Social pressures likely to reshape Australia's woolgrowing industry over the next 25 years

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Australia’s woolgrowers are operating under a variety of social pressures. Some of there pressures are reshaping the whole farm sector and affect woolgrowing as much as any other agricultural industry. Other pressures are reshaping the wool industry in particular.

This paper discusses recent demographic trends among Australia’s body of woolgrowers and projects those trends into the future, and describes the various social pressures that appear to be influencing woolgrowing families, now and over the next 25 years. Finally, it summarises the likely characteristics of the next generation of Australia’s woolgrowers. 

The demographic analysis is based on data obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which conducts Australia’s Census of Population and Housing every 5 years. Census data from 1976 to 2001 were used. Because “woolgrower” is not a classification used in the Census, woolgrowers were selected using the occupational classification of “farmers and farm managers” combined with the industry classification of “sheep farming”. 

Australian data is presented in this paper where possible, but in some cases only Victorian data has been available. Historically, the Victorian and Australian patterns of woolgrower demographics have been similar. To build on the demographic analysis, in-depth interviews were conducted with selected woolgrowing families to identify social issues affecting succession patterns and explore the forces influencing demographic trends and mechanisms of farm transfer in the Victorian woolgrowing industry. The interviews placed the bare statistics obtained from the demographic analysis within the context of decisions faced by real individuals and families.