Paving devours farmland faster than foreign buyers

Tony Biffin and Cliff Doust, 92, on Mr Biffin's property in Cawdor, Western Sydney. Picture: Nikki Short Source: The Australian

AUSTRALIA has lost five times more farmland to urban sprawl than to foreign buyers, with 89 million hectares vanishing in a generation.   

Housing subdivisions, national parks, forestry plantations and mining leases have chewed up 18 per cent of Australia's agricultural land since 1984.

The Planning Institute of Australia has warned a federal government taskforce drafting the nation's first "food plan" that the conflict over rural land is "one of the most significant issues facing food production".

"Urban development is paving over farmland on the edge of our metropolitan cities," the institute says in its submission.

"Australia's agricultural land is a scarce and finite resource. There is a need to ensure that the land that grows the food is preserved for that purpose."

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The Australian