ABSTRACT
With the population dominance of Australia’s coastal cities, the wider regions of the various States can be very much the poor relations – out of sight, out of mind – with declining rural economic bases (see Chapter 7); low or even falling population levels; and, as such, also with little political clout. Planning activity can also be marginalised and poorly resourced. But this scenario can be turned on its head when particular regions are seen to be resource rich and these resources are exploited on an immense scale. This of course has happened over time in Australia with its history of major mineral ‘boom and bust’ cycles, but probably never more so than over the last
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