Episode 9: Future of country towns in Australia with WAFarmers

Australia's population is on a rising trajectory, estimated to be almost 26 million, and of those, only 4 million live in rural and regional Australia. But what's more, there are only a little over 1.5 million settled in Australia's 1614 country towns which have a population of less than 5000. Each year this number is declining at a rate of 1% while major cities are growing. These small towns play essential roles in servicing the 55,000 broadacre farms. So why is there a rapid decline? Is there a solution to attract quality workers for significant roles to be filled on the farm? Is there any government support to better the situation?

In this episode, David is joined by the CEO of WAFarmers, Trevor Whittington, to answer all these questions. Together they discussed the importance of implementing actions such as improving education and healthcare system to providing incentives for families to attract skilled workers for the survival of these towns.