Funded by Federation University, the research took place between February and June this year, confidentially interviewing 17 people.
In speaking to a community cross-section audience at her presentation, Dr Tischler said mental health needed to be considered as a social change impact.
“It’s about pressure and expectations, it’s not a failure of individual coping skills,” she said.
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“We’re doing this work with an understanding of the values that people hold, the things that are important and precious to them, and how that is being challenged by the changes that we are seeing, which are structural in our communities.
“There are different views in these spaces, but I encourage everyone to approach things with curiosity and an intent to understand where people are coming from.”
Dr Tischler said the research reinforced the impact of current issues of mental health, and the divide the energy and mining developments were causing in the farming community.
“People were feeling impacts of being in a close community – you have differences of opinion with people, but you still have to see them down the street,” she said.
“The feeling that we’re all together in one boat is certainly under strain.
“People are making different choices from each other, and there’s pressure, resistance, and expectations that aren’t shared across the community.
“And what I think is important, is that ideas of community and what community means, is changing rapidly.
“We’re becoming more issues-based rather than based on geography. We used to think about our communities as place, now we’re starting to think about communities as issues.”
Dr Tischler said the farmers surveyed had a strong sense of self around the right to farm, and that farming was an important industry, both nationally and internationally.
“A lot of the farmers did not see themselves as energy producers or miners,” she said.
“Some people see agriculture as – I’ll sort of call this purism – we see agriculture as we must resist different ways of doing things on farm because this is the right way forward to protect agriculture. I’m not saying that’s necessarily the wrong way of thinking, I’m just saying that we’re getting a bit of a split – some people are strongly focused on agriculture and agriculture cannot operate alongside other things.”
Dr Tischler said several study participants were fifth or sixth-generation farmers whose children looked to continue farming, and their feelings of connection was among the strongest points, as well as net zero, hosting infrastructure for other people and balancing energy production and mining.
“Farmers have a whole range of expectations for their community, which is based on other experiences, which now isn’t playing out quite as expected,” she said.
“We’ve actually got a really contested understanding of community, and relationships in the farming community are changing as farms get bigger.”
The study found potential solutions to reducing the stress on farmers and the local community included: validating emotional responses and prioritising community; strengthening legislative and policy protections for agriculture and farmer wellbeing; improving confidence and security around decommissioning and rehabilitation; inclusion of agricultural and socio-cultural impacts in future planning processes; introducing geographic and cumulative impact analysis into project assessment; and better analysis of benefits needed by specific communities.
Dr Tischler said she hoped the study would highlight the experiences not picked up in reports such as Environmental Effects Statements.
“This is not about someone’s inability to cope with something that’s happening to them,” she said.
“It’s about understanding that this is a structural change that’s happening. We’ve got to look differently at this problem. Politics and policy change all the time, but culture perseveres.
“I encourage us to think a bit more about how our values hold us together and what we can do to ease some of the pressure and what we need to hold close to us and protect from change.
“I think there’s a lot of interest in doing more in this space.”
People can request a copy of the report from Dr Tischler by emailing horshamresearchhub@federation.edu.au.
VFF response
Victorian Farmers Federation president Brett Hosking said the findings about mental health, rural solidarity being under strain, farmers losing their identity and role, strong family connections to the land, and farmers being proud stewards of the environment, were a stark reminder of the hidden challenges farmers faced in the wake of accelerating land-use conflicts.
“So often we hear about the visual impacts of these energy and mining developments, but we can’t dismiss the hidden strain on communities and farmers’ mental health,” he said.
“It’s incredibly daunting when these huge corporations backed by our government streamroll onto your farm and wave a compulsory access notice at you threatening to remove your most valuable resource, without first taking the time to talk.”
Mr Hosking said statistics showed an Australian farmer died by suicide every 10 days – more than twice the rate of other working Australians.
“This independent academic assessment confirms what communities and the VFF have been saying,” he said.
“It should sound alarm bells that this crash or crash-through approach is having deep human and community impacts.
“So much tragedy and stress could be avoided if the process was flipped on its head and the community and farmers were genuinely consulted from the beginning.
“We need to urgently increase mental health services in these communities to provide much-needed support.”
Anyone who needs help can call Lifeline on 13 11 14; Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636; or visit ifarmwell at ifarmwell.com.au/farmer-friendly-mental-health-resources or Farmer Health Support Hub at farmerhealth.org.au/support-hub.
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