I’ve recently returned from a month in the UK, France, Spain and Norway.  I don’t mention this to make you envious, but because it allows me to compare how these different countries provide and manage their public assets for population and tourism demands far exceeding anything Australia has to manage. 

One striking difference is how well European cities blend and integrate their city’s operational needs with the demands of population and peak tourism. The way they value and use community spaces such as town squares, public art, statutes, fountains, shared footpaths for restaurants and even flower-bed displays, all to create a sense of space and a sense of place is remarkable.

It also provides an envelope for commerce and business to thrive.  Australia, by and large, has morphed into the nanny state of what you can’t do, rather than encouraging small business and accepting responsibility yourself. We noticed this with taxis – as soon as we arrived back in Australia, we could hardly see through the passenger side windscreen for all the stickers and official notices affixed.

The integrated public transport system of not just EU capital cities but secondary cities as well, leaves many of our cities behind. All of this is achieved while respecting, valuing and maintaining the historical nuances of each city, town and region across Europe. So why can’t Australia adopt many of these attributes that so successfully blend community and commerce together, and still cater for massive tourist influxes?

The perpetual rebuttal, at least within Australia, is that we just don't have the population to sustain or justify this sort of investment in infrastructure. This premise must be challenged. If this were really true, we would never have built the Sydney Harbour Bridge that we have today – it would have been a utilitarian, single lane each way bridge.

What we are lacking is the political vision and will to reshape our communities and invest in proven systems that Europeans take for granted. For all of Australia’s and New Zealand’s prowess, we are slow or reticent to take-up proven systems from the EU. Is it arrogance, complacency or lack of vision? It can’t be finance, when we are about to enter the trillion-dollar era of infrastructure investment. 

Take the train stations at Norway’s Oslo, London’s King's Cross or Paris’ Gare de Lyon and compare these to Sydney’s Central or Melbourne’s Flinders Street train stations. If you’ve not experienced these overseas state-of-the-art facilities, they replicate airline terminals with all the facilities and conveniences and shopping that any traveller – or everyday commuter – could desire. They have ticketing, communications, essential services, integrated transport nodes, amenities, cleanliness and a pleasant user experience down pat. This is even before you board their high speed trains (300km/h) or even the reliable local underground or street level trams or e-bus systems.  Electric cars are becoming commonplace, with free parking and recharge stations readily available. Popular electric bikes and scooters play their part in reducing emissions and adding to a more pleasant community amenity.

Build it and they will use it, as the saying goes. With the announcement this week that Sydney is preparing to spread even further west to cater for another “Adelaide-sized city” it begs the question why the cities of Wollongong, Newcastle and Canberra are not being linked by high-speed, wifi enabled trains connecting Sydney to these hubs. Better use of existing infrastructure is essential. 

Instead, we seem singularly focused in creating more urban sprawl which in turn demands evermore infrastructure and associated efforts to build cohesive communities. We can do better.

Robert Fuller
CEO, IPWEA Australasia