urbanization in Australia

       According to Geography and Diversity (Source 3), urban geography is different than all other sub-disciplines within geography. Urban geography is defined as, “The study of areas on a map that feature a high concentration of infrastructure and buildings. Urban geography focuses on places in the world where economic activity takes place outside of the primary sectors, and particularly densely populated areas, within cities.” There are two main types of urban geography. The first is a city-as-a-system approach, which is essentially distribution patterns and inner structures. Geographers using this approach will basically study the patterns that people create in highly populated areas. The second type is the city-system approach which is the link between people and the locations of the cities. City-system also looks at the features that hold these links together. There are other types of urban geographers, but they mainly look at the same things which include: people, locations, buildings, and the attractions factor.

Even though Australia is one of the least densely populated countries in the world, it has many thriving urban settlements. There are a few densely populated areas. According to World Population Overview(Source 1), as of 2011, Sydney is home to 4.4 million residents. It is also Australia’s largest city. They have had a 6.6%population increase in the last 5 years. Sydney has many man-made structures, including the Opera House, Victoria Building as well as the Sydney Tower.                                              

                                        Figure 1: The Sydney Tower in Sydney, Australia.                                                                        

         The next largest urban settlement in Australia is Melbourne. Since 2011, its population consist of 4 million people. They have had an 11% population increase in the past 5 years and a few sources believe that Melbourne will become the largest city in the next 25 years. Melbourne has many artificial structures consisting of the Melbourne Museum and the Preston City Hall.

                                          Figure 2: Preston City Hall located in Melbourne. 

                    

Lastly, Australia’s national capital, Canberra, has a population of over 381,000 people. According to the AAA Tourism (Source 2), there are also many manufactured structures here, a few are the Australian War Memorial, Old Parliament House as well as the New Parliament. Although Australia is not densely populated, it is rich with urban settlements and facilities.

                                     Figure 3:   Australia's War Memorial located Canberra.

By: Christie Johnson and Gabrielle Ramsay  
Work Cited:

(Source 1) http://worldpopulationreview.com/

(Figure 1) http://www.sydney.com.au/sights.htm

(Figure 2) http://www.visitvictoria.com/

(Figure 3)(Source 2)  https://www.aaatourism.com.au/explore-australia/location/ACT/page/info/
(Source 3) Geography and Diversity: Geography of a Changing World Textbook Edition 4