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Kaya Urbanists, This month’s edition looks at how cities are preparing for growth and changing economies.
Our featured mural is part of a larger artwork by James Giddy, at the top of Jacob’s Ladder on Cliff Street. Watch James present the entire artwork in this mini video.
We hear from Hawaiian's new CEO, Beau Waters, about Perth through the eyes of someone who has recently returned home from the US. We also unpack the newly launched Sydney Plan and its ambition to build a city that can continue to grow. We also take a look at what’s happening at Perth Airport, as it prepares for the decades ahead. Further afield, Ghana is rethinking how and when its economy operates through an ambitious 24-hour economy strategy. And, in our Communications Specialist Nathalie Heppeler's guest column, she takes you to southern Germany, to a small city shaped by Zeppelins, industry, war and reinvention.
Plenty of food for thought this month, we hope you enjoy the read.
Committee for Perth Team
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SYDNEY PLANS FOR A CITY THAT KEEPS GROWING |
Sydney has just tried to answer a question Perth is also grappling with: if we know the city will keep growing, how do we deliberately create a long-term plan for growth that ensures housing, infrastructure, jobs and services keep pace with a growing population?
Launched by the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure at a Committee for Sydney event this month, the Sydney Plan charts a 20-year direction to 2046, when Sydney's population is expected to reach around ~6.6 million. It plans for approximately 800,000 additional homes and 950,000 jobs, bringing housing, employment, transport, infrastructure, green space and liveability into one metropolitan strategy.
What stands out is the idea of a growable city. Rather than debating whether Sydney should keep growing, the plan acknowledges that people will continue to want to live there and asks how the city can establish the foundations to accommodate that growth well.
It also recognises that Sydney isn't one homogeneous city. Different areas have different strengths, from the established CBD and Parramatta to Western Sydney's growing role in logistics, manufacturing and aviation. The aim is to bring homes, jobs and infrastructure closer together and spread opportunity more evenly across the metropolitan area.
For the first time, public and open space is embedded in Sydney's metropolitan plan, reflecting a simple reality of greater density: when more people live without private gardens, the local park increasingly becomes their backyard. Green space, tree canopy and access to quality public places therefore need to grow alongside housing.
Perhaps most relevant for Perth is the timeframe. The Sydney Plan looks 20 years ahead but works in five-year implementation periods, creating shorter points at which progress can be measured and priorities adjusted without losing sight of the longer-term ambition. Perth is planning for 3.5 million people in 2050 and beyond. Sydney's lesson isn't about copying its model, but about preparing early enough that growth becomes something we shape rather than something we continually respond to.
Good city planning means planting trees whose shade today's decision-makers may never sit under. The Sydney Plan is an attempt to do just that. Read More |
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For this edition of On The Ground Intel, we’re delighted to sit down with Beau Waters, newly appointed CEO of Hawaiian. Beau grew up in Adelaide before moving to Perth at 17, where he began his career as a professional footballer with the West Coast Eagles. His journey has since taken him from elite sport into the corporate world, including time living and working in the US, before eventually returning to Perth.
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Now a business leader and dad to a young family, Beau has experienced Perth at very different stages of life and from both near and afar. He brings an interesting perspective on how the city has changed, what makes it a great place to build a life and where its opportunities lie for the future. |
1. You spent more than a decade in elite sport with the West Coast Eagles. What did football teach you about leadership, resilience and building strong teams that you still draw on today?
Football taught me that people are the foundation of any high-performing team. You can have the best strategy in the world, but if people don’t trust each other, don’t feel valued or don’t understand what they’re working towards, you won’t get the best out of them. I also learnt a lot about resilience. In football, you lose games, get injured, get dropped, have setbacks and have periods where things just don’t go your way. You learn to control what you can control, stay connected to the people around you and keep moving forward. Probably the biggest thing I take from it into leadership today is that high standards and putting people first aren’t competing ideas. The best teams I was part of genuinely cared about each other, but they also held each other accountable. I think that combination is really powerful.
2. Hawaiian’s portfolio includes places that many Perth people interact with as part of their everyday lives. What do you think makes a great neighbourhood or community hub today, and how is that changing?
It’s about how a place makes people feel. The best neighbourhood centres are places where people naturally want to spend time — where you can grab a coffee, do your shopping, take the kids, meet a friend, exercise or simply bump into someone you know. People increasingly want convenience, but they also want genuine connection and meaningful experiences. That’s probably the biggest change we’re seeing. We’re competing with the convenience of online shopping and everything being delivered to your door. While this convenience is undeniable, it reduces everyday human interactions. As more of our lives move online, we know that feelings of social isolation and disconnection can grow.
Neighbourhood centres therefore play an increasingly important role as places not only to shop, but to meet, connect, share experiences and build a stronger sense of belonging.
3. You spent over six years in the US and returned to Perth in 2025. What made you decide that Perth was the city you wanted to come back to?
It was ultimately about family and a sense of belonging. Living overseas was an incredible experience and gave me a huge appreciation for what other cities can offer, but every time we came back to Perth there was this feeling that we were home. We wanted our kids to grow up close to their grandparents, extended family and friends, and to have that sense of community around them. Perth also gives you something pretty special — you can have a great career and a vibrant city, but you’re never too far from the beach, the outdoors or your family. I think spending time away actually made me appreciate Perth more.
4. What surprised you most about Perth when you returned?
Probably how much it had changed — and how much it hadn’t.
Perth feels much more confident and cosmopolitan than when I left. There’s a real energy around the city, particularly with the growth and investment that’s happening. But at the same time, it still has that incredibly relaxed, outdoorsy lifestyle and that strong sense of community. I also realised how much I’d taken the lifestyle here for granted. You can finish work, go for a swim at the beach with the family, still be home at a decent hour. That’s pretty hard to beat.
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INTERNATIONAL INSPIRATION |
GHANA IS THE FIRST COUNTRY TO LAUNCH 24 ECONOMY |
Image by modernghana.com
We’re not getting tired of the night-time economy just yet. After exploring how cities are making more of their evenings and, more recently, how the dawn economy is creating opportunities before most of us have started work, Ghana is taking the idea considerably further.
Its 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development Programme (24H+) isn't primarily about keeping restaurants, bars and shops open later. Instead, it is a national economic strategy designed to change how the country produces, moves and sells goods. It aims to expand expanding round-the-clock operations across manufacturing, agriculture, logistics, construction, essential services and even public administration, alongside investment in skills and training.
The numbers are ambitious. Economic modelling published in Socio-Economic Planning Sciences estimates that, if successfully implemented, Ghana's real GDP could be 31.71% higher after a decade than under a business-as-usual scenario. The strategy could also create more than three million jobs within the first five years, particularly across manufacturing, agriculture, trade, construction and transport. In doing so, it would offer Ghanaians greater choice, flexibility and more opportunities beyond traditional working hours. This idea has recently moved into action: Ghana officially launched 24H+ in 2025 and in February 2026 established a dedicated 24-Hour Economy Authority to coordinate its implementation.
The potential benefits are significant, but so are the challenges. A 24-hour economy needs more than businesses willing to operate around the clock: safe and affordable late-night transport, reliable energy, strong worker protections and services such as childcare all become essential.
Australia already has elements of a 24-hour economy. Mining, ports, freight, hospitals and airports never really stop. For Perth, with its resources and energy industries, growing logistics network and proximity to Asian markets and time zones, Ghana raises an interesting question: what would our city need to look like if more of our economy genuinely operated around the clock? Read More
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FRIEDRICHSHAFEN: THE SMALL GERMAN CITY THAT HELPED CONQUER THE SKIES |
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For this edition of Urban Scrawl, I wanted to take you somewhere personal: my hometown of Friedrichshafen, a city of around 60,000 people on the German shores of Lake Constance / Bodensee where I spent all of July.
At first glance, it is an unlikely industrial powerhouse. Across the lake rise the Swiss and Austrian Alps; vineyards and apple orchards surround the city, and ferries criss-cross the water. But Friedrichshafen has an extraordinary history of invention, destruction and reinvention and its influence reaches much further than its size suggests. It began with a man who wanted to fly. |
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In 1900, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin launched his first rigid airship, LZ 1, from a floating hangar on Lake Constance. When his fourth airship was destroyed by a storm in 1908, the project appeared finished. Instead, something remarkable happened: people across Germany donated more than six million Goldmarks (the equivalent of roughly AUD $75 million today) to keep his vision alive. Zeppelin used the money to establish the Zeppelin Foundation and Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in Friedrichshafen and an entire industrial ecosystem grew around his idea. |
In 1900, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin launched his first rigid airship, LZ 1, from a floating hangar on Lake Constance. When his fourth airship was destroyed by a storm in 1908, the project appeared finished. Instead, something remarkable happened: people across Germany donated more than six million Goldmarks (the equivalent of roughly AUD $75 million today) to keep his vision alive. Zeppelin used the money to establish the Zeppelin Foundation and Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in Friedrichshafen and an entire industrial ecosystem grew around his idea.
ZF Friedrichshafen was founded in 1915 to manufacture gears and transmissions for airships. Claude Dornier began working for Zeppelin before establishing the aircraft business that would bear his name, pioneering all-metal aircraft and extraordinary flying boats. Maybach Motorenbau, the predecessor of today's Rolls-Royce Power Systems/MTU business in Friedrichshafen, also emerged from this industrial network. |
The Dornier Museum and an original Maybach Pullman Limousine from 1942 |
In 1900, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin launched his first rigid airship, LZ 1, from a floating hangar on Lake Constance. When his fourth airship was destroyed by a storm in 1908, the project appeared finished. Instead, something remarkable happened: people across Germany donated more than six million Goldmarks (the equivalent of roughly AUD $75 million today) to keep his vision alive. Zeppelin used the money to establish the Zeppelin Foundation and Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in Friedrichshafen and an entire industrial ecosystem grew around his idea.
Then came the Hindenburg Disaster. |
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| 18.3 million passengers – and growing! Perth Airport has just recorded its busiest year ever, welcoming more than 18.3 million passengers in FY26, up 5.2% in just one year. International travel grew particularly strongly, rising 8.1% to 5.55 million passengers.
As we learnt at our recent Membership Spotlight Experience, the airport is preparing for considerably more. Under its Master Plan 2026, Perth Airport expects annual passenger numbers to reach 30.8 million by 2046. A multi-billion-dollar transformation is already underway to create the long-planned ‘One Airport’, bringing commercial flights together at Airport Central.
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COULD NATURE MAKE US AS HAPPY AS MONEY? |
How important is nature to our happiness? According to Australian research, perhaps almost as important as how much we earn.
A nationally representative survey of more than 4,000 Australians found that the relationship between nature connection and life satisfaction was similar in strength to the relationship between personal income and life satisfaction.
Those with the strongest connection to nature were 4.6 times more likely to report the highest levels of life satisfaction and 1.9 times more likely to have the highest levels of health-related quality of life, than those who felt least connected to nature. Researchers weren't simply measuring how often people visit a park or go for a bushwalk, Nature connection captures the relationship people have with the natural world through their identity, experiences and attitudes towards nature. The relationship benefits extended across every dimension of life satisfaction examined, including health, relationships, safety, standard of living, sense of community and future security. It was particularly strong among younger Australians.
So if connection to nature contributes meaningfully to life satisfaction, should green and blue spaces be considered essential wellbeing infrastructure alongside transport, housing and other services? The researchers argue for better integration of environmental and wellbeing policy, including urban greening, nature-based solutions and making parks and outdoor activities more accessible.
Perth is already blessed with beaches, the Swan and Canning rivers, Kings Park and extensive bushland, perhaps the challenge isn't simply preserving nature around our city. It's ensuring that, as Perth grows, nature remains part of everyday urban life and accessible to everyone.
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WHAT INSPIRES YOU RIGHT NOW? |
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Urban Scrawl is shaped by ideas and actions from around the world. If you’ve seen something while travelling, read an article that stuck with you, heard a great conversation, or are working on a project that’s reshaping how cities work and grow, we’d love to hear about it. Share it with us and help shape future editions: nathalie.heppeler@committeeforperth.com.au
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Committee for Perth conducts its work on Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar. We recognise their peoples' ongoing connection to land, culture and community and in doing so, pay our respects to Elders past and present. |
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