Sustainability of Australian Rural Communities
In 2000, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia was awarded a grant by the Australian Research Council under its Learned Academies Special Projects Scheme to carry out research on 'The Sustainability of Australian Rural Communities'. Six university-based teams from across Australia convened in Canberra in February 2001 to develop a shared conceptual framework and to outline a methodology for the research programme. Subsequently, over several months during 2001, each of the teams undertook an investigation of sustainability in the context of a particular rural community - Narrogin in Western Australia, the Gilbert Valley in South Australia, 'Tarra' in Victoria, Tumbarumba and Guyra in New South Wales, and Monto in Queensland. Each of these studies was guided by the agreed conceptual framework and methodology. The six case studies were published in 2003 under the title Community Sustainability in Rural Australia: A Question of Capital? Collectively, the case studies offer insight into the difficult circumstances that these small communities face, but they also point to the various factors that have enabled them to survive in the face of their many challenges.
In a second volume arising from the project, Sustainability and Change in Rural Australia , the authors have taken a more thematic approach to issues associated with the sustainability of rural communities. The chapters consider the state of rural communities and the main dimensions of sustainability, and review both the tried and prospective interventions to improve community sustainability. To an extent, each of the chapters draws on the six case studies of community sustainability that have underpinned the project. The book was published in November 2004 by the University of New South Wales Press.