Rural Australia: Change, Decline and New Directions

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Trevor Budge
Author Info

Abstract

The experience of inland rural Australia during the twentieth century has many similarities with rural United States, especially west of the Mississippi. Both areas are largely a product of 19th century exploration and settlement. Both were based on the opening up of vast new grazing and cropping areas by small scale farmers and large scale ranches interspersed with spectacular mineral discoveries. Both processes of settlement displaced a proud indigenous population and they each bred a heritage and mythology around the pioneer and the frontier in the formation of national character.

Introduction

In the twentieth century the scale and nature of agriculture has changed, the motor car and the truck displaced the railroad and provided greater mobility and the role of the service town declined and in some cases disappeared. Rural areas were confronted with new challenges and were not always able to effectively manage and take advantage of new opportunities. Planning and policy often focussed on sustainable economic initiatives, more productive use of the resource base and maintenance of communities.

Australia

This presentation seeks to provide a broad overview of the circumstances of rural Australia, the major changes and trends which have occurred in the demography, economic life and social structure of non metropolitan Australia and particularly inland areas. It further explores these factors by use of a case study drawn from the towns and communities of the north west of the State of Victoria, an area not dissimilar to say western Kansas, Nebraska or Okalahoma. The paper concludes with an assessment of the major political and policy initiatives which are being applied to inland rural Australia.

Despite being almost the same physical size as the United States, less Alaska, the circumstances of geography and climate dealt Australia a crueller hand that meant it could never achieve the wealth and scale of production of the U.S. Over two thirds of Australia's land mass receives less than ten inches of rain a year, there are long rivers but they carry little water and the continent is geographically remote from other countries. It is little wonder that after 210 years of European settlement Australia still has less than twenty million people.

Australia's outback image is strong, but in fact it is one of the most urbanised countries in the world. The major cities dominate economically, politically and culturally. Over 60% of Australians live in the five major cities which cling to the coastal zone where some four out of five Australians live.

Australia's productive inland rural areas are lightly populated, largely based on extensive grazing and cropping and serviced by small cities and towns. A large inland regional service centre is any place with more than 10,000 people. Inland rural Australia has nothing to compare with the great cities and scale of agricultural production of the mid west of the U.S. or even of the Canadian prairie. The tourist image of Australia with sheep for wool pre-eminent and its culture deeply rooted in the ethos of the bush and the outback is a nostalgic image far removed from the lives of the average Australian. Crocodile Dundee is as out of place in Sydney or Melbourne as he ever was in New York.

Rural Australia can be divided into four broad geographic areas:

  1. The inland areas which support cropping and grazing with limited areas under intensive irrigated horticulture.
  2. Vast areas with very low and unreliable rainfall and limited underground water resources which support grazing in some areas and some mining operations.
  3. The coastal zone away from the larger cities which generally can support more intensive development partly based on tourism and recreation.
  4. Limited areas of mountains and extensive areas of semi desert which are generally unavailable for settlement.

Rural Situation

During the twentieth century inland rural Australia has continually declined in its share of the national population as farms became larger and small towns declined or disappeared. Mining and a small group of regional centres have been the focus of economic activity in inland Australia. Population growth in rural areas in the last twenty five years has been confined to a widening commuting area around the major cities and along the accessible coastal areas.

Small cities and towns and rural areas have been left with an increasingly aged population reliant on private transport. In contrast areas along the rainfall favoured coastal belts on the east, the south east and south west have experienced unprecedented growth based on retirement and leisure services.

In response to these changes inland rural Australia has responded in a number of ways. Some areas and communities appear to have accepted their fate and simply watched their towns and institutions die. Many communities have sought to look beyond their local area and form regional groups with or without government support or encouragement. These new regional associations have tackled issues like, resource management, marketing, tourism, infrastructure and economic development and in some cases produced real benefits for their communities.

State and federal governments have also responded in various ways, two specific initiatives have been the restructure of local government by State governments. This initiative has seen the voluntary or forced merger of small local governments into larger, effectively regional, Councils. While these changes have met with some resistance at the local level they have generally been very successful in enabling local government to adopt a broader more proactive approach by grouping similar communities.

A second major initiative, as a partnership between federal and state governments, has been based on the sustainable management of natural resources centred on river catchments. This initiative has been largely driven by the imperative of managing the quality and quantity Australia's sparse water resources, the fragility of Australia's soils and increasing problems with salinity. Large scale cooperative exercises have included forming farmer based Landcare groups and establishing the Murray Darling Basin Commission - the largest river system in the world under a single management authority.

The consequences and impacts of change and decline in rural Australia are a strange mix of resignation and action. Those communities without the energy and the leaders to reinvigorate themselves are finding that the prospects for the next century are more of the same, but those prepared to have a 'fair dinkum' go can see that there are real opportunities for communities prepared to take a longer term view.

Trevor Budge
TBA Planners Ltd.
Bendigo, Victoria, Australia