Sub/urban dream(ing) : land speculation and the quarter acre block

This is a deeply and unapologetically political assessment of what is wrong with Australian suburbia and what this might mean for the future of land use in this country. Australian suburban patterns of land occupation and exchange have been shaped by, and continue to shape, both our perceptions of the land and the people who live on it. The endless growth of the suburban sprawl reveals a history of displacement, denial and delusion, but also of aspiration, identity and hope. This contradiction has led us to a perilous state in which suburbia, something so fundamental to our identity, has been increasingly attacked as the agent of our imminent demise. We thus have vital issues forcing us to confront how we occupy sub/urban space; pressures which reveal underlying fault lines in our relationship to the land and each other.