ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews farmland protection policies in the Australian context. Australian farmland prices are low in response to real and perceived future profitability. Australian farmers are notable for their high land: labour, output: man, capital: labour ratios and low outputs per unit of land. High transport costs and high costs of manufactured inputs magnify the tendency towards extensive production methods on Australia's farmlands. Systematic efforts to measure farmers' views about protecting farmland from urban encroachment in Australia are unknown to the authors. A serious internal inconsistency is inherent in this view with respect to individual rights, so central to farmers' ethos and yet so difficult to reconcile with farmland protection. Divergence of opinion could result from different perceptions of the extent of farmland loss or from different values on the importance of retaining land in farming, although responses were similar among districts where the impact of urban land development differed widely.
