Sydney-Canberra: Another 200 Mile City?

Sydney to Canberra could be the next 200 mile city. Canberra is expanding northwards while Sydney is expanding to the southwest along a freeway corridor that enables the Canberra-Sydney journey to be undertaken in less than two and a half hours. Strung along this 290km corridor are many towns and villages nestling in distinctive landscape settings. Although bypassed by the freeway, these towns have been invigorated by the opportunities brought by better access. However, accessibility has also brought a threat to the character of these places and the possibility of Sydney to Canberra sprawl. Alternatively the opportunity for a model linear landscape city exists. The idea of towns linked by efficient transportation and separated by landscape is not new and was expounded and tested in England in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Since the mid-1960s, along with other models from Europe and the United States of America, Canberra has grown as a series of new towns organized around a conceptual structure called the Y Plan. Significantly, landscape has provided a rationale for the location, separation and connection of these towns. This paper provides a background to Australia’s urban typologies and explores the possibilities and limitations of the Y Plan as a physical model for future urban growth from Canberra to Sydney.