Photos show 'out of control' problem in Aussie city: 'What does this say about us?'

It's a modern house with a nice grass lawn and three large, four-wheel drive vehicles parked out the front. To many people, it's the Australian dream.

But to Perth resident and photographer Harry Cunningham, it's visual evidence of a creeping malady at the heart of the city. And it's one that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

The West Australian capital has the unique (and arguably unenviable) title of being "the world's longest city" and is forecast to stretch to 220 kilometres with areas that were once just holiday towns slated for new developments.

"I knew urban sprawl was one of the largest issues facing Perth but when I found out it is literally the world's longest city, I thought 'What does this say about us?'," Harry told Yahoo News Australia.

"I knew it was something I should document."

Over the course of a couple months, he carried out the difficult task of trying to capture the feeling that urban sprawl creates on the emerging frontier of a city.

"We have beautiful beaches, endless coastline ... but there’s always something that’s felt disconnected in Perth. It’s a very wealthy city but it’s almost like it’s missing a lot of soul that you find in other cities around the world," he told Yahoo.

The scene with the three 4WDs out the front of a new build is symptomatic of the malady. "We have this urban sprawl and we have to compensate for the distances we have to drive, so we get bigger cars," Harry said.

The city is defined by isolation. Not just from the rest of Australia, but increasingly, from other residents. "If you want to meet a friend it’s half an hour by car," he said.

When he released his photo series – titled The World's Longest City – and shared the photos online, he received multiple messages from other Perth residents saying they could relate to the unsettling problem he was documenting.

It might sound dramatic, but the issue of urban sprawl was even cited in a parliamentary inquiry this month by the director of the Australian Association of Psychologists as a contributing factor to a loneliness epidemic among both younger and older Australians today.

Native bush cleared for 'cookie cutter' homes and fake grass

One of the striking things in many of the emerging outer suburbs Harry visited was the lack of greenery and tree canopy.

"When I went to suburbs like Landsdale or Ellenbrook, I saw mature forests on one side of the fence and on the other where they had been cleared for cookie-cutter homes, with plastic turf front lawns replacing native plants," he said.

"The houses might look nice at first glance, but the suburban design is painfully obvious once you step back and see how disconnected everything is."

RELATED: 'Dangerous' problem caused by Perth's continuous urban sprawl

According to Trillion Trees Australia, data shows Perth has the least tree canopy of all the Australian cities, and alarmingly, it's actually been declining in recent years.

Earlier this year, WA Planning Minister John Carey announced a new 'Urban Greening Strategy' to improve the state's poor tree canopy cover, promising better measurement, reporting and awareness of the issue.

Meanwhile the City of Canning Council, located in Perth’s southeast, is even considering the possibility of providing homeowners with a financial incentive to protect trees on their property.

Perth's 'out of control' urban sprawl under the spotlight

Calls have grown increasingly loud this year for WA’s auditor-general to investigate the true cost of continued urban sprawl and the ongoing expense of providing infrastructure to support new housing developments in Perth’s outer fringe.

Many have pointed to a NSW Productivity Commission report from August last year which found that it costs as much as $75,000 extra in infrastructure costs per home to build in Sydney's outer western suburbs compared to the inner west or CBD.

Limnios Property Group managing director James Limnios said it was high time for Perth to face the cost of its own world-beating urban sprawl.

"Such a study is long overdue in Perth with our city nearly the geographic size of London despite having a population of just over two million," he told WA Today in June (compared to London's nine million population).

"Urban sprawl in Perth is out of control," he said, noting that even though the state government had an infill target of 47 per cent, it was falling dramatically short of that.

Calls for more thoughtful city and suburban designs

For Harry, he believes the culture around property ownership and city planning needs to change if his home state is going to buck the trend and produce better outcomes for the younger generation.

When his work was shared on a local Perth forum this month, many other locals online agreed, lamenting the city was effectively designed for cars and developers, rather than communities.

"Urban sprawl is a cultural blind spot as Australians want a big house and a backyard. People buy into these cheap developments, thinking they're the solution. They love it, and so do the government and developers," Harry told Yahoo.

"It’s not sustainable, it ruins our environment, it's often ugly, and it doesn't lead to better community outcomes," he argued.

"I think this is one of Perth’s biggest issues – but it's hard to see on the ground, which is why I wanted to make it clear in my photos."

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