Community support for agricultural research

As the century drew to a close the colonies came together, forming a federation in 1901 with each colony becoming a State within the new Commonwealth of Australia. 'The 'nineties were a time of economic disaster but these very disasters made men think out new ideas of great significance in the future development of their country'.[41] During the next two decades many of these ideas involved new and more formal structures for the encouragement, through improved education and research, of agricultural science and technology. Steadily, as science became more complicated and specialised, the resources needed for research and development became more sophisticated and expensive. Inevitably the centre of the agricultural research stage was progressively to be occupied by the public rather than the private sector, by the highly trained and specialist professional rather than the talented and innovative farmer, and by an increasing scientific bureaucracy rather than a series of ruggedly independent and practical individuals or groups of individuals.

Yet the remarkable and successful development of agricultural research in Australia has always been based upon close cooperation between the farming and scientific communities. The support given by farmers, individually and collectively, to agricultural research has been particularly generous and, in turn, the returns to producers have been outstanding.

The attitudes which have characterised leaders of the farming community are well reflected in the letters which Mr. Peter Waite wrote to the Premier of South Australia and to the Chancellor of the University of Adelaide on 3 October, 1913, referring to his gift of buildings and land to the University for 'agricultural and kindred studies' -a gift that led to the founding of what was to become one of the world's leading agricultural research institutes. His letter to the Premier said in part:

. . . I have been much influenced by the wonderful work our agriculturalists and pastoralists have accomplished hitherto in face of the heavy odds that they have had to meet.

With comparatively little scientific training they have placed our wheat, wool and fruits in the highest estimation of the world; our sheep have been brought to such perfection that they are sought after not only by all the sister States but by South Africa; our agricultural machinery has been found good enough even for the Americans to copy, and our farming methods have been accepted by the other States as the most up-to-date and practical for Australian conditions.

We have now reached a point where it behoves us to call science to our aid to a greater extent than hitherto has been done, otherwise we cannot hope to keep in the forefront . . . [42]

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering