Planning for Urban Country

Book excerpt: Planning for Urban Country addresses a major gap in knowledge about the translation of Aboriginal values and Country Plans into Australia’s built environment contexts. How do you ‘heal’ Country if it has been devastated by concrete and bitumen, excavations and bulldozing, weeds and introduced plants and animals, and surface, aerial and underground contaminants? How then do Aboriginal values and Country Plan aspirations address urban environments? In this book, David Jones explores the major First Nations-informed design and planning transformations in Djilang / Greater Geelong since 2020. Included are short-interlinked essays about the political and cultural context, profiles of key exemplar architectural, landscape and corridor projects, a deep explanation of the legislative, policy and statutory precedents, opportunities and environment that has enabled these opportunities, and the how Wadawurrung past-present-future values have been scaffolded into these changes.