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This paper discusses the pathways to agri-food sustainability in the context of the historical broadacre farming region of Mid North South Australia. Using notions of sustainable agriculture and multifunctional rural transitions to explore the geohistorical development trajectory of the region, it discusses the tensions and opportunities inherent to the future of farming in the Mid North and their impact on community development. We aim to contribute to a wider reflexion on the role of territoriality in the sustainable food transition debate, and its relevance in a traditionally productivist but marginal landscape. The paper proposes an extensive review of the historical, agricultural, socio-economic and institutional contexts of regional Australia before discussing the farming future(s) of the Mid North. We use a typology of 'modes of occupance' to reflect upon the compatibility between the emergence of differentiated multifunctional rural spaces in the Mid North and the realisation of agri-food sustainability transitions across its territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the latter part of 2019 and into 2020, Australia experienced an unprecedented bushfire season, with major bushfires burning more than 18 million hectares. The scale of the fires served to highlight Australia's heavy reliance on rural volunteer firefighters, bringing into sharp focus the long-term issues that many volunteer bushfire brigades have faced with recruitment and retention. Against the backdrop of long-term government dis-investment into the provision of essential services in rural communities, and with rural volunteer participation at saturation, a deeper understanding of the factors that influence involvement in volunteer bushfire brigades is vital. This review paper examined the factors that have contributed to rural volunteer shortages, particularly in the Australian context. The research revealed that increased time and financial demands on volunteers hampered attraction and retention efforts. The time and financial costs for individuals to volunteer had risen as a result of increased centralised regulation of volunteer provided services. Given the reliance of Australia's broader population, environment and economy on the work of volunteer firefighters, there is a critical need for new empirical research to investigate how organisational cultures, changes in attitudes to different forms of volunteering and changes in employment practices will impact rural volunteer bushfire services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The region-building process in Western Australia is examined using Paasi's theoretical framework of ‘regional institutionalisation’. The paper examines the formalisation of the regions in Western Australia from the 1940s with the first attempts to regionalise the State, through to the recent political and policy shifts. A particular focus is given to the pivotal legislation passed in 1993 which created nine Regional Development Commissions, and the implications of the post-2008 Royalties for Regions program. The discussion examines the trajectory of the Western Australia regions through the lens of Paasi's model. The paper shows that the Regional Development Commissions have had a critical role in fulfilling the different stages of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is often seen as a panacea for the ills of declining rural communities. The paper argues that there is an element of blind optimism in this view although a shift of focus from production to consumption within advanced economies like Australia's will undoubtedly provide opportunities for the development of the leisure, recreation and tourism industries, both in metropolitan and rural areas. The paper suggests that an increased focus on lifestyle will come to characterise Australia. Some rural communities will be able to capitalise on this, both for temporary visitors and for in-migration, but many will not. The well-established concepts of threshold and range, when coupled with the idea of specialisation, will have a large influence on which places 'win' and which 'lose' in any lifestyle-led and leisure-oriented society. 'Place marketing' will become increasingly important for towns competing against each other for the 'leisure and lifestyle dollar'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to a growing number of commentators, the agricultural sectors and rural areas of advanced Western nations are experiencing a transition from productivism to post-productivism. In Britain and Western Europe, where this putative transition is most evident, the salient features of the shift include: the gradual removal of farm-level subsidies and related stimulatory policies; the introduction of a range of agri-environmental programs aimed at reducing agricultural commodity surpluses and halting farm-related environmental degradation; and the development of a more socially and culturally heterogeneous rural population as counter-urbanisation has brought a new stratum of residents into rural areas. This paper explores this notion in the Australian context. In analysing a wide range of data and policy documents, the paper argues that while there is some evidence of a productivist regime operating in Australia from 1945 to the early 1980s, and some more recent incipient trends consistent with a transition to a post-productivist countryside, there is much stronger evidence that the Australian farm sector and rural landscapes are being shaped by the complex interactions between the 'productivist' ideals held by farmers and key policy makers alike, and the growing environmental regulation of farming. It is concluded that while the concept of 'post-productivism' is superficially appealing, it has little practical or conceptual application to Australian conditions. Indeed, the paper argues that 'post-productivism' is fundamentally misconceived, largely owing to its inherent binary narrative form and logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a tribute to the massive contribution of our friend and colleague Graeme Hugo to the population and settlement geography of Australian rural areas, this paper presents a longitudinal study from his home State. It forms part of a wider study of the long-term demographic relationships between Australia’s rapidly growing regional cities and their surrounding functional regions. Of particular interest is the question of what effect the accelerating concentration of population and economic activity into a given regional city will have for the longer term demographic sustainability of its functional region as a whole. Taking the case of Port Lincoln, regional capital of most of South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, it examines the nature of change in the functional region over the period 1947–2011, and investigates the forces feeding, and partly counteracting, the population concentration process, informed by concepts of evolutionary economic geography. In particular it traces the demographic impact (particularly differential migration and ageing trends) of exogenous shocks to the region’s essentially primary productive economic base during the period of major change from 1981 to 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Landcare is an important example of the potential of state-sponsored participation to establish viable local organisations and contribute to rural development. In this paper, the authors discuss their research using organisational theory to explore Landcare effectiveness. Data were obtained from a mailed survey to Landcare groups in the state of Victoria during 1998. Levels of group activity were used as a surrogate measure of group effectiveness. Groups were ranked according to their level of activity to assess the impact of factors likely to affect group performance, the efficacy of program logic, and the extent groups were contributing to program goals. Survey data suggested key aspects of Landcare Program logic were sound. Examination of the membership and activity profiles of groups suggested 90 per cent of the respondent groups were making a worthwhile contribution to program goals. This research also confirmed the importance of factors identified by others as significant influences on organisational effectiveness: the importance of having clear goals, objectives and plans; resource availability; facilitation by an outside agency; access to a funded group co-ordinator; and communication between stakeholders. Unfortunately, there are critical, ongoing management issues surrounding many of these topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusess topics within the issue including historical geographies in Australia; environmental change, and rural transformation.