Agriculture - Statistics - North West (SD)
North West (SD)
Introduction
North West Statistical Division has as its western edge the Northern Territory border, and its northern edge is the Gulf of Carpentaria. It also includes the Wellesley, Forsyth, and South Wellesley Islands. This includes Mornington Island.
The western part of this Division has more rivers than roads. It is hot and flat, and savannah grasses stretch as far as the eye can see. Along the coast there are wetlands and mangroves. The only real break in the plains are the 600 million year old Selwyn Ranges, south of Cloncurry.
The main town in this Division is Mount Isa. It is technically the world's largest city, with an administrative area covering 40, 977 sq km. In 1923, prospector John Campbell Miles discovered a rich silver-lead deposit west of Cloncurry. Silver, lead, zinc and copper are still mined here. The 265 metre stack of the lead smelter is the highest chimney in the country.
Camooweal is the last town in the State before crossing into the Northern Territory. It is also the centre for the large cattle stations which spread hundreds of kilometres in every direction. Cloncurry, 124 km east of Mount Isa and until just after World War I the centre of a copper boom, is now the centre of the surrounding cattle industry and a main rail head for the transportation of stock. It was also the first base, opened in 1928, of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. In 1974 a rare type of crystallised gold was discovered. The only other place this gold is mined is South Africa.
Julia Creek is an important cattle trucking depot. Richmond, approximately 500 km west of Townsville, serves the surrounding sheep and cattle properties and looks promising for oil shale. Hughenden is a major centre for wool, cattle and grain production in the area.
Normanton is in the north of the Division and the main town on the Gulf. It is the prawn fishing centre for the Gulf and also a barramundi fishing area. Further south is Karumba, the State's only port on the Gulf. It ships cattle, fish and processed prawns.
The figures reported here are a subset of the Agricultural Census data from 1982/1983 to 1996/1997 published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, AgStats). The data has been analysed by the Bureau of Rural Sciences using a consistent geographic base. Further information about the data is available from the Australian Spatial Data Directory
The figures and text are reproduced with permission of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, © Commonwealth of Australia, 2000.
Statistics
Area of region (ha): 31,098,603.13
Area
Cattle and Calves
- Number of Milk Cows (in Milk and Dry) at 31 March (Value in 1996/1997 = 5 )
- Number of Meat Cattle at 31 March (Value in 1996/1997 = 1,485,355 )
Cereals excluding Rice
- Area of Cereal crops cut for hay (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 262 )
- Tonnes of Cereal crops cut for hay (Value in 1996/1997 = 1,900 )
Other Livestock
- Number of Horses Stud (Value in 1996/1997 = 2,060 )
- Number of Livestock not elsewhere considered (short form) (Value in 1996/1997 = 3,174 )
Other Non-Cereal Crops
Pastures
- Area of Sown Grasses, year ending 31 March (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 347,844 )
- Area of Native or Naturalised Pasture, year ending 31 March (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 4,810,608 )
- Area of Mixed Perennial Grasses and Legumes, year ending 31 March (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 3,200 )
- Area of Mixed Annual Grasses and Legumes, year ending 31 March (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 7,608 )
- Area of Sown Pasture (excluding Pure Lucerne) , year ending 31 March (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 5,169,260 )
- Area of Pastures (excluding Lucerne) cut for hay (ha) (Value in 1996/1997 = 2,979 )
- Tonnes of Pasture (excluding Lucerne) cut for hay (Value in 1996/1997 = 6,005 )
Pigs
Sales of Livestock
- Number of Sales of Sheep (Value in 1996/1997 = 194,267 )
- Number of Sales of Lambs (Value in 1996/1997 = 23,917 )
- Number of Sales of Cattle and Calves (except Bulls sold for breeding) (Value in 1996/1997 = 390,957 )
- Number of Sales of Other Livestock not elsewhere considered (short form) (Value in 1996/1997 = 246 )
Sheep and Lambs
- Number of Breeding Ewes 1 year and over at 31 March (Value in 1996/1997 = 401,459 )
- Number of Lambs and Hoggets under 1 year at 31 March (Value in 1996/1997 = 118,431 )
- Number of Sheep and Lambs at 31 March (Value in 1996/1997 = 907,507 )
- Number of All Other Sheep (excluding Breeding Ewes) (Value in 1996/1997 = 387,617 )
Stone Fruit
- Number of Mango Trees under 6 years (Value in 1996/1997 = 100 )
- Kilograms of Mangoes produced (Value in 1996/1997 = 540 )
Further information
Please Note: Not all the selected data items are available for every year or for every statistical region.
The figures reported here are a subset of the Agricultural Census data from 1982/1983 to 1996/1997 published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, AgStats). The data have been analysed by Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Australia to report them using a consistent geographic base. Further information about the data is available through the Australian Spatial Data Directory.
The subset includes 436 data items for plant production and 40 data items for livestock which were commonly available in the AgStats database over the 15 year period and each year for respondents having an Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO) above the cut-off of $22,500.
The data have been concorded by bringing data collected using different geographies to a consistent geographic base, being Version 2.6 Statistical Local Area (SLA) boundaries (ABS, 1996) and using the non-agricultural lands mask from the National Land and Water Resources Audit's National Landuse Map (1996/1997).
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