Australian Urban and Regional Economic Restructuring in the 2020s: pandemic aftershocks and emerging fractures

Australia has a distinctive pattern of urban settlements, comprising six states and two territories each dominated by their capital city, and the increasing population and economic activity within these capitals has long been a concern. The relationships between industries, urban structure, prosperity and inclusion and population growth in Australia's regions and cities received significant attention in the decades surrounding the turn of the 21st century as the once-prominent manufacturing sector declined and retreated offshore, leaving new distributions of disadvantage and metropolitan-focused migration patterns. In 2012, it was asserted that Australia had entered a post-industrial era. Academic interest in the influences of and changes in its economic geography has waned in the following years, a marker of de-industrialisation. In this article, we address this lacuna by reviewing the literature on changes to Australia's economic geography, including the distributions of people, employment and industry and the factors influencing them. We conclude by setting out a research agenda that addresses the issues identified in the review, including the distinct trends in occupational and sectoral geographies, industry policy and the renewed policy focus on Australian manufacturing and the changing relationships between places of work and home and the implications for productivity.