ABSTRACT
Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth and also experiences a high degree of climate variability. As such, drought is a frequent occurrence and drought of some magnitude is occurring somewhere in the country most of the time. Since the arrival of European-style agriculture, drought has been a recurring problem for Australia’s farmers. The impact has been felt well beyond the farm sector. Although agriculture’s contribution to the Australian economy reduced from 18 per cent of GDP in 1952-53 to around 3 per cent in 1995-96 (McColl et al. 1997, p. 21), drought still has a significant impact on the overall economy. In October 2002, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics estimated that drought would reduce economic growth in 2002-03 by 0.7 per cent, implying lost output of about $A5.4 billion (ABARE 2002).
