Qualifications 

Doctor of Philosophy - University of Hawaii 

Master of Urban and Regional Planning - University of Hawaii 

Bachelor of Architecture - School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi University 

Dr Bhishna Bajracharya is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the Mirvac School
of Sustainable Development, Bond University, Gold Coast. He is also currently serving as
the research coordinator of the School. Prior to joining Bond, he taught at the
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) for twelve years. While at QUT, he acted as the
course coordinator for the undergraduate planning program for four years. He also worked
as a post doctoral fellow at the demography program, Research School of Social Sciences,
Australian National University from 1994 to 1996. While working in Nepal as an architect
in the early 1980s, he was involved in the design and development of a number of
educational buildings under World Bank funding. Bhishna received his PhD (1994) and
Masters degree in Urban Planning (1986) from the University of Hawaii under an East West
Center scholarship. He completed his Bachelor in Architecture from the School of Planning
and Architecture, Delhi University in 1979. 

Bhishna has conducted research in a number of areas which include master planned
communities, transit oriented development, knowledge precincts in regional towns,
sustainable campus, subtropical design, Local Agenda 21, and urbanization issues in Asian
countries. Bhishna, together with academics from QUT’s Creative Industry faculty,
recently received an ARC Linkage grant on the use of community narratives and new media
in urban planning. Another project he is working on is looking into local government’s
roles in disaster management in Queensland, together with QUT staff and Emergency
Queensland. 

He has served as an executive member of the Planning Institute of Australia, Queensland
Division for two years and is currently serving on its education committee. He is also a
founding member of the Brisbane alumni chapter of the East West Center, a Hawaii based
federal research organisation with strong links to the Asia Pacific region and the
University of Hawaii. 

RESEARCH GRANTS 

Remembering the past, imagining the future: Embedding narrative and new media in urban
planning (ARC Linkage LP0882274) (with Greg Hearn, Marcus Froth, Kerry Mallan, from QUT)
Partner: Noosa Council, Noosa District State High School, FKP 

Project Summary 

This project supports new media creativity and literacy in two Australian communities and
helps people participate in the urban planning process. It assists in improving a sense
of belonging and fosters human talent and socio-cultural values favourable to creativity
and innovation. By empowering people to bring about change within their local community,
the project re-invigorates a more contemporary interpretation of community values in a
knowledge society. Australia's capacity to interpret and engage with its urban
environment is also enhanced by raising awareness of the socio- cultural background,
heritage and future aspirations of local community members. 

Policy into Practice: Adoption of hazard mitigation measures by Local Governments in
Queensland Funded by Emergency Queensland (With Iraphne Childs and Peter Hastings from
QUT) 

Project Summary 

The objective of the research is to examine the adoption of hazard management measures by
local governments in Queensland. The research is based on online survey of all local
governments in Queensland and focus group workshops with selected councils. Some of the
research questions include: 1) how are local governments adopting and integrating hazard
mitigation policies?; 2) what are the gaps between policy and practice?; 3) is a regional
approach to hazard management at the local government level possible?

Articles

The Second Life of urban planning? Using NeoGeography tools for community engagement (with Marcus Foth, Ross Brown, and Greg Hearn), Sustainable Development (2009)

The majority of the world's citizens now live in cities. Although urban planning can thus...

Partnerships for community building and governance in master planned communities: A study of Varsity Lakes at Gold Coast (with George Earl and Shahed Khan), Sustainable Development (2008)

The development and management of master planned communities (MPCs) involve achieving the twin goals of...

Emerging role of ICT in the development of knowledge-based master planned communities (with Janelle Allison), Sustainable Development (2008)

With the recent trends toward knowledge-based urban development and networked society, information and communication technologies...

Integrating subtropical design in transit oriented developments of South East Queensland, Australia (with Daniel O'Hare), Sustainable Development (2007)

The objective of the paper is to stimulate the dialogue on subtropical design of transit...

Integrating sustainability and principles of Local Agenda 21: A study of four local governments in NSW and QLD (with Shahed Khan), Australian planner (2004)

Local Agenda 21 (LA21) under the 1992 Earth Summit charter highlighted the important role of...

Book Chapters

Sustainability framework for transit oriented development in South East Queensland (with Shahed Khan), Queensland: Geographical perspectives (2006)

Extract:

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is currently being advocated as an effective land use...

Conference Papers

Link

Governance and implementation challenges for transit oriented developments: Findings from a comparison of South East Queensland and Perth region (with Shahed Khan), Paper presented at the State of Australian cities national conference 2007 (2007)

In the last three decades, a number of master planned communities (MPCs) have been developed...

Link

Masterplanned communities and governance (with Paul Donehue and Douglas Baker), Paper presented at the State of Australian cities national conference 2007 (2007)