Australian Dictionary of Biography

Courtesy the West Australian

Ivo David Carr (1926–1999), urban and regional planner, was born on 15 December 1926 at Invercargill, New Zealand, first child and only son of New Zealand-born parents Ivo Carr, businessman, and his wife Kathleen, née Pearce. In about 1930, his father, who had served in the flying corps in World War I, moved to the North Island while his wife relocated to Dunedin. The children were sent to boarding school. Educated at John McGlashan College, Dunedin (1938–40), and Christ’s College, Christchurch (1941–44), David excelled as a scholar and in sport, gaining prizes in history (1943), and biology and literature (1944), and representing the school in cricket, rugby, and athletics. He commenced tertiary studies in medicine at the University of Otago before transferring to Canterbury Agricultural College, University of New Zealand (BAgrSc, 1949).

Employed by Dalgety & Co. to research highland grasses at Nakuru, Kenya, Carr joined the Kenya Regiment. Due to the Mau Mau uprising, he was in the bodyguard of Governor Sir Evelyn Baring at the 1952 trial of the Kenyan leader Jomo Kenyatta. After four years in East Africa, he undertook a lecture tour in the United States of America and studies in planning at the University of Chicago (MA, 1956; PhD, 1957). On 21 December 1954 he had married Mary Stuart Moody at Holy Trinity Church, Brompton, London. The couple were to have two sons, John and Roderick, but separated in 1965 and later divorced.

Carr commenced with the Auckland Regional Planning Authority in 1958, rising to deputy director, and lectured in urban geography at the University of Auckland in 1963 and 1964. A committed churchgoer, he was active in managing the youth services of the Anglican Church. Following his appointment as chief planner to the Metropolitan Region Planning Authority of Western Australia, he moved to Perth in 1965. Appointed a deputy member of the MRPA in 1968, he became town planning commissioner and chairman of the Town Planning Board in 1972. Maintaining his commitment to community service, he was a financial advisor to the Anglican Church and the Salvation Army. On 23 April 1973 he married Dorothy Erickson, a jeweller and art historian, in the private chapel at Bishop’s House; Archbishop of Perth Geoffrey Sambell officiated. The couple were to separate in 1986.

In the context of a booming State economy and a rapidly expanding metropolitan area, Carr became an influential figure. He worked effectively with two premiers, Sir David Brand and John Tonkin, who wanted to introduce new planning laws. Carr’s plan for the city valued heritage and advocated for better transport systems and public open space. A major achievement was imposing on developers a greater obligation to provide infrastructure such as roads and land for public purposes. He is remembered as one of those who shaped modern Perth, revitalising and modernising Gordon Stephenson’s 1955 metropolitan plan as the Corridor Plan for Perth (1970) which proposed new urban development areas along transport corridors linked to a network of sub-regional centres. Carr planned non-urban ‘wedges’ between urban corridors, wanting people to be no more than ten minutes’ drive from a green space. An outspoken advocate for his plans, he periodically disagreed with later ministers as he fought to contain the integrity of his vision in the face of political and commercial interests. Described as a man of ‘immense integrity who would not bend the rules or look the other way when he felt something improper was about to occur’ (McIlwraith 1999, 14), he also crossed swords with property developers such as Alan Bond and Laurie Connell.

After clashing with Peter Dowding, minister for planning in the Burke government, over the approval process for a new casino, Carr was seconded to the Western Australian Overseas Projects Authority in 1984. His main project in this role was to work with the government of the People’s Republic of China to plan the development of Golmud in the Qinghai province. He later became a consultant to private firms and governments including advising Kazakhstan (1996) on the relocation of its capital city. On 15 December 1996 he married Karina Joanna Sysko, a public relations officer, at Margaret River.

An urbane and accomplished man with a patrician manner and a fierce dedication to his work, Carr has been described as dynamic and mercurial, ‘an enigmatic and flamboyant visionary who did not always please his political masters but always made his point’ (Hunter 1999, 6). Although a good listener who took a great interest in the work of his staff, a colleague recognised ‘a sense that he was completely aware of his own great talent’ (McIlwraith 1999, 14). He enjoyed bridge, tennis, and squash, and was a member of the Rotary Club of Perth. In 1997 he was awarded the City of Perth Australia Day Citizen of the Year. Despite battling cancer, he worked until his death in hospital on 16 May 1999. Survived by his third wife and the two sons of his first marriage, he was cremated. His contribution is commemorated by the David Carr Memorial Park in Perth. Roderick, his younger son, served as vice-chancellor of the University of Canterbury (2009–19), and was chairman of New Zealand’s Climate Change Commission (2019–24).