ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns regions, regionalization and regionalism in urban and regional planning in Australia. A regional dimension has been an important focus of planning within Australia’s multi-level federal system of government. Governments have created administrative regions for program planning and service delivery (regionalization). Regional communities have sought to assert their regional identities and influence their future directions (regionalism). New regional forms have more recently emerged, centered on metropolitan (capital city) and surrounding areas. There have been many approaches to the regional dimension over time, with specific adaptations within different policy issues (e.g. transport, agriculture, social services, and natural resource management).
