Australia Yearbook - 2001

614 Year Book Australia 2001
§ Relative Importance of Crops.
Various Crops—The following table has been
compiled in order to show the relative
importance of the various crops in each State
and in the Commonwealth as a whole. The
figures refer to the season 1906–7.
§ Vineyards.
Nature and Extent—The introduction of the
grape vine into Australia is said to have taken
place in 1828, some forty years after the first
settlement. The locality claiming to be the
cradle of the vine-growing industry of Australia
is the Hunter River district of New South Wales,
where, in the year mentioned, cuttings from
celebrated vineyards of France, Spain, and
Germany were planted. From New South Wales
the vine spread to Victoria and South Australia,
and these States have now far outstripped the
mother State in the area which they have
devoted to its cultivation. In Queensland and
Western Australia also, vine-growing has been
carried on for many years, but in neither State,
has the industry progressed with the rapidity
attained in Victoria and South Australia. In
Tasmania the climate is not favourable to the
growth of grapes. The purposes for which
grapes are grown in Australia are three in
number, viz.:—(i.) for wine-making, (ii.) for
table use, (iii.) for drying. The total area under
vines in the several States from 1860 onwards is
given in the following table.
Wine Production—The production of wine in
Australia has not increased as rapidly as the
suitability of soil and general favourableness of
conditions would appear to warrant. The cause
of this is probably twofold, being in the first
place due to the fact that the Australians are not
a wine-drinking people and consequently do
not provide a local market for this product, and
in the second to the fact that the new and
comparatively unknown wines of Australia find
it difficult to establish a footing in the markets
of the old world, owing to the competition of
well-known brands. Active steps are being taken
in various ways to bring the Australian wines
under notice, and it may be confidently asserted
that when their qualities are duly recognised the
wine production of Australia will exhibit much
more rapid development than has taken place
within recent years.
DISTRIBUTION OF CROPS IN AUSTRALIA, 1906–7
New South
Wales
Victoria
Queensland
South
Australia
Western
Australia
Tasmania
Commonwealth
Acres Acres Acres Acres Acres Acres
Acres
Wheat 1,866,253 2,031,893 114,575 1,681,982 250,283 32,808 5,977,794
Oats 56,431 380,493 1,236 57,000 28,363 58,320 581,843
Barley 7,979 52,816 8,601 28,122 3,590 5,328 106,436
Maize 174,115 11,559 139,806 — 101 — 325,581
Beans and Peas 124 12,012 — 7,109 937 10,642 30,824
Rye 6,735 1,571 122 — 643 667 9,738
Other Cereals — — 24 — — 134 158
Potatoes 36,815 55,372 8,031 9,894 2,264 34,305 146,681
Onions 422 4,705 88 — 54 109 5,378
Other Root Crops 327 2,073 3,632 — 120 5,994 12,146
Hay 458,072 621,139 64,498 295,895 149,830 64,965 1,654,399
Green Forage 122,893 36,502 50,513 17,985 3,265 5,326 236,484
Grass Seed — 1,859 1,131 — — 3,720 6,710
Sugar Cane 20,601 — 133,284 — — — 153,885
Vines 8,521 25,855 2,070 22,575 3,525 — 62,546
Tobacco 601 133 666 — — — 1,400
Hops — 323 — — — 921 1,244
Orchards and Other Fruit
Gardens 46,177 54,021 13,310 18,199 12,517 18,050 162,274
Market Gardens 9,550 7,906 1,953 8,379 3,789 2,210 33,787
All Other Crops 11,041 3,354 16,213 3,151 1 544 1,245 36,548
Total Crops 2,826,657 3,303,586 559,753 2,150,291 460,825 244,744 9,545,856