ABSTRACT
In 1913 Ebenezer Howard looked forward to one of ‘the best and brightest chapters’ of the garden city movement being written ‘in the great continent of the Pacific’ (GCTPA, 1913). However although the ideas of the movement gained considerable currency in Australia, particularly before the Second World War, Howard's aspirations were never quite realized. Garden city ideas did not change the face of urban Australia, and never won over every planner even in their heyday. The contemporary impact and legacy were even more diffuse, and at times ambiguous. But they have shaped, directly and indirectly, the living environments of many Australians, and have influenced at least two generations of urban planners, even those unaware or even perhaps dismissive of direct inspiration.
