Contestation

Abstract

Ruth (1916–99) and Maurie (1916–88) Crow’s foray into urban planning advocacy reached its apogee with the three-part Plan for Melbourne published between 1969 and 72. The award-winning, highly influential Plan, particularly its second and third volumes, was their most realised and effective publication and remains a remarkable catalogue of ideas for liveable, people-focused cities, a live document with potential for recalibration in the twenty-first century. Examination of the authors’ contexts – their origins, personal lives and circumstances, and their adherence to the Communist Party of Australia, of which Maurie was a lifelong member and Ruth outlived – informs the analysis of this docum..