Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University.
Doi
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