Australia’s top 25 richest grain growing regions

Moree Plains has been confirmed as Australia’s richest grain region, while the little-known Victorian shire of Yarriambiack has taken out second place. See the full list.

Moree Plains has topped the list of Australia’s richest grain growing regions in 2020-21, which includes shires in NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland. Picture: CBH Group.

Moree Plains has been confirmed as Australia’s richest grain producing region, while the little-known Victorian shire of Yarriambiack has lentils to thank for taking out second place on the list.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show grains production in Moree Plains was worth $915 million in 2020-21 – the most of any local government area in Australia.

Moree Plains is known as the Golden Wheatbelt, and boasts some of the world’s richest black soil.

According to ABS data, Moree Plains produced 1.4 million tonnes of wheat, 751,000 tonnes of barley, 184,000 tonnes of chick peas, 45,000 tonnes of sorghum, and 15,000 tonnes of canola in 2020-21.

NSW Farmers vice president and Moree mixed farmer Rebecca Reardon said the region’s bumper crop had come following a three year drought, and she expected the value of the 2021 harvest to be even higher.

While it wasn’t surprising that Moree had topped the list of richest broadacre cropping regions, Ms Reardon said the numbers confirmed the need for more government investment in infrastructure.

“In Moree, there is 2840km of roads. 32 per cent of that is sealed, so the other 68 per cent is unsealed. We have black soils, which you can’t drive on when they are wet. It is a real problem to getting our produce out and the governments need to start investing in it,” Ms Reardon said.

NSW Regional Transport and Roads Minister Sam Farraway was contacted for comment.

Lentils drove high income for the council area of Yarriambiack in Victoria in 2020-21. Grower Tom Hewitt says a lot of farmers have taken up planting the crop in recent years. Photo: Greg Scullin

Of the top 25 shires according to the ABS data, five were in Victoria, 11 in NSW, six were in Queensland and three in Western Australia.

In second place according to the data was Yarriambiack shire in Victoria’s Wimmera region, which brought in receipts worth $511 million.

The most valuable crop in Yarriambiack was lentils, which brought in $149 million, followed by wheat at $148 million, barley at $123 million and canola at $50 million.

Grain grower Tom Hewitt, who farms at Areegra, east of Warrack­nabeal, said there had been a big shift toward growing lentils in the region in recent years.

“Even some of the more conventional farmers are growing lentils now. There’s been a big shift,” he said.

Mr Hewitt, who grows 1000ha of lentils, 1000ha of wheat, 550ha canola, 400ha of barley, said the last three years had been really good years for growers in the area.

Overall NSW produced $7.7 billion of grain, Western Australia $5.8 billion, Victoria $3.5 billion, Queensland $3.1 billion and South Australia $2.6 billion.

Grain Producers Australia southern region director and Wimmera grain grower Andrew Weidemann said the 2020-21 season had been a “pretty solid year for Victoria”, but he expected the 2022 season to be the most valuable of his farming career.

“Year on year, we’re definitely going to see another increase next year on value here in Victoria. The value of canola and the value of pulses has been in the top decile over the last decade.”