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In Australia most manufacturing firms are force to make at least two kinds of location decisions, one involving the merits of the six capital cities, and the other based on variables operating inside the metropolitan areas. This paper is concerned with the behavior of the individual manufacturing firm when making the letter decision; empirical data have been obtained from three case study areas in Sydney. There is purposeful economic behavior by firms in locating, the most important influences being closeness to product market and the cost of land. The spatial effect is an arrangement of manufacturers strongly oriented to the CBD and to centrally located transport terminals. In a theoretical context, the neglect of rent considerations is a serious weakness in traditional manufacturing locating theory. The growing ability of firms to substitute among production factors also has important locational effects.

Over wide areas of the earth the railroad has been a decisive instrument in the creation of many of the most important patterns of human geography. Railroads are clearly phenomena of prime geographical interest, yet if it is true that "each means of transport has its own technological characteristics and its spatial layout, or network," it is equally true that their understanding of the inherent geographical implications of these characteristics and networks is far from satisfactory. The following paper attempts to add a further dimension to this common quest by focusing upon the comparative genetic character of two railroad networks.