The non-urban areas within 150 kilometres of Australia metropolitan centres are undergoing rapid change and fragmentation, and in many cases, intense conflict. They are the sites of all outer urban expansion; are important sources of environmental, natural and human resources; produce over one quarter of the value of agricultural production; are the locations of much urban water; and contain 50 per cent of threatened biodiversity. The research project, "Change and continuity in peri-urban Australia" aimed to investigate the current state and future possibilities of peri-urban regions in Australia and to contribute to the growing international literature in this area. Peri-urban regions are those areas on the urban periphery into which cities expand or which cities influence. They are usually not homogenous and often contain a disorderly jumble of residential, commercial and rural-residential land uses, often interspersed without apparent order.