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In this section you will find detailed information, including national overviews and state and regional level assessments, from the 2000-2002 National Land and Water Resources Audit theme assessments.
Agriculture - Statistics - South Eastern (SD) (WA)
South Eastern (SD) (WA)
Introduction
The South Eastern Statistical Division is mostly desert or semi-desert and encompasses the Nullarbor Plain and the Great Sandy Desert.
The south-western part of the Division has more coastline protected by national park than anywhere else in the State. Fitzgerald River National Park is the State's fourth largest and stretches 70 km along the coastline. Cape Arid National Park is another coastal national park and covers 259,808 ha. Cape Le Grand National Park covers 31,390 ha, and Stokes National Park is to the west of Esperance. Esperance is a resort and fast growing port for the pasture and crop hinterland of the Esperance Plains. Ravensthorpe started as a copper mining town, although other minerals are now mined.
The first gold mining boom of Western Australia took place in land that is almost as forbidding as the far north. The area is semi-desert and contains the famous towns of Kalgoorlie, Kambalda, Laverton, Coolgardie, and Norseman. This part of the Division is littered with many ghost or near ghost towns. Kanowna, 22 km from Kalgoorlie, had, in 1905, a population of 12,000, 16 hotels, many churches, and an hourly train service to Kalgoorlie. Today, apart from the railway station and the odd pile of rubble, nothing remains. Many of the towns went from a population of 10,000 or 20,000 back to nothing in just 10 years. While gold mining has decreased in importance, the discovery of nickel and better mining methods has revitalised some of the old towns such as Kambalda and Laverton.
The Great Victoria Desert, which lies between the Gibson Desert and the Nullarbor Plain, is the southernmost of the State's three great deserts. It is a vast area of sand plain and sandhills, and the dunes can run for hundreds of kilometres. The Nullarbor Plain is a raised limestone tableland, flat and barren, and because the limestone is unable to hold rain water and there is no runoff, there are no rivers. The Plain reaches into South Australia and has a shoreline of 100 metre cliffs which stretch for many kilometres along the Great Australian Bight. The world's longest stretch of straight railway line, at 479 km, runs through the Nullarbor Plain.
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): 77,125,676.47
Area
Agroforestry
- Area of Seedlings Sown (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 340 )
- Area of Seed Sown (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 126 )
Cattle and Calves
- Number of Milk Cows (in Milk and Dry) at 31 March (Value in 1996/1997 = 8 )
- Number of Meat Cattle at 31 March (Value in 1996/1997 = 132,236 )
Cereals excluding Rice
- Area of Wheat produced for grain (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 200,332 )
- Tonnes of Wheat produced for grain (Value in 1996/1997 = 265,406 )
- Area of Oats produced for grain (Value in 1996/1997 = 10,949 )
- Tonnes of Oats produced for grain (Value in 1996/1997 = 15,509 )
- Area of Barley produced for grain (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 203,760 )
- Tonnes of Barley produced for grain (Value in 1996/1997 = 289,429 )
- Area of Triticale produced for grain (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 407 )
- Tonnes of Triticale produced for grain (Value in 1996/1997 = 822 )
- Area of Cereal crops cut for hay (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 12,097 )
- Tonnes of Cereal crops cut for hay (Value in 1996/1997 = 36,754 )
Grapes
- Area of Grapes (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 3.7 )
- Tonnes of Grapes - total produced (fresh weight) (Value in 1996/1997 = 13 )
Legumes
- Area of Lupins produced for grain (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 33,132 )
- Tonnes of Lupins produced for grain (Value in 1996/1997 = 30,295 )
- Area of Field Peas produced for grain (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 6,091 )
- Tonnes of Field Peas produced for grain (Value in 1996/1997 = 3,172 )
- Area of Chick Peas (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 411 )
- Tonnes of Chick Peas produced (Value in 1996/1997 = 146 )
- Area of Faba Beans (including Tick and Horse) (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 1,395 )
- Tonnes of Faba Beans (including Tick and Horse) produced (Value in 1996/1997 = 1,118 )
Oilseeds
- Area of Canola (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 13,316 )
- Tonnes of Canola produced (clean seed) (Value in 1996/1997 = 12,209 )
Other Livestock
- Number of Deer (Value in 1996/1997 = 338 )
- Number of Horses Stud (Value in 1996/1997 = 65 )
- Number of Livestock not elsewhere considered (short form) (Value in 1996/1997 = 866 )
Other Non-Cereal Crops
Pastures
- Area of Lucerne (pure), year ending 31 March (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 156 )
- Area of Pasture Legumes (excluding Lucerne), year ending 31 March (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 63,301 )
- Area of Sown Grasses, year ending 31 March (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 3,727 )
- Area of Native or Naturalised Pasture, year ending 31 March (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 730,039 )
- Area of Mixed Perennial Grasses and Legumes, year ending 31 March (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 76,297 )
- Area of Mixed Annual Grasses and Legumes, year ending 31 March (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 531,460 )
- Area of Sown Pasture (excluding Pure Lucerne) , year ending 31 March (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 1,406,730 )
Pigs
Poultry
Sales of Livestock
- Number of Sales of Sheep (Value in 1996/1997 = 628,791 )
- Number of Sales of Lambs (Value in 1996/1997 = 213,499 )
- Number of Sales of Cattle and Calves (except Bulls sold for breeding) (Value in 1996/1997 = 48,755 )
- Number of Sales of Pigs (Value in 1996/1997 = 11,351 )
- Number of Sales of Other Livestock not elsewhere considered (short form) (Value in 1996/1997 = 5,458 )
Sheep and Lambs
- Number of Breeding Ewes 1 year and over at 31 March (Value in 1996/1997 = 1,538,472 )
- Number of Lambs and Hoggets under 1 year at 31 March (Value in 1996/1997 = 781,563 )
- Number of Sheep and Lambs at 31 March (Value in 1996/1997 = 2,977,239 )
- Number of All Other Sheep (excluding Breeding Ewes) (Value in 1996/1997 = 657,204 )
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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