Australian Natural Resources Atlas

Natural Resource Topics

Agriculture - Statistics - North Western (SD)

North Western (SD)

Location map for SD: 135

Introduction

Northern Western Statistical Division contains 1.93 percent of the population.

In the North Western Statistical Division there is a division of topography, with elevated lands extending from the central tablelands in the east; gently undulating slopes in the river basins of the Macquarie, Castlereagh, and Bogan Rivers in the central areas, and flat plains in the far west. Climatically this region is also diverse but is mostly semi-arid, particularly in the westerly and northerly parts. It has a hot summer and a fairly wide range between summer and winter temperatures. The eastern parts receive about 650 millimetres of rainfall per annum, but only half this amount is received in the western portion. The area is well served by railways with several lines, i.e. from Cobar, Bourke, Brewarrina, and Coonamble, focussing on Dubbo - the main economic centre of the region. Other lines connect Dubbo to Parkes, Molong, and Orange. At Dubbo, the Mitchell Highway, which runs parallel

Dubbo(C) had the highest value of building jobs approved in the Division in 1995-96 at $47 million, equivalent to 49 per cent of the Division total, followed by Mudgee(A) with $17 million or 17.7 per cent. Together these two areas represented 66 percent of the total value of building jobs approved in the Division.

The area sown to wheat for grain in 1994-95 was a significant proportion of the State total at 26.8 percent. The largest area grown to wheat for grain was Walgett (A) and Naromine (A) which both had 15.5 percent. Cotton was grown over an area equivalent to 35.7 percent of the State total; 48 percent of this was located in Warren(A) and the remainder in Bourke(A), Brewarrina(A), Naromine(A) and Walgett(A). Sheep and lambs were raised throughout the Division with Walgett(A), having more than one million head.

Manufacturing activity in 1993-94 was concentrated in Dubbo(C) and Mudgee(A). Together they represented 62.5 percent of manufacturing establishments, 79 percent of manufacturing employment, and 84.6 percent of turnover from manufacturing.

The figures reported here are a subset of the Agricultural Census data from 1982/1983 to 1996/1997 published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, AgStats). The data has been analysed by the Bureau of Rural Sciences using a consistent geographic base. Further information about the data is available from the Australian Spatial Data Directory

The figures and text are reproduced with permission of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, © Commonwealth of Australia, 2000.

Statistics

Area of region (ha): 19,949,565.59

Area

Agroforestry

Apples

Berry Fruit

Cattle and Calves

Cereals excluding Rice

Citrus

Cotton

Grapes

Legumes

Nuts

Oilseeds

Other Livestock

Other Non-Cereal Crops

Other Vegetables

Pastures

Pears

Pigs

Potatoes

Poultry

Sales of Livestock

Sheep and Lambs

Stone Fruit

Further information

Please Note: Not all the selected data items are available for every year or for every statistical region.

The figures reported here are a subset of the Agricultural Census data from 1982/1983 to 1996/1997 published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, AgStats). The data have been analysed by Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Australia to report them using a consistent geographic base. Further information about the data is available through the Australian Spatial Data Directory.

The subset includes 436 data items for plant production and 40 data items for livestock which were commonly available in the AgStats database over the 15 year period and each year for respondents having an Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO) above the cut-off of $22,500.

The data have been concorded by bringing data collected using different geographies to a consistent geographic base, being Version 2.6 Statistical Local Area (SLA) boundaries (ABS, 1996) and using the non-agricultural lands mask from the National Land and Water Resources Audit's National Landuse Map (1996/1997).

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