Institute of Advanced Studies
Karrakatta Club Lecture: Australian farming - does it have a future? And does it matter?
Date: Monday, 7 July 2008
Time: 6pm
Location: Social Sciences Lecture Theatre, UWA
Cost: Free. No RSVP required.
Enquiries: ias@admin.uwa.edu.au or (+61 8) 6488 1340
Can Australian farmers help mend the damage of salinity and desertification?
Can our farming survive climate change?
In the age of industrial scale farming, is traditional farming a lost cause - a sentimental fantasy?
Would Australia be better off if we abandoned our agricultural businesses (which produce less than three per cent of our GDP) and focus on soils potential to sink carbon?
These are the problems and the questions that Patrice faces every day, writes about in her books and will address for us in her lecture.
After an international modelling career Patrice Newell became a journalist and broadcaster. She was a newsreader at SBS TV and presented her own public affairs program Midweek and later co-anchored Nine's Today Show.
Then came a total change of career - she joined partner Phillip Adams in buying Elmswood, an historic property in the Upper Hunter and became a full-time land manager. The story of her life raising cattle and helping pioneer Australia's new olive industry was told in the best-selling The Olive Grove. The sequel, The River, tells of her fight to save the Pages River, which runs through the property, from overuse and abuse, and from a coal mine currently being developed at the river's source. In 2006, Ten Thousand Acres: A Love Story continued the discussion for sustainable agriculture and environmental responsibility.
In 2007, she co-founded Climate Change Coalition, a new political group focusing on the biggest ecological issue of our times. She was a candidate for the NSW Legislative Council and the Senate. In 2008, a new book, Tree to Table ventures into the ancient origins of olive oil and its sublime flavours.
Patrice's books will be available for sale and signing after the lecture.
The Karrakatta Club Lecture is presented and organised by the Institute of Advanced Studies at UWA and the Karrakatta Club, the first women's club in Australia in Perth, founded in 1894.
