Framework to inform planning tools and decision support tools, and opportunities to further refine the Framework.

Access to and Quality of Neighbourhood Public Open Space and Children's Mental Health Outcomes: Evidence from Population Linked Data across Eight Australian Capital Cities.

Neighbourhood-level interventions offer a promising opportunity to promote child mental health at a population level; however, neighbourhood effects are still regarded as a ‘black box’ and a better understanding of the specific design elements, such as public open space, is needed to inform actionable policy interventions. Methods: This study leveraged data from a population linked dataset (Australian Early Development Census—Built Environment) combining information from a national census of children’s developmental outcomes with individualised geospatial data. Associations between access to (within 400 m and 800 m from home), and quality of, public open space and child mental health outcomes across eight capital cities were estimated using multilevel logistic regression models, adjusting for demographic and contextual factors. Access was defined based on proximity of public open space to children’s home addresses, within distance thresholds (400 m, 800 m) measured along the road network. Effect modification was tested across maternal education groups. Results: Across the eight capital cities, inequities in access to child friendly public open spaces were observed across maternal education groups and neighbourhood disadvantage quintiles. Children with access to any type of public open space within 800 m of home had lower odds of demonstrating difficulties and higher odds of competence. Children with access to child friendly public open spaces within 800 m of home had the highest likelihood of demonstrating competence. Conclusion: Improving access to neighbourhood public open space appears to be a promising strategy for preventing mental health difficulties and promoting competence in early childhood. Action is needed to redress socio-spatial inequities in access to child friendly public open space.

Care, urban regeneration and forced tenant relocation: the case of Ivanhoe social housing estate, Sydney

Urban regeneration has emerged as a policy response to disadvantage which characterises social housing estates across Australian cities. This paper explores the regeneration of the Ivanhoe social housing estate, focusing on forced tenant relocations. We argue that the State Housing Authority (SHA) utilised existing care networks to facilitate relocation. We investigate how The Salvation Army (TSA), a local service provider on the estate since 2001, were used to enable relocation. Adopting a conceptual framework centred on the idea of ‘care’, we reveal three interconnected themes. First, we argue that presence of TSA on the estate is a form of local service provision based on a foundation of long-term ‘caring with’ tenants to build community and address disadvantage. Second, these long-term ‘caring with’ relationships transitioned into a form of ‘caring for’ within the context estate regeneration and forced tenant relocation. Third, the efforts by TSA to care for tenants were mobilised by the SHA to expediate relocation, enabling regeneration.

A regional renaissance? The shifting geography of internal migration under COVID-19

ABSTRACT Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic there has been interest in the migration of city-dwellers to regional areas to escape lockdowns and movement restrictions, yet evidence of a ‘regional renaissance’ in Australia remains anecdotal. This paper aims to quantify the current and future dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic on the levels, patterns and drivers of migration to and from Australian cities and regions. Results show a 7% drop in the rate of migration between Greater Capital City Statistical Areas in 2020 compared to the previous year, with record net gains in regional areas facilitated by a 9% decrease in departures rather than an increase in arrivals from cities. Our forecasts suggest that net gains to regions will slow down after 2022, but remain higher than pre-pandemic levels in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Tasmania because of a sustained increase in arrivals. Regional Western Australia and the Northern Territory will continue to record net losses, while net gains to regional Victoria are predicted to be lower than pre-COVID-19 because of an increase in departures. These patterns have important implications for population projections and policies regarding the attraction and retention of internal migrants to Australia's regions.

Characterising water sensitive cities through inquiry-based learning systems

ABSTRACT Transitioning to water sensitive cities (WSCs) in Australia is necessary for creating urban areas that are resilient to natural disasters, water shortages and climate change. In this paper we report research to enable systemic-transformations praxis. We brought together water practitioners from various sectors for a number of systemic inquiry events across five Australian cities to understand what was required to begin a transition to WSCs. Using an approach influenced by systemic innovation, we designed an inquiry-based learning system. Our learning system design made scientific knowledge available for interpretation, internalisation and contestation, by practitioners in different contexts. The workshops led to identification of characteristics of WSCs; relevant issues and opportunities; and commitments and constraints to action constituting a baseline data set for future evaluation of progress. Transitioning to WSCs requires leadership, a supportive institutional-sectoral environment, practical implementation of technologies in social contexts and increased collaboration involving knowledge co-production across disciplines and sectors. Systemic inquiry methods lend themselves to revealing the socially constructed nature of urban water as hybrids of the technical, natural and social. Despite some limitations, our approach enhanced institutional innovation and investment and offers insights into future research and planning for enabling systemic-transformations praxis in multiple sectors and contexts.

Public art for placemaking and urban renewal: Insights from three regional Australian cities

Public art is internationally used as a place-making device to drive urban regeneration and boost social capital. Benefits include enhanced urban environments, increased resident and tourist footfall and improved local economies This paper examines public art provision in three regional cities in Australia: Townsville, Gold Coast and Toowoomba. Each city leverages public art for placemaking and renewal, seeking to deliver thriving and creative urban precincts with strong community identity. This paper investigates how planning approaches to managing public art vary across the cities and how effective they are in delivering artworks. Theoretical contributions focus on the intrinsic and instrumental values of public art for urban communities. Empirical findings derive from policy reviews, spatial audits and semi-structured interviews with art producers - elected officials and industry professionals. Findings from Townsville, Gold Coast and Toowoomba reflect international experiences, where public art projects improve spaces and remediate a range of disorderly urban conditions. This paper contributes to international literature on the planning and provision of public artworks as a form of creative placemaking and urban renewal. Its focus on regional, marginal cities is novel, considering the preponderance of international research focused on major cities and their metropolitan surrounds.