The agricultural land on the fringes of our major cities is some of the most productive in the country, but urban encroachment is putting it at risk. Experts believe now is the time to 'draw the line' and put in place permanent city boundaries to protect farms that will only become more important as climate change takes hold. Cathy Pryor reports.
Wayne Shields' farm has been in his family since the 1970s, when his father first bought the fertile patch of land on the Mornington Peninsula to Melbourne's east. In those days, the Peninsula was a quiet rural retreat from city life, frequented by holiday makers making a pilgrimage to the coast.
Forty years later, 30 per cent of the Mornington Peninsula is classified as urban and the boundary of metropolitan Melbourne is only 500 metres from the Shields farm. While the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council is working hard to protect the agricultural land it still has, the Shields' organic farm now co-exists with its suburban neighbours.
'The Mornington Peninsula council has pretty well stated that they are committed to having an agricultural sector in their shire and we have a right to farm,' says Shields.
'We have also bought another property in southern NSW just to give us a bit more scope, because you never know what will happen with governments. They could change the zoning here and all of a sudden we couldn't afford to farm if the council upped the rates or someone comes along and offers someone big money to put houses here.'
Urban encroachment is an issue around the nation as urban populations grow at a rapid pace. Critics of Australia's planning regulations argue that we overlook the importance of agriculture on our city fringes at our peril. Our cities have been built on some of Australia's most fertile agricultural land and farming on our urban fringes can be particularly important in times of drought, when access to reliable water supplies is paramount.
In Australia over two thirds of our population live in five capital cities. We are all used to the idea that we can get produce whenever we want; we don't see its value close to the city.PROFESSOR MICHAEL BUXTON, RMIT
The Food Alliance, an initiative of Deakin University which researches food systems and food security issues, has recently released a snapshot of how important this agriculture is to Victoria's food supply. Dr Rachel Carey, research fellow at The Food Alliance, says around 40 to 50 per cent of the state's vegetables come from urban fringe areas such as the Mornington Peninsula, Werribee South, Casey and Cardinia. For some products the percentages are even higher: over 70 per cent of the state's mushrooms, broccoli and lettuce, and over 90 per cent of its strawberries, asparagus, herbs, and cauliflowers, are grown in these areas.
Farms on Melbourne's fringes are directly responsible for 6000 jobs, and contribute $1.3 to $1.6 billion to the state’s economy. Carey says she would like the state government to put in place a permanent city boundary to prevent any further urban encroachment.
'I think a lot of people are totally unaware that Melbourne even has a food bowl,' she says.
'We are at the stage where we have to draw the line.'
Ian Sinclair, a rural planner and independent consultant on peri-urban agriculture, worked in the Wollondilly Shire on the south-western edge of Sydney in the 1990s. He says Sydney and other major centres are experiencing the same issues as Melbourne, as our hunger for new housing encroaches on agriculture. Where farming does co-exist on the urban fringe, the relationship is not always a happy one. Vegetable and fruit growers in the Hawkesbury region continue to feel the pressure from urban encroachment. In the Wollondilly, complaints about animal noise and smell have forced many poultry farmers to move further afield.
IMAGE: BEN AND MARK HONEY ARE FACING URBAN ENCROACHMENT NEAR THEIR DAIRY FARM IN KIAMA, NSW (SARINA LOCKE)
Mark Honey, who runs a dairy farm in Kiama, one a half hours south of Sydney, has fielded similar complaints. As the coastal town has expanded, he has watched other dairy farms bow out. Honey is locked in by smaller holdings and is facing high land prices. With agricultural land now costing more than $25,000 a hectare in Kiama, the only way the Honeys can expand is to lease back land from Sydneysiders who have bought lifestyle acreage in the region.
'The encroachment has really affected how we do business on occasions,' he says.
'One of the most difficult things is if you want to apply organic fertiliser because of the aroma that drifts into the town.'
'We used to have a lot of trouble with neighbouring dogs coming onto the farm which was probably fixed when they put a four lane highway through the middle of the farm. The dogs don't make it across the highway.'
Sinclair agrees it is not just the major cities that are feeling the urban pinch. The region around Bowen and Bundaberg on the central coast of Queensland is another major vegetable growing area where housing expansion and industrialisation are constant pressures.
When other regions in Australia stop producing fresh vegetables during the winter months, Bowen and Bundaberg fill the gap. Sinclair also believes that as our climate changes in the future, agriculture on the outskirts of our cities will become increasingly important.
'Our metro fringes are a bit more resilient to that,' he says.
'Some of these farmers use town water and they are also much closer to markets and a reliable labour force.'
Some countries, such as the USA, are facing similar challenges to Australia; so much so that large scale indoor greenhouse farms are popping up in urban industrial estates in cities such as Chicago and New York. However, Michael Buxton, a professor of environment and planning at RMIT who has worked in urban planning at state and local government level in Victoria, believes Australia is lagging behind other countries such as the UK, Canada and Germany.
He points to green belts in the UK as an example to follow. The belts, he says, are so well entrenched in the British national psyche, that agricultural land is valued not just for the commodities it produces but the green space it provides.
Buxton believes it is all too easy for governments in Australia to change planning laws with the stroke of a legislative pen. Australians also doesn't have the same entrenched connection to agriculture as Europeans.
'I think it is a cultural thing,' he says.
'In Australia over two thirds of our population live in five capital cities. We are very concentrated and we don't have this sense of regionalism. We are all used to the idea that we can get produce whenever we want; we don't see its value close to the city.'
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