John Connell - Rural Change in Australia

Series Editors:

Andrew Gilg, University of Exeter and University of Gloucestershire, UK

Henry Buller, University of Exeter, UK

Owen Furuseth, University of North Carolina, USA

Mark Lapping, University of South Maine, USA

Edited by Matt Lobley, John Baker and Ian Whitehead

ISBN 978 1 4094 0995 3

Michael Murray

ISBN 978 0 7546 7737 6

Edited by Maria Fonte and Apostolos G. Papadopoulos

ISBN 978 0 7546 7718 5

Edited by John McDonagh, Tony Varley and Sally Shortall

ISBN 978 0 7546 4669 3

Edited by Karl Bruckmeier and Hilary Tovey

ISBN 978 0 7546 7425 2

Population, Economy, Environment

RAE DUFTY-JONES
University of Western Sydney, Australia

JOHN CONNELL
University of Sydney, Australia

First published 2014 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Copyright The editors and contributors 2014

Rae Dufty-Jones and John Connell have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Dufty-Jones, Rae.

Rural change in Australia : population, economy, environment / by Rae Dufty-Jones and John Connell.

pages cm. -- (Perspectives on rural policy and planning)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4094-5204-1 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-3156-0715-3 (ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-3170-6087-1 (epub)

1. Regional planning--Australia. 2. Migration, Internal--Australia. 3. Australia--Economic policy--21st century. 4. Australia--Social policy--21st century. 5. Social change--Australia. I. Title.

HT395.A93D84 2014
307.12094--dc23

2013034165

ISBN 9781409452041 (hbk)
ISBN 9781315607153 (ebk-PDF)
ISBN 9781317060871 (ebk-ePUB)

Neil Argent, Division of Geography and Planning, University of New England: nargent@une.edu.au

Louise E. Askew, Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle: laskew80@hotmail.com

Kerry Carrington, School of Justice, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology: kerry.carrington@qut.edu.au

John Connell, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney: john.connell@sydney.edu.au

Amanda Davies, School of Built Environment, Curtin University: A.davies@curtin.edu.au

Danielle Drozdzewski, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales: danielled@unsw.edu.au

Rae Dufty-Jones, School of Social Sciences and Psychology, University of Western Sydney: r.dufty-jones@uws.edu.au

Chris Gibson, Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research, University of Wollongong: cgibson@uow.edu.au

Graeme Hugo, Australian Population and Migration Research Centre, The University of Adelaide: graeme.hugo@adelaide.edu.au

Pauline McGuirk, Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle: Pauline.mcguirk@newcastle.edu.au

Alison McIntosh, School of Justice, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology: alison.mcintosh@qut.edu.au

Fiona McKenzie, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University: fiona@australianfutures.org

Phil McManus, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney: phil.mcmanus@sydney.edu.au

Bill Pritchard, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney: bill.pritchard@sydney.edu.au

Fran Rolley, Division of Geography and Planning, University of New England: frolley@une.edu.au

Meg Sherval, Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle: meg.sherval@newcastle.edu.au

Erin F. Smith, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney: erin.smith@sydney.edu.au

John Taylor, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University: j.taylor@anu.edu.au

Jim Walmsley, Division of Geography and Planning, University of New England: dwalmsle@une.edu.au

This book aims to provide a contemporary perspective on rapidly evolving population, economic and environmental changes in rural and regional Australia, itself a significant concept. Bringing together empirical and theoretical studies, it builds on established rural studies themes such as population change, economic restructuring and globalisation in agriculture but also brings into relief developments in this area around environmental change, culture, class, gender, and ethnic diversity in rural Australia. The book primarily seeks to present original and in-depth interventions on these issues and their intersections. While rural Australia is a vast area the book has sought to balance regional differences and interests, and to assemble the best of recent research on rural Australia. Such an approach provides important new material on contemporary population, economic and environmental changes in rural Australia, at a time when regional Australia is probably changing as fast as it has ever done. Mining is booming in some states, and wide-ranging debates have focused on issues of inter-state and international migration, the decline of some but not all country towns, the changing structure of agriculture, as farmers age, commodity prices fluctuate and environmental concerns mount, not least centred on the huge Murray-Darling basin. Access to water and climate change underpins many debates and complicates policy formation. Meanwhile rural Australia moves towards what has been called a post-productivist countryside where production of agricultural goods has slowly given way to a different kind of Australia where creativity has contributed to new economic opportunities and new images of the bush. While all of the chapters present empirical material they are also grounded in recent theoretical developments in human geography and rural studies concerning culture, nature, economics, identity and diversity.