Transitioning rural Australia to sustainability, prosperity and resilience
There is a wealth of knowledge in the scholarly literature about the challenges facing rural Australia and the distress – financial, environmental, societal – being suffered by farmers and their communities. But the challenges don’t ever seem to go away. Governments, peak bodies and philanthropists launch a multiplicity of remedial programs to tackle what appear to be the most urgent issues at the time: drought aid, Landcare, Land Restoration Fund, carbon credits to name just a few. But these are all sectoral and independent of each other, or short-term.
The Rangelands Dialogue that commenced in July 2019 has generated a large volume of insightful material by scholars and practitioners and their advisors. The Rangelands Declaration of August 2019 sets out a vision for the Queensland outback and a number of principles that should guide policy change.
However, still lacking is a coherent model, being a platform of specific policy settings and budget allocations, adequate to remedy rural distress on a sustainable basis.
The papers on this webpage are aimed at lighting a pathway from our present condition to a sustainable, prosperous, resilient and peaceful rural sector in the shadow of the very different biophysical conditions that climate instability is bringing. The scope is national, not confined to Queensland; and embraces all broadacre rural land, not confined to the pastoral Rangelands.
All papers on this webpage have been peer-reviewed in the normal manner with at least two independent referees. Professional typesetting and copy-editing have been deferred pending an improvement in financial capacity. In due course some will be gathered up into an e-book, or annual edition or themed special issue of the Proceedings of The Royal Society of Queensland, but in the meantime the papers are made available with a view to influencing public opinion, public policy and government budgets.
Feedback on these papers or offers to contribute an article are welcome – please contact rangelands@royalsocietyqld.org .
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