Just a few months ago, in these pages, while reviewing MMXX (see the September/ October 2021 issue), I asked who would be able to resource a comprehensive new history of Australian architecture, given the longform writing and the publication costs involved. Davina Jackson, with Allen and Unwin, has risen to the challenge, using the pandemic to research and produce a clear and detailed history. Jackson’s 2000 book Australian Architecture Now, co-authored with Chris Johnson, was a sequel, of sorts, to Jennifer Taylor’s Australian Architecture Since 1960. Taylor herself was picking up from J. M. Freeland’s definitive Australian Architecture: A History (published 1968). And so we come full circle, with Jackson resetting the updates to Freeland and writing it all again, from pre-settlement to 2020.
Each of the book’s 10 chapters…
