Transport, manufacturing, and the spatial evolution of metropolitan Melbourne

In the 20th century, there was a worldwide trend for manufacturing jobs to grow faster in outer urban areas than in old city centres. Technological change—railways, electricity, and the internal combustion engine—permitted the development of new industries and larger, integrated mass production sites, but did not in itself cause these differences in urban spatial structure. Instead, using case studies of two Melbourne industrial clusters from the pre‐ and post‐WW2 eras, we argue that industrial entrepreneurs shaped the built environment by investing in workplaces, housing, and infrastructure.