Quick questions on Urban morphology and land use: HSC Geography 2022 Focus Area

Most Australian capital cities show recognisable concentric and sectoral zones, though Sydney and Melbourne are now polycentric (multiple centres).

Burgess concentric zone model (1925, Chicago). Concentric rings: CBD; zone of transition (light industry, low-cost housing); workers' housing; middle-class residential; commuter zone. Useful starting point; oversimplifies because it assumes uniform terrain and a single centre.

Australian cities sort population spatially by socio-economic status, often visible on the SEIFA Index of Relative Socio-Economic Advantage and Disadvantage (ABS). In Sydney, advantaged areas concentrate around the harbour, inner east and lower north shore; relatively disadvantaged areas concentrate in pockets of western and south-western Sydney. In Melbourne, advantage concentrates in inner east; disadvantage in pockets of the outer south-east and west.

Gentrification is the process by which lower-income inner-city neighbourhoods are upgraded by the in-migration of higher-income residents, with rising property values, changing retail, and frequent displacement of existing residents. Sydney's Newtown, Surry Hills, Marrickville and Redfern; Melbourne's Fitzroy, Collingwood and Brunswick are textbook cases. Gentrification raises amenity but displaces lower-income tenants, including long-standing communities. The geography concept of change and the equity concept are both central.

Highest land values; office towers, retail, finance, government; high daytime population, lower residential density historically but rising as inner-city apartments grow. Sydney CBD, Melbourne CBD, Brisbane CBD.

Originally working-class terraces and small industrial sites; now largely gentrified and high-value. Sydney examples include Surry Hills, Newtown, Paddington; Melbourne examples include Fitzroy, Carlton, Collingwood.

Post-war detached housing on quarter-acre blocks; lower density, family-oriented. Sydney examples include Ryde, Eastwood, Hurstville; Melbourne examples include Box Hill, Camberwell, Brunswick (now also gentrified).

Post-1970s housing estates; lower land prices, longer commutes, growing populations. Sydney examples include Camden, Penrith, Liverpool; Melbourne examples include Pakenham, Cranbourne, Melton, Wyndham.

Recent housing on former farmland, intermixed with semi-rural lifestyle blocks. The "growth corridor" of each capital.

Concentric rings: CBD; zone of transition (light industry, low-cost housing); workers' housing; middle-class residential; commuter zone. Useful starting point; oversimplifies because it assumes uniform terrain and a single centre.

Land use grows outward along sectors (wedges) shaped by transport corridors. Industry follows rail and rivers; high-status residential follows favourable terrain. Better fits cities with strong transport-linked patterns.

Cities develop around multiple centres (not one CBD). Compatible activities cluster, incompatible activities repel. Fits modern polycentric metros (Sydney's Sydney CBD, North Sydney, Parramatta, Macquarie Park, Liverpool; Melbourne's Melbourne CBD, Box Hill, Dandenong).

Outward expansion of low-density detached housing onto former farmland. Cheap up-front, attractive to households seeking a yard, but expensive in long-run infrastructure, transport emissions and loss of food-producing land.

Increasing density within the existing urban footprint through medium-density (townhouses), high-density (apartments) and mixed-use development around transport nodes. Cheaper infrastructure per capita; reduced car dependence; but resisted by some established communities (NIMBY responses).

Identify and describe three zones of an Australian capital city, using named examples. [3 marks]