Rural “crises” have been a significant feature of our physical and social history since the early days of European settlement. Our landscape is both harsh and vulnerable, and the climate accentuates the vulnerability of that environment. In the beginning farmers imposed traditional English methods of agriculture on the land, including clearing and irrigating without any real understanding of the consequences these methods would bring to the landscape. Soil erosion and salinity are part of the heritage of those days which we will have to deal with for generations to come. Nevertheless, Australian farmers have developed techniques for farming this country that have been copied in other dry-land areas throughout the world.

I asked the Farmer and his wife to tell me about the Rural Crisis. His wife gave me a long look, and said “We are the Rural Crisis!” This paper is dedicated to them.

The economic effects of the current rural downturn are relatively easy to monitor. This paper looks at the social costs and the impact on farm families. It also discusses the discrimination against farm families within Australia’s welfare system.

Teresa Donaczy’s calm presence and quiet sense of humour cannot mask her pain. The memory of removal from her family at the age of five still haunts her. A re-union thirty-four years later, a happy marriage, nine children and thirteen grandchildren cannot erase the hurt.

Born Teresa Kirby on an Aboriginal reserve in the New South Wales town of Balranald in 1936, Teresa recalls how the Aboriginal people hid their children in the bushes to avoid them being taken by New South Wales Government authorities.

Today’s children are the custodians of tomorrow’s environment – and, with that in mind, an all-out effort is being made to educate South Australian children about their important role in the future of Australia as an agriculturally sustainable and profitable nation.

Thousands of trees are being propagated, soils are being studied, water is being tested for salinity, frogs are being counted, kids are singing songs about caring for the environment, and country and city schools are linking together.

Country life may not be as healthy for children as we would like to think. More rural children under five years of age die as the result of accidents than their city counterparts.

To raise awareness of this problem, the Child Accident Prevention Foundation of Australia is conducting a Rural Child Safety Project with the Southern Mallee Councils Group in Victoria over a twelve month period. The project was launched in Swan Hill on 21 August 1991 by the Hon. Caroline Hogg, Minister for Ethnic, Municipal and Community Affairs. The launch took place at a local Primary School and was attended by local government representatives and community leaders.

In reviewing the literature on children living in rural cities or towns there has been to my knowledge nothing written on how children perceive their living environment. This paper attempts in a small way to present some of the positive aspects that children recognise in living in such an environment. However, to ensure some balance to the paper these children are also asked to present the positive aspects of living in a capital city with which they are familiar. The children are then asked where in the world they would like to live if they were given a free choice.

Weipa is a small mining town with a population of 3,000, located on the west coast of far North Queensland. The mining of bauxite and kaolin by Comalco Mineral Products provide the reason for Weipa’s existence.

Frequently described as a ‘closed town’, Weipa has no local government authority. All housing is supplied by Comalco and most of the working population is employed by the company. Those not employed by Comalco are mostly government employees or service personnel. Now twenty-six years old, Weipa is facing a possible change from company control to local government management, a move referred to as ‘normalisation’, and one which has evoked mixed feelings.

Many efforts have been made to determine the differences between the meaning of ‘rural’ areas and ‘isolated’ areas, and it is not until you are provided with the occasion to venture forth into outer rural areas that you realise the true meaning of isolation.

In my position of ‘Mobile Support Teacher, Wentworth Area’, working with primary school children in the south-west of New South Wales, I have the opportunity to visit many station properties and families, and have gained an understanding of how these families cope with isolation.

The following is an edited interview with Simon Crean, Minister for Primary Industries and Energy, conducted by John Edwards, Executive Director, National Children’s Bureau of Australia on December 5, 1991.