Climate change has parched Aussie farmers looking north
Scientists predict that rainfall in Australia's agrarian south may reduce by 15 percent in the coming decades.
from the March 14, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
Much of the soil across the north is of poor quality and the region is a long way away from its main market – the populated southeast Australia – making transportation of agricultural produce expensive. Industrial-scale agriculture is also likely to clash with the land claims of Aborigines, who live in isolated communities scattered across the north.
Rather than pursuing intensive farming, environmentalists say it would be better to preserve the region's great savanna woodlands in order to lock up vast amounts of carbon and contribute to Australia's efforts to lower its carbon dioxide emissions.
But beyond practical concerns, the far north of Australia's proximity to Indonesia and East Timor, its cloying humidity, and its multicultural mix of whites, Aborigines, and Asians makes it feel almost like a different country.
And for their part, locals are tired of having grandiose projects foisted on them by lawmakers in faraway Canberra, the nation's capital.
"We've got a lack of people, a lack of infrastructure, a lack of everything. It would be extremely difficult for a dairy farmer from Victoria to come up here," says Jemma Walshe, an executive officer with the Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Savannas Management at Charles Darwin University. "The monsoonal cycle of dry and wet seasons requires totally different land management techniques," she says.
"The general feeling up here is that southerners don't have a clue what they'd be letting themselves in for."
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