New South Wales provides a wide range of agricultural environments, cool mountains to hot lowlands, semi-desert to semi-tropical, and consequently produces a wide range of agricultural products.
Wool and wheat have been the principal agricultural products of NSW since the west was settled, and potatoes and apples have been grown in the highlands since early days. There was a surge in wool production in the 1950s with the demand spurred by the Korean War, and followed by a slump as synthetics made their early impact. Rainfall permitting, wheat production continued to increase, reaching nine million tonnes in the late nineties. Vineyards were first planted commercially in the Hunter Valley (1830s), in the Riverina (1920s) and the lower Murray for table grapes before 1900. Cattle farming, for both meat and milk, was originally developed on the coast and the Central West but is now concentrated on irrigated pasture in the Murray region of NSW, the lower Hunter and on the south coast. The US export market became strong in the 1960s followed by Japan, prices firmed and low wool prices caused a rapid expansion in production. The NSW herd reached eight million by 1972 and over nine million in 1976 despite a crash in world beef prices. The herd then declined until the late 1990s, when Japanese and Korean markets began to encourage more production, and the herd today numbers just over five million. Lot feeding started during the 1970s boom to concentrate on quality export meat for East Asian markets, and is located across the grain belt of central NSW.
There are 48,800 farms in NSW with an average size of 1,270ha. However this figure appears large due to the extensive grazing properties in the far west where the average size is 43,000ha. Coastal farms are quite small at 500ha and highland properties closer to average at 1,200ha. By comparison average farm size in Australia is 3,340ha, in the US it is 170, in the UK 57 and in continental Europe 20ha.
NSW has a wide range of agricultural environments and products. Regions range from cool mountains to hot lowlands, semi-desert to semi-tropical, dry land to irrigated areas. There are four main regions: the coast, the highlands and tablelands, the western slopes and the inland lowlands.
The Far West, consisting of open and wooded plains, has extensive sheep and, to a lesser extent, cattle grazing. There are two small irrigation areas on the Darling River at Bourke (grapes, citrus and melons) and Menindee (table grapes and stone fruit).
On the slopes, where the rainfall increases, there is a solid belt of grain production that stretches the length of the State. Wheat, oats and barley are grown. The highlands and tablelands are mostly pasture, used for beef and sheep production, and where conditions are favourable there are areas of fruit production – apples in Batlow and Orange; wine grapes in Cowra, Orange, Mudgee and Canberra; and cherries in Young and Orange.
The coast is distinctly different for agriculture. The north coast’s sub-tropical climate produces bananas, sugar-cane, macadamias and exotic fruit, whose production has grown while the traditional dairy industry has declined. Bananas are grown as far south as Macksville, and blueberries are produced north of Coffs Harbour. The dairy industry is still important on the mid-north coast, and the Hunter Valley, which forms a break in the coastal ranges, and is noted for its vineyards and racehorse studs.
Agriculture in the Sydney basin is largely intensive vegetable and flower production, and south of Sydney where the ranges are closer to the coast, and farming areas
are more separated from one another by areas of forest. The main industry of the south coast is dairying and this is mostly in the Bega valley, where cheese is popular.
The main irrigated areas of NSW impose different production over this general pattern. Irrigation from inland northern rivers – the Namoi, Gwydir and Macintyre – is used for cotton production; from the tributaries of the Murrumbidgee and Murray rivers for rice production and in the intensive irrigation areas of the Riverina and the lower Murray for large areas of citrus orchards and vineyards.
Tony Moody, Industry and Investment NSW and Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water