ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the recent changes in succession arrangements in the Australian wool industry. It presents an analysis of the demographic trends in the Australian sheep farming industry from 1976 to 2001, using the analytical method developed by Barr. The Census of Population and Housing (CPH), conducted every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) allows sheep farmers to be identified and enumerated. Young people, even those rose on farms, are choosing to go farming in fewer and fewer numbers, and this is particularly true of the sheep industry. To understand the changing nature of succession in the wool industry, a series of semi-structured interviews was conducted with 23 wool growing families spread throughout the Australian state of Victoria. The names of potential interviewee families were obtained from local informants, who were asked to suggest a variety of potential interviewees for whom entry, exit or succession would be likely to be a salient issue.
