Shocking the Suburbs, a 2006 paper by J Dodson and G Sipe, outlines the vulnerability of Australian communities to rising fuel prices, automobile dependence and housing debt. It has important implications for land use planning, with particular emphasis on the creation of communities less dependent on motor vehicles and an increased role for the bicycle.

The paper is structured in four parts. The first outlines recent oil price patterns and the way commentators and politicians have comprehended the current financial and economic environment. The next section examines underlying spatial patterns of vulnerability in the Australian city, in terms of the spatial distribution of income, mortgage tenure, car dependence and public transport services. Section Three introduces the VAMPIRE index, the methodology underlying the analysis and the results for Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. The final section contains the conclusions arising from the analysis and the policy implications for ongoing oil price and interest rate uncertainty.