Prospects for a Megacity Region Transition in Australia: A Preliminary Examination of Transport and Communication Drivers

Australian governments continue to search for a model capable of planning future urban settlements at an extended spatial scale (the mega-metropolitan region) to accommodate high population growth more sustainably. Attempts at decentralisation over the past half century have failed, as state capital cities continue to sprawl in an unsustainable manner and increase their primacy at the expense of regional cities. This paper examines how two technologies, broadband and fast rail—both infrastructures capable of re-shaping space–time relationships—could underpin a transition of Australia’s largest capital cities into megacity regions by functionally integrating regional cities into their core metropolitan agglomerations. With the Melbourne megacity region as a spatial framework, changes in population and economic development are examined for Melbourne and several regional cities in Victoria following the introduction of regional fast rail (RFR) and broadband. The impact of high-speed rail (HSR) for intercity corridors in southeast England is analysed as a possible analogue for future application in Victoria. The results revealed that RFR primarily served to extend capital city suburban development. Only HSR had the capacity to ‘punch through’ and boost growth for ‘basic’ new economy industries in ‘on-line’ urban centres in corridors linked to London. High-speed broadband proved most attractive to Melbourne’s agglomeration of high-skilled information workers. Lower speed broadband services were more uniformly taken up across all centres. This discussion speculates on the impacts of these and other green economy and digitalisation drivers on prospects for a future megacity region transition in Victoria.