Australian Suburbs Research Articles

Understanding conviviality in Australian suburbs with high Muslim concentrations: A qualitative case study in Melbourne

AbstractThis article explores the concept of conviviality: the practice and negotiation of sharing space in suburbs with diverse populations (Journal of Intercultural Studies, 2016, 37, 423). Australia has a growing Muslim population and reports of Islamophobia remain widespread. While there is some evidence, however, that forming intercultural connections can foster more positive attitudes toward religious minority groups, we know little about how Muslim and non‐Muslim communities share space in Australia. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative investigation into how conviviality is perceived in Australian suburbs with high concentrations of Muslim residents. Following qualitative, thematic analysis of 15 interviews with multicultural service providers who work with Muslims in Melbourne, Victoria, we conclude that conviviality is fostered by a sense of community between people who share similar backgrounds as well as increased opportunities to form intercultural social connections. We discuss the scholarly and policy implications of these findings, with consideration of existing arguments about the practices of sharing space in Australian cities.

An Affordable Identity—Customisation Prior to Housing Construction in Australia

This paper presents a study that explores an affordable housing scheme which allows customisation prior to construction for owner-occupiers. Due to ongoing concerns about the economic fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic affecting large populations, the demand for affordable housing is increasing. In particular, low-income households continue to struggle with unaffordable rents throughout major Australian cities. Assailed by this growing affordability crisis and deemed environmentally unsustainable, Australian suburbs are in need of revitalisation. The implementation of mass customisation solutions can heighten the sense of identity within a community and also significantly increase occupant satisfaction. However, presently, there is a lack of studies discussing the financial model and design of affordable mass customisation solutions for housing. To address that gap, this paper employs the method of case studies by analysing five relevant cases from the perspectives of affordability and customisation. The results of this study indicate that there is great room for future improvement in what is currently claimed to be defined as affordable housing, in terms of both affordability and customisation. These results will potentially assist and provide guidance to future architects, developers and planners.

Do Safe Bike Lanes Really Slow Down Cars? A Simulation-Based Approach to Investigate the Effect of Retrofitting Safe Cycling Lanes on Vehicular Traffic

Cycling is a sustainable transportation mode that provides many health, economic and environmental benefits to society. Cities with high rates of cycling are better placed to address modern challenges of densification, carbon-neutral and connected 20-min neighbourhood goals. Despite the known benefits of cycling, participation rates in Australian cities are critically low and declining. Frequently, this low participation rate is attributed to the dangers of Australian cycle infrastructure that often necessitates the mixing of cyclists with car traffic. In addition, residents of car-dependent Australian suburbs can be resistant to the installation of cycle infrastructure where threats to traffic flow, or decreased on-street parking availability are perceived and the prohibitive cost of reconfiguration of other infrastructure maintained by the local councils to retrofit safe bike paths. This study investigates the effects on traffic behaviour of retrofitting safe, separate cycling lanes into existing residential streets in a Melbourne suburb suitable for accessing the primary neighbourhood destinations. We utilise only the widths available on the existing roadway of these streets, with minimal incursion on other facilities, such as the vehicle network and parking. Using only the existing roadway reflects the common need for municipal asset managers to minimise disruption and costs associated with street redesign. Using a traffic simulation approach, we modelled travel demand that suits suburban trips to services and shops, and we selectively applied separate cycling lanes to suitable residential streets and varied the effect of lowering speed limits. Simulations show that the selective inclusion of safe cycling lanes in some streets leads to a mere 7% increase in the average car travel times in the worst case, while requiring cyclists to increase their travel distance only marginally to avoid streets without dedicated cycling lanes. These results demonstrate that reasonable compromises are possible to make suburbs safer for cyclists and bring them closer to the 20-min neighbourhood goal. There is significant potential to enhance the result by including more street types and alternative designs. The results can inform councils in their cycle path infrastructure decisions and disprove assumptions about the influence of cyclists on car infrastructure.

The death and life of Australian suburbs: Relationships between social activity and the physical qualities of Australian suburban neighbourhood centres

This paper reports on research into social activity in commercial/retail centres in Australian low-density suburbs. While low-density suburbs have been criticised for declining vitality and sociability, some commercial/retail precincts still thrive there. This study sought to determine the relationship between the physical qualities of the built environment and social activity in such thriving suburban neighbourhood centres. Three areas in Geelong, Victoria, were studied as representative of three common forms of Australian suburban commercial/retail centre. First, behavioural observations identified which of the three centres was the most vital and sociable. Next, semi-structured interviews with users of that centre who resided in its containing suburb explored perceptions of the environment to identify the physical features that contributed to its social affordances. The findings suggest that diversity of uses is key to the vibrancy of commercial centres. Walkability, perceptions of safety and physical qualities such as landscaping, good pedestrian pathways and pavement dining were also found to contribute to vitality. Importantly, it appears that in neighbourhoods with high transient populations, residents do not associate these types of socially active environments with sense of community. • This study focuses on identifying the physical features that contributes to the social affordances of commercial streets. • The findings suggest that diversity of uses is key to commercial streets' vibrancy. • Walkability, perceptions of safety and physical qualities were also found to contribute to vitality of commercial streets.

The Feasibility of Transitioning Low-density Suburbs into Healthy Walkable Neighbourhoods: The Case of Adelaide, South Australia

ABSTRACT Research has demonstrated that there are health and equity benefits attached to residing in neighbourhoods with the design, diversity and density required for walkability. Research has tended to show that the very low residential densities found in Australian suburbs are major obstacles to retrofitting walkability. We undertook a survey of 27 neighbourhoods and their activity centres in Adelaide, South Australia to ascertain the minimum residential densities required to make a diverse activity centre viable. The findings suggest that retrofitting established suburbs with the design and viable destinations required to substantially improve walkability does not require large increases in residential density.

Risks and informality in owner-occupied shared housing: to let, or not to let?

In Australian suburbs, due to increasing housing unaffordability, informal shared housing makes up a growing private rental sub-market. At present, there is limited research exploring what dynamics may motivate owner-occupiers to initiate informal shared housing, how informality operates in this rental sub-market and how owner-occupiers with distinct ethnic and cultural backgrounds negotiate informality. Drawing on a qualitative investigation among owner-occupiers of Bangladeshi origin in different suburbs of Greater Sydney, the paper discusses a distinct form of informal shared housing that goes beyond the perceived economic rationality of rent-and-return. What our research reveals is that owner-occupiers also take into consideration the multiple risks involved in the management of these shared housing premises and how the management of these risks results in the limitation of the rental sub-market to specific ethnic communities and social groups. Our findings highlight the importance of considering social and cultural factors in rethinking the notion of home in these non-normative housing sites. We conclude with some suggestions about policy interventions that may be able to recognise the underlying logics of informal housing tenures that are informed by cultural perceptions of risk on the part of owner-occupiers.

Dystopias for discourse: the role of the artist in a rapidly reconfiguring city

This paper grew out of a collaborative research project with Knox City Council, a local authority located on the eastern fringe of Melbourne (Australia) around 35 kilometres from the city centre. It articulates the role site-responsive artworks can play in interrogating the individual impact of climate change and new and old technologies on specific communities by exploring the development and reception of Section 32, an immersive performance installation that converted an ordinary suburban home into a speculative vision of the Australian suburbs, somewhere at the end of the 21st century. Located in an area undergoing rapid population increase, and therefore reconstruction, where residents had little opportunity to engage in a discourse about the planning process, Section 32 became a critical platform for discussion, revealing a public sentiment that was at odds with what local government was seeing in the local press.

Socializing in the suburbs: relationships between neighbourhood design and social interaction in low-density housing contexts

ABSTRACT This study investigates interrelationships between correlates of social interaction, levels of social activity and common neighbourhood design characteristics of low-density suburbs. Qualitative and quantitative methods were combined. Analysis of 247 surveys of residents in three low-density Australian suburbs confirmed interrelationships between levels of social activity, social interaction correlates and five groups of physical characteristics: (1) street layout, (2) pedestrian environment, (3) neighbourhood connectivity, (4) public space provision and (5) dwelling form. After allowing for the effect of socio-demographic and social proclivity selection factors, street type, tree coverage and provision of open space were found to significantly predict Neighbourhood Contentment.

Road Vehicle Detection and Classification Using Magnetic Field Measurement

This paper presents a road vehicle recognition and classification approach for intelligent transportation systems. This approach uses a roadside installed low-cost magnetometer and associated data collection system. The system measures the magnetic field changing, detects passing vehicles, and recognizes vehicle types. We introduce Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) to analyze vehicle magnetic signals and extract it as vehicle feature with the representation of cepstrum, frame energy, and gap cepstrum of magnetic signals. We design a 3-dimensional map algorithm using Vector Quantization (VQ) to classify vehicle magnetic features to 4 typical types of vehicles in Australian suburbs: sedan, van, truck, and bus. In order to train an accurate classifier, training samples are selected using the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW). The verification experiments show that our approach achieves a high level of accuracy for vehicle detection and classification.

Residential satisfaction in low-density Australian suburbs: The impact of social and physical context on neighbourhood contentment

This paper asks whether physical built environment characteristics or social factors have the greatest impacts on residents’ satisfaction with low-density suburban neighbourhoods. Quantitative analyses of a survey of 247 residents living in three Australian suburbs was conducted to measure residential satisfaction. While the majority of research focuses only on one of three dimensions of residential satisfaction – satisfaction with dwelling or neighbourhood or neighbours – here we explore residential satisfaction in relation to all three dimensions. First, it was found that four scales used in the survey to measure satisfaction could be reduced in the context of suburban Australia to three more powerful factors – Neighbourhood Contentment, Active Socialising and Accessibility. Multiple regression examined the extent to which five groups of physical characteristics impacted Neighbourhood Contentment. Results indicated that Neighbourhood Contentment is significantly predicted by physical design characteristics, even allowing for the interaction of sociodemographic variables. Neighbourhood characteristics such as street type, tree coverage, and provision of sidewalks, shared open space and community spaces were found to be the most important predictors of Neighbourhood Contentment; indicating that well planned neighbourhoods are more satisfying places to live for residents. The findings suggest that planners and urban designers need to consider the provision of such neighbourhood characteristics when designing for communities in contemporary suburban contexts.

Peter Corrigan, the Bodgie Wolf, and Other Larrikin Tygers of Wrath

In the face of being “othered” over issues to do with cultural isolation and derivation, a new generation of Australian architects arose in the 1970s, celebrating Australia’s distinctive regionalism. This regionalist current chimed with the growth of the postmodern movement, which, had done much to liberate the Australian architect from the so-called “cultural cringe,” as he or she no longer felt that they had to hobble after what was happening elsewhere. Among this new cohort of architects, the work of Peter Corrigan is notable for advocating a mongrel postmodern architecture that was positively and distinctively Australian, sampling from the ordinary and dreary Australian suburbs. This article seeks to clarify the architectural quest for an Australian identity in Corrigan’s work, by exploring in depth the interdisciplinary and transatlantic transfer of ideas from theatre to architecture. Corrigan had a long-standing engagement with stage design, and this article will argue that his involvement in “New Wave theatre,” notably the Australian Performing Group (APG), and the appropriation of concepts from directors and playwrights like John Vaccaro, John Romeril, Jerzy Grotowski, Casper Neher, and Bertold Brecht, determined how he transplanted postmodern ideas onto Australian soil.

Is Living near Healthier Food Stores Associated with Better Food Intake in Regional Australia?

High prevalence of obesity and non-communicable diseases is a global public health problem, in which the quality of food environments is thought to play an important role. Current scientific evidence is not consistent regarding the impact of food environments on diet. The relationship between local food environments and diet quality was assessed across 10 Australian suburbs, using Australian-based indices devised to measure the two parameters. Data of dietary habits from the participants was gathered using a short questionnaire. The suburbs’ Food Environment Score (higher being healthier) was associated with higher consumption of fruit (χ2 (40, 230) = 58.8, p = 0.04), and vegetables (χ2 (40, 230) = 81.3, p = 0.03). The Food Environment Score identified a significant positive correlation with four of the diet scores: individual total diet score (rs = 0.30, p < 0.01), fruit and vegetable score (rs = 0.43, p < 0.01), sugary drink score (rs = 0.13, p < 0.05), and discretionary food score (rs = 0.15, p < 0.05). Moreover, the suburbs’ RFEI (Retail Food Environment Index, higher being unhealthier) showed a significant association with higher consumption of salty snacks (χ2 (24, 230) = 43.9, p = 0.04). Food environments dominated by food outlets considered as ‘healthier’ were associated with healthier population food intakes, as indicated by a higher consumption of fruit, vegetables, and water, as well as a lower consumption of junk food, salty snacks, and sugary drinks. This association suggests that healthier diet quality is associated with healthier food environments in regional Australia.

The Precinct versus the Shopping Centre: Order, Complexity and Endogenous Dynamism in Suburbs and Towns

While complexity theory has become influential in the understanding, analysis and modelling of cities, it has been far less influential in planning and designing them. In complexity based analyses, cities are self-evidently complex adaptive systems, and this is a virtuous thing. A defining principle of complex adaptive systems is that they are scalar and hierarchical, i.e. global systems, such as cities, are formed by accumulations of other complex adaptive subsystems. This article argues that with the rise of the shopping centre and the decline of traditional precincts, the subsystems of the city, its regional, district and neighbourhood activity centres, have been increasingly organised by mechanical order rather than the self-organisation required of complexity. According to the principles of complexity theory, systems self-organised as complex adaptive systems will have greater mass and diversity, and be more resilient and stronger than systems organised via mechanical order. This article tested these principles by comparing activity centre mass and diversity between South Australian suburbs and towns. The research found that activity centres self-organised as complex adaptive systems do have greater mass and diversity than those organised via the mechanical order of the shopping centre.

Know thy Neighbour: Residential Integration and Social Bridging among Refugee Settlers in Greater Brisbane

Positive interaction with neighbours can significantly influence new immigrants' perception of being welcomed in the host society. This article analyses interview narratives of 47 former refugees from Ethiopia, Burma and Congo about their neighbourhood experiences in diverse and relatively disadvantaged localities within Greater Brisbane, Australia. While most interviewees had positive interactions with their neighbours, a significant minority reported either problematic or no interaction. Most respondents reflected on being restricted by the language barrier and different cultural expectations about neighbourly relations. Having come from places where neighbours may have been the first point of social contact and support and where they often overlap with extended family, our respondents found Australian suburbs to be at odds with such a concept of close neighbourliness. We argue that barriers to positive neighbourly interactions hamper the acquisition of bridging social capital in disadvantaged, ethnically diverse residential locations and, by extension, potentially slow down the English-language learning, acculturation and employment success. Implications for policy are discussed.

Suburban growth in Adelaide, South Australia, 1850–1930: speculation and economic opportunity

ABSTRACTSuburbs are significant to any understanding of Australian urbanization as they have been the dominant organizational element in the morphology of metropolitan areas. A case-study of suburban growth in Adelaide, South Australia, in the period from 1850 to 1930 suggests that dominant accounts of Australian suburbs of the era, as places of tranquillity, leisure, home and family, whose growth was driven by aspiration and social mobility, are largely illusory. Suburban growth was instead driven by speculation and economic opportunity. Accounts of commercial, recreational and industrial activity in Adelaide's suburban municipalities of the time suggests economically and socially diverse communities. Whereas the desire for the quarter or half acre block in the suburbs was most often due to its productive potential rather than bourgeois aspirations for seclusion and semi-rural tranquillity.

Evaluation of a 'healthiness' rating system for food outlet types in Australian residential communities.

To obtain expert consensus to develop and evaluate a rating system on the relative healthiness of Australian suburbs' food outlet types. Twenty-four food outlet types and 10 local suburbs were identified from previous mapping studies and based on a scan of suburbs across one large Australian geographical region. Initial food outlet 'scores' for relative healthiness were proposed based on available literature, classified into five categories, from 'most' to 'least' healthy. In round 1 of a modified Delphi survey, participants, Australian public health and nutrition experts, were given each outlet type's definition and the proposed scores and invited to modify the scores based on their perceived 'healthiness'. In round 2, participants were able to revise or adjust their scores. Median scores for food outlet types from both rounds highly correlated with the originally proposed scores (two-tailed Pearson's correlation coefficient 0.97 and 0.96, respectively, P = 0.01), and scores from round 1 highly correlated with those from round 2 (Pearson's coefficient 0.998, P = 0.01). Round 2 scores were used to calculate suburbs' overall food environment score, healthiness score, unhealthiness score and a ratio of unhealthiness to healthiness scores. There was strong positive correlation between suburbs' ratio of unhealthiness to healthiness scores and a previously recognised scoring ratio, Retail Food Environment Index (Spearman's rho 0.847, P < 0.01). The study generated experts' consensus about relative healthiness of food outlet types found in Australian neighbourhoods. Proposed scores can be used to assess and compare healthiness of community food environments and to explore their associations with area characteristics, population's diet and health outcomes.

A f/oxymoron?

Donald Horne famously wrote, ‘Australia was born urban and quickly grew suburban’ (1964), an observation that carries a weight of assumptions about suburban living. Historically, the Australian suburbs have been regarded as places of retreat, family life and female activity, and subsequently as a place where not much of interest happens. By contrast, a city’s central areas are seen as more dynamic spaces and, with recent creative city thinking and planning, as potential powerhouses of innovation and creativity. This article challenges assumptions about suburban living as passive places of retreat through an examination of women in the creative workforce who are living and working in the suburbs. It draws on historical accounts of creative suburban activity and a research project that mapped and investigated the experience of creative workers in the outer suburbs of Brisbane and Melbourne. The study finds that there is much creative work occurring in suburban localities, but this is not as unusual as might be expected.

The future of digital archive collections: Augmenting public service media geo-locative archives

During 2011, the now defunct ABC Pool (abc.net.au/pool) project developed an experiment that sought to combine emerging augmented reality (AR) technology with the archival collection of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The MyBurb project attempted to alter experiences of Australian suburbs by augmenting ABC archives in contemporary suburban environments to explore the blur between physical and digital spaces with its citizens. Mobile media, specifically geo-locative AR applications such as Layar are “one of the most widely used mobile AR applications” (Liao &amp; Humphreys, 2014, p. 2) and challenge the sociological implications of hybrid spaces as “[m]obile interfaces … allow users to be constantly connected to the Internet while walking through urban spaces” (de Souza e Silva, 2006, p. 261). The project was successfully implemented, but was rarely utilized by the audience it sought to engage, revealing a division between aspects of the ABC’s remit and engaging its audience through mobile technology and environmental hybridity. This observation supports the cultural production gap Hesmondhalgh (2007) identified between the production and consumption of cultural goods, which I argue could be facilitated through technological intermediation as part of the broader concept of cultural intermediation (Hutchinson, 2013; Maguire &amp; Matthews, 2010; Negus, 2002). How then could cultural intermediation facilitate the collaborative production of cultural goods to include the affordances of geo-locative media while avoiding the disconnection between the MyBurb project and its stakeholders? The data presented within this paper represents 3 years of research at ABC Pool where I was embedded as the community manager/researcher in residence.

Measuring the ‘healthiness’ of food outlet types in Australian suburbs’ community food environment

Measuring the ‘healthiness’ of food outlet types in Australian suburbs’ community food environment

Whanau Pakari: Perception versus reality – How active are obese New Zealand children?

help evaluate the nature of the ‘healthiness’ of the food environment in these neighbourhoods. 24 different food outlet types were identified from an observational audit of Australian suburbs’ food environments. A purpose-designed questionnaire was developed to obtain expert opinion on the relative healthiness of food outlet types using Delphi method with two survey rounds. At the beginning of the Delphi survey, original scores were proposed for each food outlet type based on available literature, classifying them into 5 categories of ‘healthiness’. Median scores for food outlet types from Rounds 1 and 2 were highly correlated with the originally proposed scores (0.97 and 0.96 respectively, p = 0.01). A ‘healthiness’ score is proposed using the median scores of round 2 of this survey to compare food environment across Australian suburbs; and further studies can explore relationships between the suburbs ‘healthiness’ score and diet habits of the suburbs population.