This working paper reports on the outcomes of a colloquium held in Canberra on 21 June 2014 at the Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University. The colloquium was held to discuss the challenges associated with seed banking and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and to see how those challenges could be responded to effectively...

Anlaby Station is the oldest sheep stud in South Australia (SA) dating back to 1839. The gardens have been noted as significant exemplars, Beames & Whitehill (1992), Swinbourne (1982), and in Pastoral Homes of Australia (1911) published by The Pastoral Review, wherein Anlaby was described as “being of no particular beauty architecturally. But the gardens...

In April 2007, New Zealand introduced the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) program, which allows NZ employers to recruit overseas workers from the Pacific and South East Asia for seasonal work in horticulture and viticulture. Over the last year, New Zealand has opened its doors to seasonal workers from neighbouring island nations: villagers from Kiribati, Samoa...

This report argues that there is no labour shortage of such seriousness as to threaten the prosperity of the horticultural industry, worth $6.6 billion in 2003-04. It argues that measures to increase the labour force - including allowing seasonal contract labour from the Pacific islands - are not needed at this time. Nonetheless, the committee...

Peter Mares shows that fruit and vegetable growers have trouble finding seasonal workers to pick their crops and sometimes resort to illegal immigrants to get the job done. His findings are based on a survey of horticultural producers in the horticultural region stretching along the Murray River between Swan Hill and Mildura in northwest Victoria.