Australian agriculture

• Categories: Agriculture; economic botany and plant uses; food; world regions

Agriculture occupies 60 percent of the land area of Australia, but much of this is used for open-range cattle grazing, especially in huge areas of the states of Queensland and Western Australia. Only 5 percent of Australia’s agricultural land is used for growing crops. Western Australia and New South Wales have the largest areas of cropland. The limited area suitable for growing commercial crops is limited mainly by climate because Australia is the world’s driest continent.

Annual rainfall of about 20 inches (500 millimeters) is necessary to grow crops successfully without irrigation; less than half of Australia receives this amount, and the rainfall is often variable or unreliable. Years of drought may be followed by severe flooding. High temperatures throughout most of Australia also mean high evaporation rates, so rainfall figures alone are not a good guide to the feasibility of agriculture.

Australian soils usually require the application of fertilizer to grow crops successfully. The east coast of Australia is suitable for growing sugarcane, while the cooler southern parts are suited to growing wheat. Irrigation has opened up large areas of drier land to agriculture, especially for growing fruit, but salinization (the buildup of salt in the soil) has become a major problem in some areas, especially near the mouth of the Murray River. Major agricultural plant exports from Australia are wheat and sugar. Other important agricultural exports are fruits, cotton, rice, and flowers.

Wheat

Long the most important crop of Australia, wheat is produced in the Wheat Belt, a crescent of land just west of the Eastern Highlands, or Great Dividing Range, which extends from central Queensland through New South Wales to Victoria, as well as in the south of South Australia and southwest Western Australia. More than 120,000 farms in Australia grow grains, and wheat is the principal crop on some 25,000 farms. The average Australian wheat farm is family-owned and has an area of 3,700 acres (1,500 hectares). Crops are rotated, usually because of low soil fertility.

Australian wheat is planted during the winter, which is much milder than winter in the prairies of North America. Harvesting begins in September in the warm state of Queensland and moves south to Victoria and Western Australia by January. Australian wheat is high in quality and low in moisture, so it is easy to mill. Wheat crops are frequently affected by drought; another problem is Australia’s markets, because the nation competes with the United States in wheat export.

When the British first came to Australia, convicts planted wheat on a government farm in what is now inner Sydney. They had difficulty growing wheat because of poor soil, unfamiliar climate, and inexperience, causing fear of widespread hunger. As settlement spread beyond the coastal plain and into the interior, wheat production rose dramatically. The rapid increase in population after the gold discoveries of the 1850s also led to increased demand for wheat. Australia began exporting wheat in 1845 and is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of wheat.

Sugar

Sugarcane is grown in a series of small regions along the tropical coast of Queensland, extending slightly across the border into northern New South Wales. A warm, wet climate is required for the successful cultivation of sugarcane, so it is confined to parts of the coastal plain with good, deep soils and reliable rainfall. Australia is the world’s third-largest exporter of sugar. Sugar is grown on more than six thousand small, individually owned farms. Until the 1960s, cane was cut by hand. Now it is harvested mechanically and taken by light rail to a nearby mill. There are twenty-five mills in Queensland and three in New South Wales.

Fruit

Fruit growing has a long history in Australia and is strongly influenced by climatic considerations. In Queensland, tropical fruits such as bananas, pineapples, mangoes, and papaya (called pawpaw in Australia) are cultivated. In the cooler south, apples, peaches, apricots, cherries, and grapes are grown.

Grapes are grown for eating and are dried as raisins, but more important is wine production, especially in the Barossa Valley (South Australia), Hunter Valley (New South Wales), Margaret River area (Western Australia), and the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and Riverina. John Macarthur, the founder of the Australian wool industry, established the first commercial vineyard in New South Wales. Later, European settlers planted vineyards in Victoria and South Australia. In the 1960s, modern plantings and production methods were introduced. Australia has 242,060 acres (98,000 hectares) of vineyards and more than one thousand wineries. Wine is an important export for Australia, with the European Union purchasing 60 percent of the wine exported.

Other Agricultural Products

Cotton is grown in the drier interior parts of northern New South Wales and in parts of central Queensland. Cotton is usually grown in conjunction with sheep farming, on family farms. Indonesia is the major customer for Australian cotton. Rice has been grown commercially in Australia since 1924, using irrigation. New South Wales is the main producer, where the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area dominates rice production. Australia exports most of its rice crop, and in 1999 was the world’s eighth-largest exporter of rice. Oats are grown where the climate is too cool and too moist for wheat. In Australia, this is in the interior southeast with a small area in Western Australia. This state and New South Wales are the biggest producers of oats, which are used mainly for livestock fodder.

Other agricultural products of Australia include barley, grain sorghum, corn (called maize in Australia), vegetables, including potatoes, peas, tomatoes, and beans, oil seeds such as sunflower seeds, soybeans, and tea and coffee in northern Queensland. Australia is a major producer of honey, with more than eight hundred commercial apiarists. Blossoms of the eucalyptus tree produce distinctive-tasting honey, which is sold mainly to European Union countries.

Bibliography

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Dyster, Barrie, and David Meredith. Australia in the International Economy in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge University Press, 1990.

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Lines, William J. Taming the Great South Land: A History of the Conquest of Nature in Australia. 2nd ed., University of Georgia Press, 1999.

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Smith, David. Natural Gain: A Case Study of the Grazing Lands of Southern Australia. University of Washington Press, 2001.