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

Niche Markets, Regional Diversification and the Reinvention of Western Australia's Sandalwood Industry

Diversification and niche marketing have become very important economic strategies for many rural small businesses, farmers and communities. As part of these strategies, new opportunities often emerge for traditional products and industries. In the case of Western Australia, this has contributed to the revitalisation of the sandalwood industry. While sandalwood has been exported from Western Australia for more than 150 years, for much of the second half of the twentieth century it was of little economic significance. In recent years, however, the industry has become increasingly entrepreneurial, successfully marketing its products into niche markets in the global economy. For farmers and communities in rural areas, the revitalisation of the sandalwood industry has also provided opportunities for economic diversification and a profitable way of tackling land degradation. Copyright (c) 2003 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.

The Amenity Principle, Internal Migration, and Rural Development in Australia

Arguably, rural land markets in Australia are currently in a high state of flux, with a panoply of competing interests seeking to capitalize on both the traditional and a range of newly emergent values anchored in land. Amenity-led migration is, we argue, an important strand of this renewed interest in rural lands, albeit one that is highly spatially selective. Employing a predictive and synoptic model of migration attractiveness across southeastern and southwestern Australia, we test its associations with migration currents into and out of rural communities for the 1990s and 2000s. This article finds that communities with high relative accessibility—to metropolitan and urban centers and the coast—and an established or emerging tourism industry have been most likely to experience net migration gains. Yet amenity migration also intersects with more traditional rural land uses and, in particular, irrigated agriculture. Farming, and the biophysical environment and cultural landscape it both draws on and produces, is an important attractor of amenity migratio

Styles of national and global integration: Charting media transformation in Australian cities

Australian film and television production is concentrated in two principal cities, Sydney and Melbourne, and dispersed among the metropolitan centres of Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth and the next rung of cities and regions including the Gold Coast, Canberra, Hobart and Darwin among others. National and international integration is reshaping the relations among, the television programming taking place within, and the production capabilities and infrastructures of these cities. This article considers the national distribution of screen production capabilities and how media design interests in their coordination, development and control of production activity interact with location interests seeking to sustain production work across these cities