In this edition:- Watch on demand! Festival of ‘Public’ Urbanism Events
- Reels Competition – award announcement
- City Road Podcast wins Planning Excellence Award
- Australasian Housing Researchers Conference (AHRC) 2025
- Media mentions and commentary
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End-of-year message from the Director
It’s been a big year for the Henry Halloran Research Trust. We’d like to thank all of you who’ve engaged in our research, participated in one of our events, listened to a podcast, or downloaded a publication.
We hope you have a restorative break – perhaps take the opportunity to catch up on some of our Festival ‘on demand’ events!
Professor Nicole Gurran
Director
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Once more our annual Festival of Urbanism was a real highlight, featuring more than 70 eminent speakers across a stimulating national program of events over October and November this year. Thank you to our Festival speakers, and to our audiences who attended our Festival events in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Lismore, Canberra, and Hobart. Catch up on any of the events via our website or check out some of the highlights via the links below.
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Caring for Country and Community – from regulatory to restorative planning and environmental governance
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The Rental Market is a Joke: How comedy and social impact documentaries can improve public debate and policy
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Platformisation, Digital Placemaking and the Public Realm
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Denis Winston Memorial Lecture: The Golden Thread in Public and Democratic Life: parks and libraries as the cornerstone of our cities.
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In public health, prevention is better than cure – so why aren’t our cities funded to prevent disease?
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Festival of Urbanism Reels Competition
Videography and storytelling are increasingly vital tools for urban professionals to connect with diverse audiences. This year’s Instagram Reels competition held as part of the Festival of Urbanism 2024, encouraged university students to showcase their creativity and explore the theme of ‘public’ urbanism.
Congratulations to the winners: Best Production awarded to Pasha Grata Putrarinsi and Highly Commended to David Thom and Ayoob Yacoob. Check out their amazing reels on our Instagram page. Thank you to the PIA NSW Young Planners and the University of Sydney’s Student Urbanism Society for collaborating with us to organise and host the competition.
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|  | Reels competition winners, Pasha Grata Putrarinsi, David Thom and Ayoob Yacoob, and PIA Young Planner Committee member, Sebastian Aguilar
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City Road Podcast wins PIA NSW Planning Excellence Award
City Road Podcast has long featured insightful urban and regional content including Henry Halloran Research Trust researchers and events. Hosted by Associate Professor Dallas Rogers and originally funded by the Trust’s Urban Housing Lab Incubator in 2015, we are delighted to announce that City Road Pod has won the 2024 PIA NSW Planning Excellence Award for Planning Research. The award citation reads: “The City Road podcast demonstrates a high-quality translation of complex and cutting-edge academic discourse into an engaging and accessible format – democratising access to urbanism and planning theory. The judges particularly appreciated the strong collaboration between academics and practitioners to provide interesting and topical content showing how planning impacts everyday life. From the profound to the whimsical, the City Road podcast effectively uses new media to showcase the transformative power of planning”.
Congratulations to Associate Professor Dallas Rogers, the production team, and the many hundreds of guests and contributors who have featured in episodes over the years.
From 2025, City Road Podcast will be hosted by Bill Code, noted documentary maker and journalist who has worked for the ABC, SBS and the Guardian. Bill teaches media students at the University of Sydney and has a strong interest in urban and environmental policy as well as research translation. The Henry Halloran Research Trust is very pleased to be taking on production responsibilities for City Road Podcast. Dallas will continue to provide an editorial advisory role.
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Australasian Housing Researchers Conference (AHRC) 2025: Housing at a crossroad: wealth, inequality and housing futures
Housing systems around the world are facing profound crises, including rental precarity, affordability pressures, unsustainable development patterns, and barriers to housing for First Nations communities. We are pleased to be supporting the 2025 Australasian Housing Researchers Conference which will be held at the University of Sydney between 19-21 February, co-chaired by our Director, Professor Nicole Gurran, and Dr. Laurence Troy. The conference, which will bring together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners will include a special public event on the 19th of February. For conference information and registrations visit ahrc2025.sydney.edu.au
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Media Commentary:
The Henry Halloran Research Trust promotes evidence-informed contributions to public debate, through our publications, events, and media commentary.
Recent highlights include:
NewsyList reported on Australia’s housing market becoming increasingly profit-driven, with rising property prices in cities like Sydney. Professor Nicole Gurran explained how favourable tax incentives and investor-focused policies contribute to this trend, often disadvantaging first-home buyers.
The Saturday Paper explored the relevance of Plato’s ideal city in a modern context, questioning whether its principles of beauty, truth, and justice could shape contemporary urban planning. Professor Nicole Gurran highlighted that increasing housing density does not automatically lead to affordability, reflecting on the complexities of achieving equitable and functional urban spaces today.
ABC Online reported on the slowing pace of house construction, jeopardising national housing targets. Professor Nicole Gurran highlighted the challenges in addressing housing supply amid rising costs and delays.
See our full list of recent media items and commentary here
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Upcoming events
Our popular public lecture series resumes in early 2025.
We’re excited to announce that Sung-Yuen Perng will be giving a public seminar early next year! An Associate Professor at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, Sung-Yuen is a leading researcher in digital technology and its societal impacts. His recent work examines AI cities in East Asia and explores the role of algorithms in climate and decarbonization actions. Keep an eye out for more details closer to the date!
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The Henry Halloran Research Trust is a cross-disciplinary research centre focused on the profound challenges facing cities and regions in the 21st Century. Through our grants, projects and public events we foster research, education and dialogue across the many disciplines, professions and communities vital to creating better urban and regional futures.
We acknowledge the tradition of custodianship and law of the Country on which the University of Sydney campuses stand. We pay our respects to those who have cared and continue to care for Country.
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