Resource development and environmental planning: The hunter valley experience

This chapter reviews the mechanisms employed in the planning, co-ordination and management of the development that took place. Approaches range from single agency and private sector development plans, through formal attempts at co-ordination under the general auspices of the New South Wales (NSW) Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (and associated legislation), to ad hoc state initiatives such as the creation of a co-ordinator of infrastructure development for the Hunter Region. The efficacy of these arrangements is appraised by reference to the general body of procedural planning theory. The chapter presents a critique of the degree of co-ordination that was achieved and comments on the likely feasibility of alternative approaches, prior to making recommendations on how the essentially ad hoc response experienced in the Hunter Region might be rendered more efficient in subsequent rapid development situations.