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Drought Support |
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The Weekend Australian, March 6 - 7, 2010
A hand up, not a handout
Labor rethinks the assistance offered to farmers
Asa Wahlquist
Droughts are not what they used to be, and changes to drought policy are long overdue. So when Federal agriculture minister, Tony Burke, this week announced interest rate subsidies would be axed from future drought policy, few who work in the area were surprised. But they are still anxiously waiting for news of what will replace it.
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Winegrapes oversupply hits Murray Valley farmers |
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The Australian January 23-24, 2010 p 32
Tried and tested irrigation region becomes a vineyard graveyard
The oversupply of winegrapes has hit the inland areas of the Murray hardest
Asa Wahlquist
On a hill near Merbein, high above a bend in the Murray River, lies the Pioneer Plantation. At the foot of upright Murray pines and under leaning desert gums are small metal plates bearing the names of the district's pioneers, the soldier settlers and their wives, the doctors, teachers and labourers who first settled this place.
On the plains below, the land farmed and irrigated for over a century is being laid to waste hectare by hectare, farm by farm. Families who have grown grapes for generations are exiting the industry, the weakest link in an massively over-supplied industry.
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Too few agricultural scientists |
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The Australian November 18, 2009 page 27
Agricultural scientists are too thin on the ground
Agricultural science, food and natural resource management, have never been more important, argues Mark Adams, dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at Sydney University.
"Carbon, water, food. This is what it is about," he says. "The world is going to be desperate for food, is desperate for food and will be increasingly hard pressed to supply it."
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Black Saturday bushfire |
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The Australian, February 10, 2009 p. 13
Scorched Earth
The long-term forecast is hot and dry, with frequent megafires: all we can do it learn to live with them reports Asa Wahlquist. |
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Peter Wray Cullen |
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28 May 1943 - 13 March 2008 (See also an earlier article by Åsa Wahlquist: Man with a plan). After the news of Peter Cullen's final illness was made public on Tuesday March 11, Wentworth Group director Peter Cosier, said their phones rang off the hook. The day after Professor Cullen's death was announced, their website temporarily crashed. Mr Cosier said the callers came from all walks of life: scientists, irrigators, conservationists, politicians, former students and people who have heard about him, read him or seen him on television. "It just tells me how wide a group he has touched," Cosier said. "His contribution to water reform was unparalleled". |
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Water hogs leave Darling high and dry downstream |
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Published in The Australian April 28-29, 2007 Thanks to the drought and too much water being taken upstream, a once great river has been reduced to use as a cricket pitch. |
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Living with less rain |
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Published in The Australian, December 30, 2006 Much of Australia has been in and out of drought for the past several years, or continuously lacking rain. |
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Once it's wet, they'll leave |
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Published in The Weekend Australian July 8, 2006 Åsa Wahlquist goes to the heart of the worsening drought that is afflicting all mainland states. |
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Catch it if you can |
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Published in The Australian April 29, 2005 A long dry has sent water authorities back to the drawing board, but the figures they're using to estimate future dam levels may be flawed. |
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The Australian 40 Years: The Land |
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Published in The Australian July 29, 2004 In 40 years Australian farming has been turned on its head. At the heart of the change is a more hard-headed appreciation of the wide brown land. Rural writer Åsa Wahlquist examines the lessons learned. |
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