The man who in 2000 predicted Southeast Queensland would become a "200-kilometre city" from Noosa to the Tweed said his urban spawl megacity prediction had come true.
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Professor Peter Spearritt, now working at the University of Queensland's urban history department, said urban sprawl by 2015 had joined the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane, Logan and the Gold Coast.
"We've really been there for almost 10 years, primarily because we have this linear urban form from Noosa to the Tweed with a bit of a bump out to Ipswich, Professor Spearritt said.
"And so much of the urban growth focuses around the freeways and the highway system," he said.
"So that's the Bruce Highway to the north and the M1 to the Gold Coast."
Professor Spearritt said he despaired at the lack of debate over the issue since a green space audit in 2005 showed Southeast Queensland already was losing its green space.
He said the biggest problems facing planners in 2000 and 2005 were worse in 2015.
"The worst aspect of this is two-fold; when there is an accident on the Bruce Highway everything comes to a complete halt and it can take some hours to resolve," Professor Spearritt said.
"And that is exacerbated by the fact that we still don't have the railway line extended from Varsity Lakes to Coolangatta Airport, and we still don't have the railway line to Caloundra and Maroochydore."
Professor Spearritt said the identity of regional towns was being lost.
"I mean when you go down the M1, the only way you know when you have gone from Brisbane to Logan and then from Logan to the Gold Coast is when you see a big sign across the freeway," he said.
"Because you have urban development either side of the M1 for almost its entire length."
Professor Spearritt said only the Sunshine Coast had some green belts remaining.
"The big issue on the Sunshine Coast will be what happens to some of the pine plantations?" he said.
"If they are sold to the developers, then all of that could potentially become suburbanised."
Professor Spearritt said communities had the right to protect their "uniqueness."
"I mean a good example obviously is Ipswich. It used to be a city in its own right and now it is linked by suburban growth all the way to Brisbane," he said.
He said a Southeast Queensland urban space audit in 2005 showed 17 per cent of Southeast Queensland was held in national parks and state forests.
"That compared to 43 per cent of the same geographical area in Sydney."
Sydney has Royal National Park (15,000 hectares) to its immediate south, the Blue Mountains National Park to the west and the 15,000 hectare Ku-Ring-ai Chase and 500,000 hectare Wollemi national parks to the north-west.
Professor Spearritt said no green space audit had been done since, to his knowledge.
However the Gold and Sunshine Coast councils insist they have taken steps to prevent Southeast Queensland's "200 kilometre city" from becoming a reality.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said their planning scheme specifically protected 1850 hectares of land around Ormeau and Pimpama, south of Logan.
He said he could not see Brisbane, Logan and the Gold coast merging into one another in the south, nor Moreton and the Sunshine coast merging into one another.
"Our cities have very different dynamics and strong, independent identities," Cr Tate said.
"There would be very little public appetite for a formal merger of any sort and I can't ever see it happening," he said.
He said Gold Coast's formal planning scheme took this into account.
"Our attitude is very much 'build up' and not 'build out', so that we minimise the urban sprawl that has created headaches for the likes of Western Sydney."
Sunshine Coast mayor Mark Jamieson said he made retaining the inter-urban break one of the top ten priorities for the Sunshine Coast when he spoke to all candidates before the 2015 State election.
"We do not want to see the Sunshine Coast become a dormitory suburb of Brisbane and this is clearly something our residents are against as well," Cr Jamieson said.
"With the support of our neighbours in Moreton Bay we're trying to convince the State Government of the importance of this natural break to both councils and to south-east Queensland as a whole."
That includes a large "inter-urban break" between Caloundra and Brisbane, stretching from the Pumicestone Passage close to Bribie Island, across to Beerwah.
