The Alexandrina Council Rural Areas Strategy & Action Plan
Primary Production in the Fleurieu Peninsula yields $526 million annually to the South Australian economy. One in six of all jobs on the Fleurieu Peninsula is provided in agricultural production and processing, with farm incomes and wages paid to farm workers providing a direct flow-on benefit to local businesses and services. Without the contribution of farmers, their families and employees to sporting clubs, churches and emergency services, the social life and community fabric of many Fleurieu townships would not survive.
Farmers are also stewards of the natural resources that sustain primary production and custodians of the landscape that provides the rural amenity sought by residents and visitors. Yet, many farmers in the Alexandrina Council area can feel as though their contribution is not valued and even that they are unwelcome because the impacts of their farming operations cause conflicts with the new residents drawn to the area for a quiet rural life.
This Strategy is an acknowledgement of farming as an integral part of the Alexandrina Council area and farmers as valued contributors to our community. The conversion of farming properties to rural living allotments can result in conflicts between neighbours and restriction of the farmer's reasonable “right to farm” their land. In the absence of “Right to Farm” legislation, this strategy also establishes a foundation for a Rural Areas Development Plan Amendment that will protect farming activities through statutory planning policy.
This strategy does not seek to diminish the role land uses other than farming in the rural parts of Alexandrina Council, including tourism, rural living, mining, transport services and agricultural support services. Rather, it strives to understand how the relationship between them might best be managed to ensure that farming operations are not adversely affected.