ABSTRACT
Australia has only a few large cities, of which the five mainland state capitals are dominant in terms of both population size (containing 60 per cent of the nation's 14 million inhabitants) and economic power (and probably political power too, although the seat of the federal government is at a smaller, inland city—Canberra). These five cities share a number of major characteristics, including their origins as seaport capitals of independent colonies, their lack of heavy industry, large tracts of low density suburbia, and a fragmented local government structure. Although this essay concentrates on one of the cities, the general patterns and problems to be discussed are typical of them all (Logan et al. 1975).
