Prior to the 20th century much of our infrastructure was provided by the private sector. This included toll roads, tunnels and bridges, power supply, transport and water.
With the depressions of the 1890s and 1930s and the world wars, much of this infrastructure passed into public ownership. This was certainly the case in Australia as well as many other Western countries.
In the last quarter of the 20th century we are seeing a swing back to private sector provision of infrastructure,-resulting'from increased needs for investment in infrastructure due to changes in