An important task in urban planning is to develop an urban structure that better links residents and with employment locations to ensure economic dynamism and transport efficiency. Increasing labour force spatial flexibility and shifting residential dynamics have added complexity to this spatial planning and transport challenge. This paper explores the effects of internal and external urban residential migration dynamics on urban structure, commuting flows, and employment containment in a large advanced-economy city, at the sub-metropolitan scale. Using detailed spatial analysis the research reveals the geographical details in urban internal and external migration and transport in relation to urban housing and job markets. By comparing shifting residential and commuting dynamics among different urban external and internal migration cohorts, the research demonstrates that the residential mobility of existing residents is a principal determinant of urban expansion and transport changes. In contrast, the settlement of external migrants generally strenghtens residence and work location relationships and shortens commutes in the central urban zones. However, after establishing employment, this cohort shows propensity to follow existing residents in moving outwards, influencing employment containment and transport patterns. By linking the spatial dynamics of urban migration with commuting dynamics, this paper offers valuable insights into urban transport and spatial policy. It suggests that urban land use and transport plans must engage with linked housing issues which are fundamental to meeting urban spatial development targets.

While substantial population movements were motivated by COVID health safety concerns, policies and practices following COVID-19 have facilitated transformative flexibility in work and transport, changing the location of economic activities and travel patterns. This study investigates urban residential movements in response to this major urban practice change, using spatial-based multi-year internal migration data in Melbourne. Going beyond previous research, our analysis undertakes a detailed breakdown of socio-economic categories that are more exposed to work practice changes. The purpose is to better understand the effect of new work and transport practices induced by COVID-19 on urban residential mobility, in contrast to the temporary health safety driven population moves. By tracking changing mobility patterns of the targeted occupations benchmarked with the mobility change of all movers, our analysis demonstrates that city-wide workplace re-arrangments have a general feedback effect on urban utility and settlement patterns. When flexible working and commuting become established practices, workers are likely to re-adjust location utility in response to living standards and housing costs. However, their residential change did not target the high-growth and low-density urban zones but focused more on the areas to balance housing affordability and location accessibility/liveability. We demonstrate that the research outputs can assist in appraising the long-term impacts of policy and practice change and population dynamics in urban areas, including the extension of flexible working and commuting arrangements.

This research examined Australia’s multi-provider social housing system and analysed changes over time to social housing delivery. The system includes public housing, managed by state and territory government agencies; community housing, managed by not-for-profit providers; and some housing provided through the NDIS and National Rental Affordability Scheme. There has been minimal growth in social housing stock in Australia over the past three decades. This has led to a reduction in the share of the total dwelling stock and annual new dwelling supply. To date, programs to boost social housing have been sporadic and often customised and complex. Australia lacks long-term, sustainable social housing growth models. This research offers policymakers options to reverse the decline.

What this research is about? This research looks at how housing policy and planning can better prepare for natural disasters, and enable recovery from them.It examines institutional arrangements, planning coordination and disaster management responses.Why this research is important? Australia faces many natural hazards like bushfires, floods, storms and cyclones. Climate change is making these events more frequent and intense. Because housing is heavily impacted during disasters, it's crucial that housing policy works closely with disaster risk reduction and response.

What this research is about: this research explores how changes to government administrative structures and processes affect housing policy in Australia. It outlines what can be done to reduce some of the negative impacts of these changes. Why this research is important: the allocation of responsibility for areas of public policy is often called 'machinery of government'. While some Australian portfolios have remained stable over long periods, housing policy has been governed by various organisational units across the federal and state governments. Policy makers need to understand the effects of machinery of government changes, particularly in housing where debates about housing policy goals are ongoing.

What this research is about: this research Inquiry looked at: improving how government groups work together to strengthen housing policy and planning for disasters; the housing disaster recovery approaches that best help prevent future disaster; and improving how agencies use data in housing supply processes to support disaster-ready housing and communities. This research report is the final report of the AHURI Inquiry, Housing policy and disasters: better coordinating actors, responses and data. Why this research is important: climate-related disasters are set to increase. Governments at all levels need to better coordinate housing policies and practices to reduce the impact of disasters on households.

Despite widespread policy aspirations for integrating high-density housing with public transport, what is achieved in practice is rarely measured. Furthermore, equity in public transport service provision has been given little attention in areas of high-density housing. Using Melbourne as a case study, this research tracks the development of apartment housing against public transport service provision over a 19-year period. Results show that population growth (32%) outstripped modest changes in the number of public transport services provided (5%) in the areas around new apartments, with considerable growth in apartment housing occurring (88%). However, when accounting for the introduction of larger public transport vehicles in the fleet, growth in capacity-adjusted services (35%) was found to slightly exceed population growth at a metropolitan level. Yet at a local level, considerable inequity was found in the number of capacity-adjusted services provided per person across areas and routes. Evidence was also found that apartment development has been strongly attracted to areas already well served by public transport, but with little response in terms of additional services. In the case of Melbourne, it appears that the policy intent of integrating high-density housing with public transport is a one-way mechanism only.

Last mile delivery (LMD) logistics research has drawn attention due to increased urban compactness and environmental concerns arising from freight traffic congestion.This has affected the cost-effectiveness and on-time delivery of urban freight.This study aims to develop a strategic framework to formulate future LMD scenarios based on transport and urban planning constraints using a scenario thinking approach.A scenario thinking stakeholder workshop was conducted to collect data on last mile delivery constraints in Metropolitan Melbourne.The research develops five abridge scenario thinking stages that researchers can adopt in scenario thinking methodology.Using brainstorming and storytelling of scenario thinking approach, participants identified 34 transportation and planning constraints clustered into six urban builtenvironment dimensions that formed the basis of the development of LMD future scenarios.The six clustered dimensions include Freight Infrastructure, Infrastructure Supply, Land use Intensity, Infrastructure Sharing, Intersection Controls and Human Behaviour.Infrastructure Supply and Land use Intensity were found to represent higher uncertainty and higher impact on city logistics provisions.The proposed regulatory-informed and efficiency-responsive strategies are the key to manage LMD.These strategies will help city logistics providers and planners in development of operational plans in making investment decision on LMD challenges.

This study investigates the geographic and annual variations in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and fuel consumption generated by private vehicles across Australia's regions over an 18-year period (2002 to 2020). We examine the influence of vehicle numbers, geography, and time on emissions and fuel consumption using spatial analysis alongside panel regression. Emissions remain relatively high in North Queensland, the Northern Territory, and South West Western Australia and Greater Sydney had steepest decline among the metropolitan regions. Modelling results reveal that higher numbers of internal combustion engine vehicles are positively associated with higher CO2 emissions and fuel usage while higher numbers of electric vehicles are negatively associated. This underscores the importance of targeting high-emission regions for transitioning to electric vehicles. The current study provides empirical insights that hold important implications for policymakers concerning the spatial and temporal trends in private vehicle emissions with the potential to inform low-carbon transport planning.

This AHURI research examined housing trends and the processes of delivering affordable housing supply in rural and regional Australia. These rural and regional housing markets have faced substantial challenges for more than three decades, including poor housing affordability; under-developed supply chains; the shortage of skilled and unskilled labour force; increasing demand for housing in some localities, while other centres decline; together with limited policy attention to the specific needs of rural and regional Australia.A clear research finding is the need for government action to ‘unfreeze’ rural and regional housing markets, making substantial investments and interventions in regional housing markets and developing stronger supply chains for rural and regional housing. The development of a national urban and regional strategy would also provide certainty for private investment, while also unlocking potential State and Australian government support.To overcome the shortage of labour to work on dwelling construction, a guaranteed program of investment in work and new-builds may be needed to attract and retain labour in the housing sector so as to create a more secure pipeline of work for builders and their workforce. This would need to be a long-term strategy, otherwise short-term action may exacerbate existing challenges, placing additional price pressure into the market.

This paper investigates the uptake and spatial distribution of electric vehicles (EVs) in Melbourne to assess the scale and rate of transition in the context of emerging policy. The Australian policy and uptake experience of the EV transition has had limited research attention, with little focus on spatial distribution. The paper assesses the recent uptake of EVs and the spatial distribution of EV growth. Based on literature and local data, the paper projects the distribution of EV spatial demand at the suburban scale. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy issues and questions arising from an EV transition in Melbourne.

The distribution of population between metropolitan regions and their rural counterparts is a topic of interest, due to the growth pressures in large cities and areas of decline in some, typically remote regions. In Australia, fostering population growth in regional urban centres (RUCs) has been a long-term goal of government policy. Understanding the different profiles, structures, and population dynamics of Australia's RUCs is critical in informing Australian regional development, as well as factors in regional population dynamics in general. This research is focused on patterns of population change through internal migration across Australian RUCs. In addition to a detailed spatial analysis of patterns of population migration flows, this research offers a comprehensive analysis of a range of regional social, economic and infrastructure development factors and their effects on regional migration and population changes. The outputs of the method are new evidence to inform the future regional plan to increase economic and population growth in RUCs. This research contributes to population research and regional planning and provides a baseline for the prepandemic status of regional population dynamics in Australia.

Most x-minute city studies focus on liveability and neighborhood accessibility to local services, but rarely include primary employment. This paper complements these studies by examining the urban employment structure and transport dynamics of an Australian city under the 20-minute city concept framework. To do this, we develop a comprehensive method to model residents' job access time using census-based journey to work (JTW) data and detailed household activity and travel survey. Analysing JTW time stepping down to diverse industry and employment categories and transport modes allows new insight into the disparity in residents' job and housing locations and transport choices at local scales. By evaluating the distribution of working residents, types of employment, and transport performance, this paper examines possible policy responses and challenges of change in expanding the 20-minute planning target for employment. The analysis suggests that housing infill development could support reduced JTW time for residents experiencing longer time for work travels. However, this would require active planning of both land-use mix and dwelling design to meet prevalent household expectations about dwelling size and quality.

This commentary responds to Bas Van Heur's paper 'What, where and who is urban studies?' which assesses the structuring of global urban research by investigating the work of named university centres for urban research. The commentary offers observations and reflections on the historical development of urban studies beyond Van Heur's account and considers this through a discussion of Australian urban research groupings. In doing so the commentary notes the definitional challenges that apply to urban research formations in the context of wider institutional imperatives and dynamics that complicate their intellectual programs. The commentary notes the value of further narrative historical reflection on the discipline and particular historical experiences.