Welcome to the second edition of Planning Australia. The first – published in 2007 – was adopted by many Australian universities for their planning students and shortly after its release, was honoured by state and national Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) awards. Planning Australia has been well reviewed and at last count was held in 144 libraries worldwide (University of NSW 2011). These outcomes are testimony to every one of the contributing authors, as well as those who assisted with research, formatting and editing to produce the most up-to-date, comprehensive and cohesive overview of the major issues and concerns dominating Australian planning theory and practice available at the time.

So when Cambridge University Press approached me in 2010 to consider a second edition of Planning Australia I have to confess that I was not totally surprised. Delighted to be asked – of course – if not a little daunted at the prospect of producing a second edition. With the help of some positive critiques from our publisher’s market research, and the enthusiasm of different authors, I needed little persuasion to take on this task. I was also very pleased that Paul Maginn accepted my invitation to be co-editor. Paul is a Western Australian colleague with whom I have collaborated on other writing projects (Maginn, Thompson & Tonts, 2008a, 2008b), and is well known to the academic planning community across the country. One of his most recent achievements was hosting the 2011 World Planning Schools Congress in Perth (<http://www.wpsc2011.com.au>). He has brought a fresh set of eyes to this edition, and in particular his knowledge of Western Australia has been invaluable. Together we have sought to ensure revisions to the book embrace a wider geographical breadth of planning initiatives from across Australia.