Purpose: This article outlines the development of extension as a discipline in Australia, its organization, and the ideological changes that have occurred from the second half of the nineteenth century through to the present. Design/Methodology/Approach: It considers the evolution of extension across the different states of Australia from a…

Following a nationwide drought in 1982, the Australian government instituted the National Property Management Planning program to build skills in the rural community to better manage the farm business, including the need to manage change. In Victoria, the program is delivered through the Farm$mart project. Farm$mart is: learner centered; involves…

Rural areas around the world face problems stemming from the globalization of agricultural and other markets, the resulting competitiveness for existing and shifting markets, loss of population, and consequent decline of economic and social infrastructure. Rural communities need to develop the ability to manage change, and this requires engaging…

Historically, rural General Practitioners (GPs) in Australia tended to be male, Anglo, middle-class and in nuclear family structures, whereas the contemporary workforce demographic is increasingly female and of diverse ethnicity. Demographic trends and changing social values of university-educated professionals directly affect services in rural…

This paper proposes a framework for developing a national rural development policy in Australia. Some common relevant misconceptions are that rural Australia and rural Australians are peripheral to the national economy and the nation's future, that farmers and farming communities are the alpha and omega of rural Australia, and that whatever is…

Education, in many countries, is in a state of contraction due to declining enrolments and to economic factors which cause a high rate of unemployment even among the educated. To prevent closing or consolidation, the maintenance of many rural schools by the community seems likely in the future to depend on widening their activities beyond the…