2025/10/05 by Lionel Frost, Lee‐Anne Khor, Simone Sharpe +2 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Australian History and Society #Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies #New Zealand Economic and Social Studies
paper · doi:10.1111/aehr.70014
openalex publication_date 2025/10/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Abstract 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.