Abstract
This chapter communicates and analyses the first-hand experiences of the significant change since World War II. Through the presentation and analysis of the contemporary qualitative interviews, this chapter communicates the ways in which the reorganisation of state priorities has shifted the settings within which farms operate and how this has impacted upon everyday life. Topics include the lived experience of embedded economic action, debt stress and its role in low capital investment; impacts on lifestyle such as increasing stress, pace and intensity of farming; and the lived experience of the changing role of the state, including the embodied exposure to new burdens of a ‘free’ market. The contrasting experiences of small-scale farmers with a large corporate farm in the area amplify the divisions.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2012a). Australian social trends December 2012: Australian farming and farmers (Cat. No. 4102.0). Retrieved from https://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/3794FDCDA8D5275ACA257AD0000F2BE9/$File/41020_australianfarmingandfarmers_dec2012.pdf.
Australian Taxation Office. (2017). Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land: Report of registrations as at 30 June 2017. Canberra, ACT: Australian Government. Retrieved from https://cdn.tspace.gov.au/uploads/sites/79/2017/09/Register_of_Foreign_ownership_of_Agricultural_Land_2017.pdf.
AWB, GrainCorp to merge into $2b giant. (2010, 30 July). The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/business/awb-graincorp-to-merge-into-2b-giant-20100730-10yq0.html.
Barr, N. (2004). Australian Census Analytic Program: The micro-dynamics of change in Australian agriculture 1976–2001. Canberra, ACT: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Binks, B., Stenekes, N., Kruger, H., & Kancans, R. (2018). Snapshot of Australia’s Agricultural Workforce. Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, Canberra. CC BY 4.0. https://doi.org/10.25814/5c09cefb3fec5.
Botterill, L. (2012). Wheat marketing in transition. New York: Springer.
Cranston, M. (2017, April 30). China’s Union Agriculture increases farmland, takes Minnamurra for about $38m. The Financial Review. Retrieved from https://www.afr.com/real-estate/chinas-union-agriculture-increases-farmland-takes-minnamurra-for-about-38m-20170428-gvurf3.
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (ABARES). (2017). Productivity matters for farm profit. Canberra, ACT: Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (ABARES). Retrieved from https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/Pages/productivity-introduction.aspx#productivity-matters-for-farm-profit.
GrainCorp. (2017a). Our history. Retrieved from https://www.graincorp.com.au/about-graincorp/company/our-history.
GrainCorp. (2017b). Our operations at a glance. Retrieved from https://www.graincorp.com.au/careers/graduate/about-graincorp.
Grains Research & Development Corporation. (2013). Key financial ratios fact sheet. Canberra, ACT: Australian Government. Retrieved from https://grdc.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/117322/8116-key-financial-ratios-fs-pdf.pdf.pdf.
Gruen, F. (1990). Economic development and agriculture since 1945. In D. B. Williams (Ed.), Agriculture in the Australian economy (3rd ed.). South Melbourne, VIC: Sydney University Press in association with Oxford University Press.
Higgins, V. (2002). Constructing reform. Hauppage, NY: Nova Science Publishers.
Jackson, T., Zammit, K., & Hatfield-Dodds, S. (2020). Snapshot of Australian Agriculture 2020. Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, Canberra. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.25814/5e3a4ad8f80e7.
Martin, P., Levantis, C., Shafron, W., Philips, P., & Frilay, J. (2018). Farm debt: Broadacre and dairy farms, 2014–15 to 2016–17. Canberra, ACT: Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (ABARES). Retrieved from https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/surveys/debt.
Newsome, L. (2020). Beyond ‘get big or get out’: Female farmers’ responses to the cost-price squeeze of Australian agriculture. Journal of Rural Studies, 79, 57–64.
O’Keeffe, P. (2017). Contestability in the Australian wheat export industry. The Journal of Australian Political Economy (79), 65–86. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.une.edu.au/docview/1917630276?accountid=17227.
Palumbo, A., & Scott, A. (2018). Remaking market society: A critique of social theory and political economy in neoliberal times. London, UK: Routledge.
Pini, B. (2004). Farm women and off-farm work: A study of the Queensland sugar industry. Labour & Industry: A Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work, 15(1), 53–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2004.10669304.
Pritchard, B., Neave, M., Hickey, D., & Troy, L. (2012). Rural land in Australia. (RIRDC Publication No. 12/038). Canberra, Australia: Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. Retrieved from https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/downloads/12-038.
Productivity Commission. (2005). Trends in Australian agriculture: Productivity Commission Research Paper. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved from https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/agriculture.
Vanclay, F. (2003). The impacts of deregulation and agricultural restructuring for rural Australia. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 38(1), 81. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1839-4655.2003.tb01137.x.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Baker, C. (2021). Moment Two and the Lived Experience of Economic Action at Goolhi. In: A Sociology of Place in Australia. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6240-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6240-6_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-33-6239-0
Online ISBN: 978-981-33-6240-6
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)