Guy M Robinson

This paper outlines and analyses preliminary research in South Australia’s Riverland, part of Australia’s largest river system, the Murray–Darling Basin, and one of the nation’s most important horticultural production areas. It focuses on the Renmark Irrigation Trust (RIT), which supplies water to c570 irrigators. Management of the Basin is controversial, with conflicting demands from stakeholders, including smallholder irrigators, broadacre farming, indigenous groups, and the environment. Climate change and the water market have contributed to uncertainty over environmental sustainability. Using sequential mixed methods, including a questionnaire survey, focus groups and interviews, we investigate the chief risks perceived by irrigators and their future-plans in face of concerns over variable water flows and economic uncertainty. We highlight the RIT’s contribution to river restoration and investigate its plans for additional on-farm water stewardship. We reveal high levels of uncertainty among irrigators regarding their future viability, including unintended consequences from the water market, the controversial role of water brokers, and environmental viability of the river system. The growth of ‘lifestyle blocks’ occupied by hobby farmers has added both to landscape diversity and fragmentation. To maintain a resilient horticultural industry, there may need to be adjustments to water management in the Basin to protect smallholders’ livelihoods whilst continuing to meet specified environmental needs.

Hobby and part‐time farming have become important elements of agricultural development in peri‐urban areas of developed countries. Although there has been renewed interest recently in examining the characteristics of this farming, studies have rarely attempted to consider its role in transitional multifunctional landscapes. This article reports on research in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, using surveys and semi‐structured interviews to examine contributions of hobby and part‐time farmers to an evolving multifunctionality. Hobby farmers are often recent, well‐educated migrants transferring capital from urban areas to the peri‐urban fringe. They engage in various on‐farm and off‐farm activities, with an emphasis on pro‐environmental actions and/or keeping horses. In contrast, part‐time farmers commonly have a farming background and are often transitioning out of farming while retaining farm‐based enterprises representing up to half their household income. While hobby farmers are seeking amenity value from the fringe, part‐time farmers are a more integral component of the conventional rural economy. A re‐evaluation of the importance of the growing numbers of hobby and part‐time farmers is vital as urbanisation pressures increase in peri‐urban fringes of major Australian cities. These farmers represent an important bulwark against urban sprawl, helping to retain agricultural and environmental land uses on the fringe.