What primary industries do we have in Australia?

Agriculture and horticulture - farming

Did you ever wonder where the food you get from home or the shops comes from? Or have you ever noticed how some things are easy to buy, like potatoes, and others are hard to find and expensive, like raspberries?

Well it all has to do with what sort of farms there are in your country. Australia grows lots of potatoes; in fact potatoes are Australia’s largest vegetable crop (Source: Ausveg), and so potatoes are relatively inexpensive to buy. But we don’t grow a lot of raspberries, and so they are harder to find.

When Australia was first settled by Europeans, who brought with them their farming practices and food processing techniques, it took a few years to produce primary products for sale. In fact, by 1790, beer, butter and cheese were on sale in small quantities in the Sydney and Parramatta markets.

But then more people started arriving in Australia and the population grew, so more food was needed. Because early settlers saw what they believed to be lots of uninhabited land for the farmers to work with, they decided to grow both crops and raise animals; so sheep and cattle were brought from overseas. It didn’t take long before the farmers found that the sheep and cattle sold for much better prices than the crops they were also growing, so many of the farmers went on to raise only animals.

Australia’s population is still expanding, with people coming from all parts of the world, and many more things are grown here than ever before. While much of what we grow is consumed by Australians, some of it is exported. For example, rice is grown for the Asian market, fruit like oranges is grown and sold to the American market, and wheat is sold all over the world. Milk and dairy products are exported, as well as fruit and vegetables, oils and fats, seafoods, plus many more - all are grown today in Australia.

Today the farming industry is just as essential to Australia as it was back then, for without it you wouldn’t be able to buy a fresh banana, you wouldn’t have clothes made from Australian sheep’s wool, and that sausage sizzle at school would only be possible with imported sausages perhaps from a country that has poor food hygiene and safety standards.

Australian products are sought after because they meet high environmental and safety criteria and they taste great! Lots of research goes into making sure Australian agricultural products have maximum taste and quality with minimum impact on the environment.

The agricultural sector of primary industries is one of the drivers of our economy, providing us with so many of the essentials that we need from day to day that Australia simply couldn’t exist without it.

To read more about the contribution agriculture makes to our economy see:
http://www.abareconomics.com/interactive/ausnz_ag/htm/au_overview.htm

Fisheries

Have you ever wondered how your fish gets from the ocean to your dinner plate? Or what other sorts of fish there are that can be caught for food?

In Australia there are over 20 large fisheries, with a range of seafood: prawn scallop, tuna, billfish, squid, herring, salmon, barramundi, shark, cod, bass, mackerel, flathead, snapper, crab, lobster, clam, octopus, calamari, oyster, and many other types.

Our country has one of the largest fishing zones in the world, covering 14 million square kilometres, about twice the area of Australia’s landmass (Source: Australian Government, Fisheries Research and Development Corporation) and extending 200 nautical miles out to sea. The fish that are caught in Australian waters are sold to countries all over the world, as well as all throughout Australia, because of their high quality. The three major overseas countries buying Australian fish are Japan, Hong Kong and the USA.

Did you know that barramundi, which are mostly farmed in Queensland, start life as males and end as females, and they can live in both fresh water and salt water?

The top six exports are lobster, abalone, tuna, prawns, scallops and crabs. But fish are not all that the fisheries of Australia have to offer - pearls are also a major export and product of the fishing industry, selling around $170 million worth to Hong Kong each year.

The fisheries of Australia are not only important because of the export value of the fish they catch; the industry itself also employs many people, making it important not only to the economy but to communities as well.

Case study: Akoya pearls

The Akoya pearl oyster (Pinctada imbricata) has been fished for pearls for centuries and is amongst the most widespread of the pearl oyster species. Akoya oysters are found on areas of the eastern coastline of North and South America, the east coast of Africa, the Mediterranean and throughout the Indo-Pacific. Most notably, the Akoya oyster is found in Japan, where it has formed the basis of a multimillion dollar pearling industry.

Recently, a dramatic decline in Japanese pearl production, resulting from a variety of factors including disease, has created an opportunity for NSW to enter the industry. The Akoya oyster is found along much of the NSW coast.

In the early 1990s, a pearling company began investigating the possibility of establishing a temperate pearl oyster farming industry in NSW. This company, with the assistance of the Australian Museum, located and surveyed populations of Akoya oysters in NSW that they believed could form the basis for a pearl farming industry.

The company then approached NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) to conduct the next phase of research, which was to evaluate survival, growth and nacre deposition in this species in NSW waters. This research was considered consistent with the department’s corporate vision to promote sustainable aquaculture industries and to develop commercial opportunities in aquaculture.

NSW DPI subsequently obtained four deepwater lease sites with a total area of 28 ha in Port Stephens, each chosen specifically for pearl culture. The department then called for expressions of interest in a joint venture to evaluate the possibility of pearl culture in Port Stephens. Australian Radiata Pty Ltd was selected as the most suitable commercial partner in this research.

Currently, NSW DPI monitors both farmed and natural stocks of pearl oysters throughout the state. While the bulk of experimental farming activity is in Port Stephens, oysters are held at more than a dozen sites, where their growth, survival and nacre quality are regularly checked. At the major farming sites, the environment surrounding the farms is monitored to ensure that no damage to the environment is occurring. Researchers also follow the reproductive condition of wild pearl oysters and deploy collectors at regular intervals to determine the timing, duration and intensity of natural recruitment. Information gathered from the wild stocks, with the results from laboratory trials, is being used to assist in judging the suitability of pearl farming sites and in production of the pearl oyster spat necessary to establish an industry.

Results to date have been encouraging. Trial pearl harvests have demonstrated the quality of pearls that can be produced. Commercial pearl cultivation is approved in a number of NSW estuaries.
(Source: NSW DPI website)

Forestry

Chances are you are holding, sitting or standing on or in something made of wood. Paper maybe, a wooden chair, wooden floor boards, or maybe you’re in a building made of wood. Wood is one of the most useful materials, able to be used for a variety of purposes. Papers, packing crates, furniture, buildings, tissue, cardboard and many more things are all wooden products.

What types of products are made from wood? There are an estimated 5000 different products made from trees. Apart from the well-known products such as lumber, paper and garden mulch, trees are the source of other day-to-day items such as clothing, carpet and even toothpaste.

Australia has 11 million hectares of harvestable native forest, although only 1 per cent of this is being harvested in any one year. Because such a small percentage is cut down each year, these areas have many years in which to grow back. This is done because it mimics the natural growth cycle and disturbance of the forests.

There are many factors that must be looked at before a region will be logged, including soil type, tree types, the effect on flora and fauna, water catchments and erosion.

In Australia, both plantation forests and native forests are harvested. In New South Wales, scientists decide where trees can and cannot be cut down in native forests. These scientists ensure plants, animals and soils are conserved; they keep streams clean and make sure the forest grows back after logging. Native forests are only used if they can be carefully logged in a sustainable fashion.

Australia is one of only a small number of countries with the ability to increase its sustainable harvesting, which is excellent news for Australia because many other countries are expected to run out of forests due to over-harvesting and the lack of plantations, which in Australia are replanted and reused over again.

Today around 83 000 people are employed in the forestry industry, and throughout Australia there are about 1100 mills, producing sawn timber mainly used for structural manufacturing.

Minerals

Australia has often been called resource-rich because of its huge natural deposits of many very useful and valuable fossil fuels, metals and minerals. In fact, coal is one of Australia’s largest exports, adding billions of dollars to the economy each year.

So why are these minerals so important to us and the world?

Nearly every time you turn on a light you are using power generated by power stations fired by Australian coal, and electrical equipment and circuits made with Australian copper, silver and gold. That’s just when switching on a light!

Australia has been fortunate to have such a cheap energy resource so readily available. Looing into the future, many people recognise that it is time to explore alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power. At this point in time, coal supplies more than 90% of NSW’s electricity. (Source: NSW Minerals Council).

Australia has some of the largest iron and copper mines in the world, meaning we supply to the world a huge amount of the basic necessities for construction. Can you imagine Australia without a Harbour Bridge? That bridge could never have been built without the resources provided by Australia’s huge natural ore deposits, and the same can be said for basically every building in Australia.

Australia has supplies of:

• Bauxite: used to make aluminium.
• Coal: used to generate power and used in steel production.
• Copper: used for electrical equipment and cables, building construction, industrial machinery.
• Diamonds: used for jewellery, industrial cutting and polishing, computer chips.
• Gold: used for jewellery, electronics.
• Iron: used for steel production for use in construction, cars, trains and train tracks.
• Uranium: used overseas for power generation, scientific research, medical research.
• Silver: used for jewellery, photographic paper, mirrors, electronics.
• Gems: opals, emeralds, sapphires and rubies to name just a few.

Did you know? Approximately 0.5% of the NSW land mass is under mining production licences.

The above is just a sample of what Australia’s mines produce for the world. It is easy to see that without them so many things that we take for granted would no longer exist.