By way of definition, dictionaries such as the Oxford Dictionary note that the word ‘icon’ is a noun meaning ‘a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration’ (p. 654). More recently, the phrase ‘iconic development’ has crept into the town planning vernacular making reference to built or planned works...

Chinatowns as iconic enclaves exist in several Australian cities. Among them, Melbourne Chinatown is the oldest, which dates back to the gold rush in the 1850s. Early Chinese migrants settled along the Little Bourke Street on the outskirts of the city, which served as a staging post on their journey to goldfields. Lodging houses were...

Trust and understanding in the community engagement process are considered by many an essential part of a successful urban planning process. Yet these issues have proved problematic for the stakeholders in one New South Wales local government area.

When ‘quiet voiced pragmatist’ Fred Pooley (1916-1998) visited Australia as guest of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in the summer of late 1981, he was recently retired from practice; a past president of the RIBA and seemingly best known for his role – such as it was – in the development of Milton Keynes...

For nearly 200 years Australia’s urban public parks and gardens have been used for the public display of memory. This is manifested most frequently in three iconographic customs: special landscaping, naming, and the placement of commemorative and historical artefacts. From the statue of New South Wales’ Governor Richard Bourke (1842, Sydney Domain) to the Anzac...