The Making of an Australian ‘Airport City’ |
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Authors: | ROBERT FREESTONE ILAN WIESEL |
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Institution: | 1. Built Environment, University of New South Wales, , Sydney, NSW, 2052 Australia;2. City Futures Research Centre, University of New South Wales, , Sydney, NSW, 2052 Australia |
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Abstract: | Globally, the changing nature of airports, and particularly the juxtaposition of general commercial land uses alongside aviation functions, is captured in the concept of the ‘airport city’. In Australia, commercialisation has impacted nearly all privatised capital city and general aviation airports. Essendon Airport's contested transformation from a run‐down general aviation facility into an emergent business and retail hub in Melbourne's north‐western suburbs serves as an instructive case study of the evolution of the airport city as a new suburban typology. Drawing in part on in‐depth interviews with key stakeholders involved in the redevelopment process, this paper examines the conflicting forces that have driven commercialisation since the late 1990s, the spatial outcomes and the wider planning issues arising. |
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Keywords: | privatisation neo‐liberalism urban planning airport city Essendon Airport |
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