2014 UHPH Conference

The 12th Australasian Urban History / Planning History Conference (UHPH) was held at Victoria University of Wellington in 2014.

Landscapes and ecologies of urban and planning history

Dates: 2–5 February 2014

Urbanisation represents a dynamic flux of social histories and natural ecologies woven together across time. The interaction between settlement and landscape told through conflict, discovery, heroism, failure, imagination and policy at different scales presents a rich lode for histories informed by an environmental perspective. This conference affords a special opportunity to explore these interrelationships but will welcome all contributions related to urban and planning history in Australia and New Zealand.

Wellington is an inspired location in which to consider the complex relationships between cities and their settings. It is situated in a dramatic landscape, with the built environment perched between rugged, bush-clad hills and a magnificent harbour. As the second Wakefield private colonisation experiment in Australasia, a pre-planned grid city was patched into a paucity of flat land and arrayed across steep inclines at the edge of Te Whanganui-a-Tara (the great harbour of Tara). The accommodation here of people, plan and landscape delivered a settlement of character and beauty. This conference will assemble stories and reflections on the histories of this and many other cities and of the people who have been instrumental in their conception and changes over time.