Past Matters brings together a group of largely Australian and New Zealand academics who in a series of case studies consider how planning concepts were adopted, adjusted, adapted and extended in a Pacific Rim setting. The early chapters explore the interplay between British and American planning models and local circumstances in Australia, Japan, and New Zealand. The main body of chapters recount difficulties faced by indigenous peoples with respect to housing needs and more generally re-asserting themselves in what began as colonial urban areas as well as others that look at community meanings, liberalism and exclusion on the street, and the power of sectional interests. The latter chapters also pose questions about urban heritage in terms of what and whose interests are at stake in these debates. The volume concludes with two convergent chapters that outline some practices by which ‘heritage’ of a more day to day suburban sort can be protected within a planning system. The collection centres on Australia and New Zealand but extends to include chapters on Canada and Japan. The viewpoints offered serve as a gentle reminder of the limitations of ‘Metropolitian Theory’.