The past and future of the Australian suburb

Abstract

This paper describes the suburban ideal, explains its historical development and compares the Australian suburb with its counterpart in other countries such as the United States and Great Britain. More importantly it focuses on those features that are peculiar to the Australian suburb and argues that despite the disparaging comments often made about the quality of suburban living, most inhabitants of suburbs express a disconcertingly high level of satisfaction with life in the suburbs and a home in the suburbs is still the goal of most young Australians. In the same vein, it challenges the validity and meaning of the highly subjective concept of 'liveability' of}en used by 'experts' to discredit the suburban life style and suggests that a home in the suburbs satisfies many important human needs and is a dream that Australians are not likely to easily give up