So Who the Bloody Hell Are We?: The Quarter Acre Block

Part of our So Who the Bloody Hell Are We? series interrogating the Australian identity, The Quarter Acre Block is all about lifestyle and location, location, location.

We love a sunburnt country as long as it stays on the far side of a picket fence. Partitioning off our own little parts of the wide brown land, and replacing the sprawling menace of the Australian bush with the reassuring symmetry of the Hills Hoist, we’re all living the great suburban dream.

But our urban and rural spaces are evolving as rapidly as our attitudes to them. Bush becomes ‘burb as family-sized “McMansions” spring up on city fringes. Meanwhile, single person dwellings of women over 55 have become our fastest growing household type.

In our love/hate relationship with the suburbs, do we take for granted the open space and fresh air that others can only dream of? How much should our cities be planned, and how much should they be allowed to unfold organically? Do “bogans” and “elites” actually exist?