The population turnaround: A case study of the Shire of Toodyay

During the 1970\u27s a number of Australia\u27s rural municipalities began to counter the long term pattern of population decline. This thesis provides empirical evidence of these changes within Western Australia and investigates the reasons for the turnaround. To develop this, a case-study examination has been made of the Shire of Toodyay in an effort to ascertain the circumstances surrounding households decisions to migrate into rural districts. This study reveals that the newcomer households exhibit a diverse range of characteristics and conform to no clear stereotypical groupings. Rather1 it appears that those who have made the transition have done so in response to individual circumstances and the way in which these relate to broad based societal forces. None the least of these, is the ability to blend a preferred rural residential setting with the economic and social advantages of large urban centres. A set of circumstances which have considerable implications for the host agricultural communities

Rural restructuring, policy change and uneven development in the central wheatbelt of Western Australia

This thesis examines economic restructuring and changing governmental regulation in the Central Wheatbelt of Western Australia. It argues that, for much of this century, Australian governments were committed to the development and maintenance of export orientated agriculture and stable rural communities. While the agricultural industry, and the rural society that it supported, were periodically affected by economic downturns, wars, and technological changes, the full socio-economic impacts were often tempered by interventionist agricultural, social and regional development government policies. Since the early 1970s, however, the Central Wheatbelt, and rural Australia more generally, have experienced profound economic, social and political changes. During this period, the rapid transformation of the global economy has contributed to a series of problems in the Australian economy, such as low levels of economic growth, rising interest rates, and increasing unemployment. In the case of agriculture, the upheaval in the global economy contributed to world surpluses of agricultural commodities, declining returns for food and fibre production, and the rising cost of farm inputs.Since the early 1980s, the response of Federal and State governments to the turmoil in the Australian economy has been to argue that the only workable solution to globalisation was the adoption of policies based on the principles of economic rationalism. However, this thesis argues that, in the Central Wheatbelt, the combination of global restructuring and policies based on economic rationalism have contributed to: the declining viability of family farming; farm amalgamation; labour force adjustments; the contraction of local economies; depopulation; public service rationalisation and withdrawal; and uneven economic and social development. It is contended that policies based on the principles of economic rationalism have increased levels of uncertainty and socio-economic disadvantage in a region already adversely affected by the economic pressures associated with restructuring. The thesis concludes by arguing that a more integrated policy framework, based to a greater extent on the principles of social equity, is critical to ensuring the social and economic welfare of rural people

From State Paternalism to Neoliberalism in Australian Rural Policy: Perspectives from the Western Australian Wheatbelt

For much of this century, the rural policies of Australian governments were directed at providing a viable social and economic base for rural communities and country towns. Policies which provided the conditions for stable growth in the agricultural economy, together with equitable levels of access to services such as schools, hospitals and public housing, were seen as instrumental in the development of stable rural communities. More recently, however, the process of global economic restructuring, agricultural adjustment, farm amalgamation and rapid technological change, have contributed to the declining socio‐economic viability of many rural areas. This pattern of decline has been compounded over recent years by the emergence of state and federal government policies based upon the principles of ‘neoliberalism’. The emergence of this approach to rural policy has meant that state and federal governments have, increasingly, withdrawn from effective regional development strategies, rationalised the levels of public service provision, and devolved much of the responsibility for community well‐being to the local level. This paper critically reviews the changing governmental approaches to rural development, and reflects upon some of the outcomes of these policy changes in the wheatbelt of Western Australia

A Multicultural and Multifunctional Countryside? International Labour Migration and Australia's Productivist Heartlands

In 2007, Michael Woods posited the notion of 'the global countryside' as a hypothetical space within which globalising tendencies are fully realised in the transformation of rural place. Rather than viewing rural change as being 'determined' by global processes, Woods sought to encourage more nuanced accounts that could 'hold together' multiple scales in their narratives of rural restructuring. After three decades of neoliberal trade and agricultural policy reform in Australia, the country's inland regions are embedded in 'the global', yet their economic, demographic, and social fortunes are also being profoundly shaped by the processes operating at a range of other spatial scales. Within the context of the global countryside, this paper explores the interactions of rural demographic change and labour market processes. Specifically, we examine the ways in which long-standing patterns of out-migration from rural areas have seen new forms of engagement with the global in the form of international labour migration