Economic and socio-spatial diversification in Wollongong's metropolitan evolution: Divergent sub urbanising trajectories of Dapto and Thirroul

摘要

The eastern Australian city of Wollongong has a distinctive metropolitan evolution strongly shaped by its exceptional physical site and imposition onto a prior urban network. This change over time has led to complexity and variability in local suburbanising trajectories that are revealed in the contrasting histories of Dapto and Thirroul-once settlements in their own rights, now suburbs of the greater metropolitan area that is Wollongong. Insights gained in field surveys undertaken in 1962 and 1963 by students from the University of New England, supplemented by 1961 census data, provided a cross-sectional overview of the critical initial phase in the suburbanising transition, involving flux in both workforce and workplace. Locality data from the 2017 census and reconnaissance survey provided a chance to engage in a longitudinal enquiry into their evolving roles as suburbs within the emergent Wollongong metropolis. Suburbanisation inevitably leads to socioeconomic differentiation driven by amenity versus affordability gradients, evidenced in demographic profiles and real estate values. Wollongong's distinctive natural landscapes have become increasingly influential in socioeconomic polarisation, partially aligned to its exceptional physical site, reflected in the evolving contrasted identities and status of Dapto and Thirroul. While Dapto has presented yet another case study in incipient working-class decomposition and welfare dependency, Thirroul's distinctive natural assets have driven its transformation as a gentrified locale increasingly inhabited by the professional and managerial classes. The time span extending over six decades between the two surveys presented an exceptional opportunity for longitudinal socio-spatial research into residential decision processes.