Gross value
of Australian grain production increased by 14% to reach A$9.3
billion in 2001-02 with production estimated to be a near
record of just under 40 million tonnes of which wheat is
estimated to be 23.8 million tonnes, barley 7.5 million tonnes
and canola 1.6 million tonnes.
Wheat remains the most important crop and is produced in the
‘wheat belt’ which stretches inland of the Great Dividing
Range from central Queensland through New South Wales and
Victoria to southern South Australia, and again across the
south-west and lower west coast of Western Australia. The
wheat belt lies within an area which receives rainfall from
225mm up to 600mm during the growing period from May to
October.
In 2000-01 the top third of farms in
Australia in terms of grain output, around 12700 farms,
produced around 80 percent of the gross value of grain
production. Average wheat yields per hectare have been rising
and over the last twenty years to 2001-02, Australian wheat
yields, on average, rose by around 2.5 per cent a year.
