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The Decline of Agriculture on the Tasman Peninsula, 1970-1990

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The Decline of Agriculture on the Tasman Peninsula, 1970-1990 The Decline of Agriculture on the Tasman Peninsula, 1970-1990. G•r' cl-- Bill Blackwood Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Environmental Studies, Centre for Environmental Studies, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, 1991. Abstract This thesis examines the development of the economy on the Tasman Peninsula. It argues that there have been at least five distinct historical economies. These include the aboriginal economy, the convict period, free settlement, mixed farming and modern agribusiness. Each of these five economies has drawn upon the resources of the area, the skills of the people and available technology to sustain a way of life. In the period of European settlement, the progression of economic development has generally been from relative self sufficiency to a dependent economy strongly controlled by outside influences. Detailed examination of major enterprises that form part of current agricultural practices on the Peninsula illustrate this trend. Local orcharding, dairying and poultry industries have all declined rapidly in recent years as primary production has become dominated by agribusinesses. The detail of the loss of local autonomy varies between enterprises but the overall theme is consistent. It is shown that a higher degree of local economic self sufficiency might be attained by careful resurrection of some past practices. This is not to advocate a return to the past, but to suggest that a future sustainable local economy can best be secured by striking a balance between the old and the new. Acknowledgments Thank you to my families and friends for their encouragement, patience and trust. Special thanks to my supervisor Les Wood, Neville Curtis and Tania Stadler for critical readings of early drafts of the thesis, and for their ideas and suggestions. Thank you to the people in the Centre for Environmental Studies and the Department of Geography, who are also feeling the effects of the continuing structural adjustment of the economy. Thank you to the people of the Peninsula, the Department of Agriculture and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the State Library, Archives and the University Libraries, who answered my questions and provided me with information, photographs and ideas. Thanks to Don Stephens for permission to use the photograph on the front page. To be modern is to live a life of paradox and contradiction. It is to be overpowered by the immense bureaucratic organizations that have the power to control and often to destroy all communities, values, lives. ..To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world - and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are. Modern environments and experiences cut across all boundaries of geography and ethnicity, of class and nationality, of religion and ideology: in this sense, modernity can be said to unite all of us. But it is a paradoxical unity, a unity of disunity: it pours us into a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish. To be modern is to be part of a universe in which... "all that is solid melts into air". (M. Berman, 1982)1 The World Bank says we small farmers are inefficient, that we should disappear. But there's something they haven't thought about. We want to be farmers. What they do not understand is that we refuse to disappear. 2 (B Campos, Union of Small Producers of the Atlantic,1990) I Berman, M., 1982, All That is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity, Verso, London, pp 13-15, 2 Carty, B., 1990; "You can't eat flowers" New Internationalist, December 1990, No. 214, pp.18-19 Table of Contents Page Abstract i Acknowledgements ii Table of Contents iv List of Figures v Chapter One - Introduction 1 Chapter Two - Orcharding 51 Chapter Three - Dairying 78 Chapter Four - Poultry 100 Chapter Five - Historical Background 113 Chapter Six - Conclusion 144 Bibliography 166 iv List of Figures Page Figure 1 Map of Tasman Peninsula, vii indicating location of towns mentioned in study. Figure 2 Tasman Peninsula, 1957-82, 8 Number of Rural Establishments. Figure 3 Tasman Peninsula, 1957-82 9 Area of Rural Holdings (Hectares) Figure 4 Tasman Peninsula, 1974-89 10 Apple and Pear Trees Bearing, (Over 6 years old) Figure 5 Tasman Peninsula, 1964-82, 11 Production of Apples and Pears, (Tonnes). Figure 6 Tasman Peninsula, 1957-82, 12 Number of Dairy Cattle. Figure 7 Tasman Peninsula, 1974-89 13 Number of Beef Cattle Figure 8 Tasman Peninsula, 1974-89 14 Area of Sown Pasture, Hectares Figure 9 Tasman Peninsula, 1974-89 15 Total Sheep and Lambs Figure 10 Tasman Peninsula, 1974-89 16 Number of Pigs . Figure 11 Tasman Peninsula, 1957-82, 22 Employment. Figure 12 Tasman Peninsula, 1957-88 24 Population Figure 13 Tasman Peninsula, 1977-89 33 Population Figure 14 Tasman Peninsula, 1977-89 34 Number of Births Figure 15 Tasmania, 1969-88, 40 Number of Manufacturing Establishments: Food, Beverages and Tobacco. Figure 16 Tasmania, 1969-88, 41 Total Employment: Food, Beverages and Tobacco. vi Figure 1 - Map of Tasman Peninsula, indicating location of towns mentioned in study. 3 to Hobart DunaIley 43'00S Ncrfolk Bay Saltwater Eaglehawk Neck River Pirates Bay Taranna Koonya 4:38L. TASMAN PENINSULA Nubeena Arrnur Hign..vay Wedge Bay For rescue Bay Mt Raoul 4 62 Cape Pillar 0 5 10 Cape Racui km 3 Russell, J.A., 1987, Tasman Peninsula Landscape Development Manual: Eaglehawk Neck to Port Arthur, University of Tasmania, Environmental Studies Occasional Paper No 21, Hobart vii Chapter One - Introduction The Decline of Agriculture on the Tasman Peninsula, 1970-1990; Causes and Consequences. 1.1 Thesis outline The Tasman Peninsula is located in the south-eastern corner of Tasmania. It is almost an island and is connected to the Forestier Peninsula only by a narrow isthmus, a ridge of sand dunes called Eaglehawk Neck. The Peninsula is widely known for its convict past (12 500 convicts served their sentences there) and for the ruins of Port Arthur. It is Tasmania's most popular tourist attraction. 1 The Peninsula is also known for its natural beauty; for its rugged coastlines and sheer dolerite cliffs and columns; for its isolated beaches, and safe harbours; its native flora and fauna and for its forests and rural landscapes. In common with many other small rural communities, it offers a pace and quality of life that when compared with modern city life is still relatively peaceful and tranquil. These qualities have attracted a growing number of retirees and what are termed alternative settlers to the Peninsula and in the last decade the local population has been slowly but steadily increasing. By 1989, there were approximately 1 500 permanent residents.2 The Peninsula is approximately one- and- a- half hours drive from Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania and the many opportunities for outdoor recreation, relaxation and rest provided by the Peninsula have 1 Hepper, J., 1979; Tasman Peninsula Resources: A Document of Planning Information. Office of the Comissioner for Town and Country Planning, Hobart. p.1 2 Wood, L. J., 1989; in Smith., S.J., 1989; Tasman Peninsula Is History Enough?; Past, Present and Future Use Of The Resources Of Tasman Peninsula; Royal Society of Tasmania, Hobart, p.141 1 also made it a favoured holiday and weekend destination for a growing number of residents of Hobart. Summarising at the end of his thesis on the Tasman Peninsula in 1968, G. N. McIntyre pointed to the changing direction of the Peninsula's economy. He said, An increasing flow of interstate and overseas tourists promises to develop for Tasman Peninsula the same popular image of western Ireland and rural New England in the United States: spectacular scenery, features of historical interest and declining agriculture. 3 Twenty years later, the conservation of the Peninsula's heritage is receiving increased attention as the basis for a successful tourist industry while agriculture has continued its decline. It seems illogical that a rural community which for so long has developed an agriculture that sustained families and communities, should now in the late 20th century find difficulty in sustaining such a basic industry. Yet it is so. While the Peninsula has fertile agricultural land, a history of many successful agricultural industries and a growing tourist market on its doorstep, its agriculture is in decline. Agricultural decline has involved a fall in the number of farmers, a decline in returns to farmers and the loss of a way of life. The decline of agriculture has not meant a decline in terms of farmer's productivity, in fact the remaining farmers are more productive than ever before. Nor can it be described as a genteel decline, in fact there has been rapid change in farming practices, in the use of technology and the scale of operations. 3 McIntyre, G.N., 1968; The Alienation and Settlement of Crown Land on Tasman Peninsula Honours Thesis, University of Tasmania. Hobart. 1,17 2 In the last 20 years the decline of agriculture has been a characteristic of rural communities throughout Australia. This thesis will consider the problem of agricultural decline in the context of this one small, relatively isolated rural community. It will show that while there have been many reasons for the Peninsula's agricultural decline including local factors, the most important single cause is a general economic trend which in the last 20 years in particular has seen the rapid growth of agribusiness companies and the extension of their control over local agriculture. Through the centralisation of capital and the concentration of ownership such companies have established monopoly or oligopoly control over agricultural industries and ensured the redistribution of income away from farmers and local communities towards company profits.
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