Australian City and Regional Network (ACRN)

About the Australian City and Regional Network (ACRN)

Research Strengths and Opportunities

The Network research priority is An Environmentally Sustainable Australia but it will also necessarily explore the city and regional aspects of research in all four research priority areas while emphasising the social and economic benefits that would flow to Australia from a multi-disciplinary approach to them.

Under its environmentally sustainable research priority the Network will pursue multi-disciplinary research in a number of themes including:

The urban and regional environment including health impacts of city form and structure,
Infrastructure planning development and management including transport, water sewerage and drainage, information and communication networks and energy distribution,
Employment, its distribution and potential new opportunities,
Housing,
Administration and urban and regional governance,
Urban and regional planning.

The Network will develop strong relationships with government agencies engaged in city and regional issues. It will also seek to establish continuing relationships with industry especially with urban service providers and the finance industry active in city and regional Australia.

The annual National State of Australian Cities Conference will provide a stock-take of research and identify research needs in the field. Involving government agencies and private institutions in the continuing work of the work-in-progress seminars of the nodes together with the annual Conference will develop a better understanding of the research capacity in the field. It will also stimulate research and engage industry and government agencies in the opportunities open to them of a better understanding of the issues facing the cities and regions in Australia flowing from better research and an enhanced national research capacity in this area.

Contact Details

Network Convenor:	Professor P N Troy Centre for Resourcves and Environmental Studies Building 43 The Australian National University ACT 0200 Tel: 02 6125 229 Fax: 02 6125 0757 E-mail: patrick.troy@anu.edu.au
Network Coordinator:	t.b.a.
Network Administrator:	t.b.a.
How to join Network:

Structure of the ACRN

The ACRN consitst of a central node and another eight constituent nodes. Below is a list of nodes and their Managers:

The Central node at the CRES, ANU will also focus on environmental sustainability. Prof Bob Wasson.
A node at Monash University in the Faculty of Arts will focus on urban history. Prof Graeme Davison.
A node at Melbourne University in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning will focus on urban planning and governance. Prof Ruth Fincher.
A node at University of New South Wales in the Faculty of the Built Environment will focus on the built environment including health implications. Prof Peter Murphy.
A node at Sydney University in the Faculty of Economics will focus on urban economics. Prof Frank Stilwell.
A node at Griffith University in the Faculty of Environment Sciences will focus on Environmental Planning. Prof Lex Brown.
A node at Queensland University will focus on urban administration, social cultural and housing issues. Prof Peter Spearritt.
A node at University of Adelaide in the Faculty of Social Science will focus on spatial and demographic issues. Prof Graeme Hugo.
A node at Curtin University of Technology, Division of Humanities will focus on regional planning issues. Prof Tom Stannage.