Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 15—Agriculture 611
Introduction
Interacting factors such as the opening up of
new land, the development of transport
facilities and profitable markets, and technical
and scientific achievements, have shaped the
evolution of Australian agriculture.
Until the late 1950s, agricultural products
accounted for more than 80% of the value of
Australia’s exports. Since then, that proportion
has declined markedly as the Australian economy
has become increasingly diverse. The quantity
and value of production have expanded in the
mining, manufacturing and, in recent years, the
service industries. This decline in importance has
not been due to a decline in agricultural activity,
as agricultural output has increased over this
period. The direct contribution of agriculture to
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has remained
steady at around 3% throughout the last decade.
Australian agriculture is a vital sector occupying a
significant place in global rural trade, with wool,
beef, wheat, cotton and sugar being particularly
important. Australia is also an important source of
dairy produce, fruit, rice and flowers.
The major source of statistics on land use,
commodity production and livestock numbers in
this chapter is the ABS Agricultural Census,
conducted each year until 1996–97. Since
1997–98 these data have been collected in the
Agricultural Commodity Survey, a large sample
survey conducted Australia wide. The Agricultural
Commodity Survey is expected to replace the
census in four years out of five, with the next
census being conducted in 2001 to coincide with
the Census of Population and Housing.
Agriculture, the early years
Since the European settlement of Australia in
1787, agriculture has played an important role
in the development of the nation. Associated
with this has been the need to compile statistics
about agricultural activities. The ABS has in its
libraries an extensive collection of statistical
reports from those early years. The following
excerpts from early Year Books provide an
insight into the state of the nation at that time,
the problems it faced, and the challenges
encountered by early statistics collectors.
For example, in Hobart in 1804, “the rations
issued to all the people were as follows: Beef,
7 lbs., or pork, 4 lbs.; flour 7 lbs.; sugar,
6 ozs.–per week”. Soldiers “were each allowed
half a pint of rum daily”.
In 1842 in South Australia “An important feature
in these returns is the great increase in the
cultivation of the vine, and the manufacture of
wine. Although the latter will not, for some
years, bear due proportion to the area of our
vineyards and the number of vines planted,
owing to the circumstance that only the
old-established vineyards produce anything like
a fair yield per acre, sufficient is shown to prove
that the wine of this Province will become, at no
distant date, one of our greatest staples”.
In 1896 in Queensland “The collection of
schedules relating to agriculture and the
manufacturing industries devolves upon the
police, and, with but few exceptions, is carried
out in a most painstaking and intelligent
manner; but the absence of expert collectors,
who would be qualified by experience to
estimate the areas to be devoted to each kind of
crop, and to form conclusions as to the
probable results in anticipation of harvest,
makes it hardly possible, with much prospect of
success, to do more than obtain records of facts
respecting the crops after they have been
garnered”.
In the Northern Territory in 1909
“Tobacco-growing is peculiarly suitable for men
of small means, as the grower obtains a return
for his labour within a few months of
commencement; and for good quality leaf he
has the world for a market at highly
remunerative prices”.
The following selection, reproduced from the
Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of
Australia, 1901–1907, provides a statistical
snapshot of agriculture at the time. It
complements the article A hundred years of
Agriculture in Year Book Australia 2000.