ABSTRACT
In Australia, by the mid-1990s, most state and territory governments had come to recognise that the problematic social and physical condition of many large concentrations of public housing called for substantial re-investment. This chapter explores critique contemporary ‘consensus approaches’ to public housing estate renewal in Australia and to further illuminate these with reference to a large project undertaken by the New South Wales (NSW) Government. It highlights key aspects of Australia’s public housing inheritance — the ways that historic patterns of development, management and funding have contributed to the social, financial and physical condition of public housing in 2016. The chapter explores the consensus principles which characterise the estate regeneration activity of the past 10–20 years. It focuses on NSW, it exemplify estate regeneration policy and practice through reference to the NSW government’s Bonnyrigg Estate project, arguably the largest and most ambitious initiative of this kind attempted anywhere in Australia over the past 10 years.
