Foreword
In September 2025, participants from the South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (SW WA Hub) joined their counterparts in Victoria and Tasmania for a week-long study tour. The journey brought together Western Australian farmers, researchers, and consultants with peers, industry innovators, and extension professionals from across southern Australia. The shared goal was to learn from others who are building economic, environmental, and social resilience, in the face of a more variable climate.
This report documents what was observed and learned. It celebrates innovation, collaboration, and the power of peer-to-peer learning, while highlighting the importance of the national Drought Hub network in connecting ideas, people, and practice.
Introduction
The study tour traversed contrasting agricultural systems, from the Yarra Valley vineyards of Victoria through to the mixed farms and dairies of northern Tasmania. Participants visited enterprises that have adapted creatively to shifting rainfall, evolving markets, and changing technology.
Each site visit offered a different perspective on resilience, for example autonomous irrigation systems and sensor technologies, rotational grazing, genetic selection, technology enhanced management, value-adding, and community adaptation. Across all these systems, the tour highlighted how resilience is not achieved through a single innovation but through connection, curiosity, and continual learning.
Resilience begins with understanding your own system, learning from others, and taking deliberate steps to adapt before conditions demand it.
Peer-to-peer learning is recognised as a highly valued and effective approach to learning. The study tour connected growers from across lower southern growing regions of Western Australia with each other and growers, researchers, and extension practitioners from Victoria and Tasmania. These regions exhibit different systems; however, they share exposure to new climate pressures, remoteness, technology, related change management opportunities, and transitional systems thinking. Participants shared their own knowledge, experience, and mitigation strategies that have been successfully adopted in their businesses.
Site visits
The tour incorporated multiple site visits. Often with different approaches but a similar goal in mind – to be productive into a profitable future.
The thematic sections include:
- Viticulture: resilient vines and smarter water use
- Livestock: genetics, pastures, and drought readiness
- Dairy: automation, welfare, and value-adding
- Cropping and mixed farming: diversity as a defence
- Horticulture and AgTech: technology with purpose
- Processing and market innovation
- Community resilience: the human dimension
Viticulture: resilient vines and smarter water use
At Yarra Yering Vineyard in Victoria, Andrew George and his team are proving that sustainability and premium production can co-exist. Under dryland conditions of around 750 mm rainfall, the vineyard has adopted between- and under-vine cover crops, clover and native species trials, and organic waste composting. These practices conserve soil moisture, reduce herbicide use, and moderate temperature extremes in the root zone.
While automation remains an aspiration, Yarra Yering’s focus on soil function and biodiversity demonstrates that small ecological gains accumulate into larger system resilience. As Andrew reflected, “We’re not just managing vines; we’re managing living soil.”
Across Bass Strait, in the Tamar Valley, viticulturist Kellie Graham is trialling digital irrigation scheduling supported by integrated soil probes, weather stations, and data platforms, such as SWAN Systems and Wildeye® supported by the team at Ag Logic. Drone-based monitoring complements traditional vineyard scouting, providing real-time feedback on vine stress. The technology is conserving precious water resources, reducing labour costs and improving wine quality, although yield and profitability benefits will take time to quantify.
Take-home
Sustainable viticulture begins below ground. Combining management practices that deliver quality fruit and sustainable land care with precision technology improves both resilience and profitability over time.
Hear from the hosts
Yarra Yering in Victoria grows Shiraz, Chardonnay, Cabernet, Pinot, and Merlot with a strong sustainability focus. Under dryland conditions they use cover crops, composting, waste reduction, and ‘eco-grower’ trials, aiming to boost soil health, conserve water, and reduce herbicides. Future goals include efficiency and autonomous technology adoption.
Livestock: genetics, pastures, and drought readiness
The Lawsons of Paringa Livestock in central Victoria run a stud enterprise that fuses genetics with landscape management. Their approach includes rotational grazing, multispecies cover crops, and waterway protection. Their philosophy is centred around environment and human health. The Lawsons track feed budgets and match stocking rates to available feed, maintaining groundcover and lifting soil organic carbon. Their drought plan includes early weaning, confinement feeding, and strategic destocking. “Plan ahead, act early, and keep learning,” Tom Lawson said.
At Toland Merino, Simon and Anna Toland run a fine wool Merino stud, which includes 2200 ewes, on 650 hectares in a 600mm rainfall region of central Victoria. Adopting containment feeding during the last two low rainfall seasons, they turned off around 750 wether lambs in 2024 and this year are weaning lambs in containment to conserve pastures. Each pen can house 350 lambs, and the Tolands are refining the system with improved troughs, shade, and feeding systems. Focused on wool quality, lambing, and efficiency, they balance pasture reliance with supplementary feed to improve animal management and lamb finishing. Containment is helping them manage pastures and their animals through the dryer seasons.
Nearby, Sevens Creek Wagyu breeds full-blood Wagyu cattle, backgrounding for 9 months before feedlotting for 500–600 days before slaughter. Covid prompted a restaurant venture, balancing carcase segmentation between restaurant and wholesale. Recent droughts forced hand feeding with scarce, alternative feeds. Despite challenges, they’ll maintain stock numbers to meet market and customer demand, continuing strategic feeding for resilience.
In Tasmania, Landfall Angus, established in 1876, runs 3700 breeders using Estimated Breeding Values, genomic testing, Artificial Insemination and Embryo Transfer to accelerate genetic gain. Pasture management is central, with rotational grazing, fodder crops, and trials of virtual fencing technology. Frank Archer sees technology as an enabler rather than a solution: “Virtual fencing gives us flexibility, but it’s our management that makes it work.”
Take-home
Resilient livestock systems are built on anticipation, not reaction. Integrate pasture planning, animal genetics, and business diversification to withstand climatic and market shocks.
Dairy: automation, welfare, and value-adding
At the University of Melbourne’s Dookie Campus in Victoria, a robotic dairy milks 180 cows in a pasture-based system. The success of automation depends on synchronising feed supply with herd behaviour. With an average of 2.6 voluntary milkings per day and 9,100 litres per cow annually, the system is demonstrating high efficiency and animal welfare, but only because data analysis and pasture management are equally precise.
In north-west Tasmania, Duck River Meadows Dairy has transformed a 29-hectare beef property into a robotic dairy that produces high-fat Jersey milk for boutique cheese at La Cantara Artisan Cheese. The farm’s focus on welfare and quality, showcases how value-adding can underpin regional resilience.
The Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture Dairy Centre extends this theme through applied research. The facility conducts systems-based research, with a focus on improving milk production, animal health, and welfare. A significant aim is to enhance the long-term sustainability of the dairy industry by reducing the environmental impact, including nitrogen and fossil fuel use. The facility includes a 50-bay rotary dairy and is part of the larger TIA Farms Upgrade Project, which is a partnership between the Tasmanian Government and the University of Tasmania. By fitting entire herds with virtual fencing collars researchers are linking grazing behaviour, feed allocation, and emissions reduction.
Take-home
Technology enhances efficiency only when management fundamentals are sound. Combining welfare, data, and value-adding strengthens both business and community resilience.
Cropping and mixed farming: diversity as a defence
At Dookie Campus, the Future Drought Fund’s Long-Term Trials (2023–2028) are comparing intensive cropping, mixed farming, and ley pasture systems. Researchers are measuring soil health, greenhouse gas flux, and profitability to test a central hypothesis that diversity builds resilience.
With Tasmanian farmers facing waterlogging in winter and drying summers, local trials are vital. Tasmania’s Southern Farming Systems site at Hagley is applying similar trial principles to a different environment. The research team is working with GRDC to trial break crops, drainage strategies, long-season wheats, and faba beans to improve nitrogen cycling and emissions performance, as well as develop new plant protein markets. “We test what farmers want to know, not what’s convenient to study,” one researcher noted.
Further south, Pastures 365 is part of the national FDF funded Long-Term Trials program, trialling diverse pasture mixes to provide feed 365 days per year. Trials led by the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture explore perennial mixes including phalaris, clovers, lucerne, and herbs to provide year-round feed in the 400 to 500 mm rainfall zone. Supported by the team at Ag Logic with Wildeye® remote monitoring devices, the project allows satellite sites for farmers to replicate treatments on their own land, making research adoption almost immediate.
Ardent Seeds and Tas Global Seeds in Tasmania are driving innovation in drought-hardy pastures, trialling ~70 grass and legume lines and three herbs (chicory, plantain, sheep’s burnet) and even experimenting with biochar-coated seed. This seed company is breeding in Australia to suit Australian environments. Their story shows how diversifying a farming system can create a whole new enterprise.
Take-home
System diversity is the most reliable drought buffer. Mixed species, rotations, and management build both ecological and financial stability.
Horticulture and AgTech: technology with purpose
At Agriculture Victoria’s SmartFarm in Tatura, researchers demonstrated how LiDAR and artificial intelligence are transforming horticulture. High-speed imaging maps tree canopies and detects fruit, buds, and pests. The agrivoltaics trial includes solar panels integrated into pear orchards where notable benefits include reduced water use by up to 30% and lowered sunburn and hail damage, although yield penalties remain under review.
Again, at Dookie Campus, University of Melbourne researchers demonstrated the second year of a ‘vitivoltaics’ system installed over a research vineyard. This project was a particular drawcard, having expanded into a cross-Hub collaboration funded by AgriFutures. The initiative now includes an additional research site at the University of Adelaide (with a select project group who also flew in to join the Dookie site tour) and another established on a commercial vineyard in the Perth Hills of Western Australia. The project illustrates the benefits of the national Drought Hub network, with similar structures trialled over comparable systems in differing environments and operating contexts, and with the University of Tasmania contributing advanced modelling expertise. In its first year, the project has already demonstrated improved fruit quality, particularly through retained acidity.
In Tasmania’s Tamar Valley, Hillwood Berries operates 50 hectares of hydroponic strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, achieving 95% first-grade fruit. Transitioning from soil to raised beds solved disease and labour challenges. Investments in automation, nano-bubble irrigation, and UV-C treatment improved both productivity and worker safety. As manager Simon Dornauf said, “We invest in impact, not hype.”
Take-home
Smart technology pays when it solves real problems including labour, water, and safety, not when it merely looks innovative. The goal is resilient, efficient systems, not gadgetry.
Processing and market innovation
At Greenham Tasmania, Australia’s third-largest beef processor, sustainability is being operationalised. Its three-tier Beef Sustainability Standard rewards producers for measurable emissions and welfare outcomes. Early trials indicate that beef-on-dairy systems emit nearly 90% less greenhouse gases than beef-on-beef production.
Western Plains Beef, a long-standing supplier to Greenham, exemplifies how partnerships translate to profit. Through rotational grazing and soil health management, the Bruce family achieved premiums of 10c/kg for Tier 2 – 3 sustainability standards under Greenham’s sustainability program.
Nearby, Forager Foods demonstrates how technology extends resilience beyond the farm gate. Using energy-efficient freeze-drying, the company converts fruit, vegetables, offal, and even seaweed into high-value products while retaining up to 95% of nutritional value. Diversification into the global nutraceutical market illustrates how regional industries can capture more of the value chain.
Take-home
Market alignment is now a resilience strategy. Sustainability standards and traceability are not compliance exercises; they are tickets to premium markets and stronger partnerships.
Community resilience: the human dimension
Fiona Bradshaw of the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR) outlined the $36 million expansion of the Future Drought Fund’s Communities Program to 2029, supporting locally designed projects that build leadership and community capacity. Delivered in partnership with the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation, the program underscores that technical adaptation must be matched by social resilience.
Sharing her story from King Island, dairy farmer Steph Ellis offered a candid reflection on the human side of drought. “Year one was survival; year two was resilience,” she said. Her account reinforced that preparedness includes mental health, planning, and the courage to act early. The role of community and coming together in tough times was also a strong feature to their success.
Take-home
Resilience is as much about people as production. Mental health, clear planning, and community support turn hardship into adaptation.
The value of the national Drought Hub network
The study tour highlighted the unique value of the Future Drought Fund’s national Drought Hub network with an ecosystem connecting researchers, farmers, businesses, and communities across Australia’s climate zones.
This network enables each Hub to act as both translator and broker with core expertise in turning research into practice and connecting local insights with national policy. For the SW WA Hub, collaborating with the Victorian and Tasmanian Hubs opened doors to expertise, contacts, and practical demonstrations that would have taken years to build independently.
The model’s strength lies in its people. Effective Hubs are powered by skilled facilitators who can bridge disciplines and geographies, build trust and enable shared learning. They make research accessible, support adoption, and amplify community impact.
This is the Future Drought Fund’s true innovation: not a single technology or dataset, but a national network of relationships and knowledge that multiplies resilience. By sharing staff, ideas, and tools, the network creates “force multipliers” that help regions learn from each other in real time.
Take-home
Take-home for farmers and researchers: Belonging to a network accelerates progress. Collaboration across regions and sectors shortens the distance between good ideas and on-ground change.
Reflections
“Was beneficial seeing different farming systems and how different farmers respond to the changing climate.”
Participants collectively identified common and recurring themes through their comments beyond geography or enterprise type. Including:
- Curiosity and collaboration underpin resilience. High-performing farmers everywhere share an appetite for experimentation and learning.
- Technology is not a substitute for management. Tools such as probes, robots, or virtual fencing succeed only when coupled with strong business fundamentals.
- Data must inform timely action. The value lies not in measurement but in enhanced decision-making.
- Soil health remains a key area of focus. Farmers who invest in soil resilience build drought buffers and productivity dividends simultaneously.
- Diversity, both biological and economic, is the ultimate hedge. Farms that balance crops, livestock, and value-added enterprises show the greatest adaptability.
- Community matters. Peer learning and social connection sustain people through the psychological and logistical pressures of drought.
Participants also identified more specific practice changes. The Hub surveyed the WA participants. Ten of eleven either agreed or strongly agreed that they were likely to make a practice change or consider making a practice change; one (non-farmer) neither agreed nor disagreed.
The possible practice changes noted are summarised below:
| Occupation | Possible practice changes |
|---|---|
| Farmer | Greater emphasis on real-time (based on up-to-date records) farm assurance |
| Farmer | Soil moisture probes; Virtual fencing; Electronic mechanics; Value-adding produce; Perennials pastures; Fodder cropping (barley for silage); Maximising ground cover |
| Non-farmer (agronomist) | Improve pasture on farm. Strive for efficiency/yield. Graze effectively. 3 leaf ryegrass. Improve yards |
| Farmer | Grow more perennial ryegrass |
| Non-farmer (innovator) | Encouraged greater systems thinking. Also reinforced that technology won’t of itself improve your farming operation if you don’t have the fundamentals right to start with. |
| Farmer | Possibly utilising more tech in my office and records keeping. |
| Farmer | Further strategies around drought-proofing my property. Labour management systems. |
| Farmer | Planning measuring and monitoring to reach sustainability goals |
| Farmer | Look further into irrigation and various perennial options |
These findings reinforce the importance of long-term, place-based facilitation central to the kind of work supported by the Future Drought Fund and embodied by the Drought Hub network. The study tour also underscored the central role of demonstration farms as “living laboratories” where innovation, research, and farmer experience converge.
Take-home
Critically, resilience is cultivated over time – through practice, partnership, and purpose. For researchers and policymakers, the lesson is clear: continue to invest in connection, not just technology.
Conclusion
The SW WA Hub’s 2025 study tour highlighted that resilience is not a single practice or technology – it’s a system approach. From the vineyards of the Yarra Valley to the dairies of Smithton, farmers and researchers are innovating, adapting and sharing lessons.
The power of local networks helps connect people with new knowledge, technologies and practices. These networks however are not successful by themselves, they require brokers or facilitators with an ability and the resources to support and enable them. The Future Drought Fund network of Drought Hubs is playing a significant role both at a local and national level with the translation of research, knowledge and information to build resilience to drought and a changing climate, and the opportunities for collaboration.
As climate variability increases, the collective efforts of producers, researchers, government and communities will ensure agriculture not only survives but thrives.
Acknowledgements
The South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub acknowledges the generosity of all farmers, researchers, and agribusiness representatives who hosted and contributed to this study tour across Victoria and Tasmania.
Sincere thanks to the Victorian and Tasmanian Drought Hubs for their coordination, expertise, and hospitality, and to all participants whose insights and reflections enriched the journey.
The study tour was organised by the South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub with support from the Victorian and Tasmanian Drought Hubs, funded through the Future Drought Fund (Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry).
