Farm deaths: National toll hits 41, Queensland tops list of lives lost

Dozens of farming families will be spending Christmas without fathers, sons and brothers who lost their lives in farm accidents this year.

Failing to wear a helmet and fit quad bikes with roll bars puts farmers and their families lives in danger. File picture. Picture: Andy Rogers

Dozens of farming families from across the nation are spending this Christmas without fathers, sons and brothers who lost their lives in farm accidents this year.

Just last week a 47-year-old father of four (check) was killed in a hay baler accident on the family’s Swan Marsh property in southwest Victoria.

WorkSafe reported “it is understood the man’s arm was caught and dragged into the machine”.

CFA volunteer and family friend Mark Billing, who was first on the scene, said “for me it’s a tragic thing to happen, doubly so leading into Christmas.

“It’s a clear reminder of the risks and dangers of agriculture that we need to keep front of mind. He was a well-known and good farmer.”

Just last month a 55-year-old weed spraying contractor suffered fatal head injuries after he and his passenger were ejected from a side-by-side vehicle that tipped backwards as they drove up a steep hill at a She Oaks farm, southeast of Meredith.

The recent accidents bring the number of farm workplace fatalities in Victoria to seven for the year, with AgHealth Australia’s preliminary estimate for the total national farm death toll at 41, based on media reports that are yet to be cross-referenced against coronial records.

Of those deaths AgHealth spokesman Tony Lower said 18 occurred in Queensland, involving rollovers, runovers, plus one helicopter and a gyrocopter accident. Another eight people died on NSW farms.

Across the entire nation quadbikes, side-by-side vehicles and tractors each claimed seven lives.

Almost 90 per cent of fatal accidents involved men, with three children among the 41 victims.

Mr Billing said farm accidents were obviously tragic for families, but were also hard on local communities.

As a community leader and United Dairyfarmers of Victoria vice-president, Mr Billing urged all farmers to not only look after themselves this Christmas and New Year, but to keep a close eye on family and friends.

“You have to be mindful of family and visitors, (especially) with kids at home in the workplace,” he said.

WorkSafe reported four of the seven Victorian farm deaths in 2021 involved the operation or maintenance of farm vehicles or machinery, one as a result of a fall, one as a result of being hit by an object and one involving livestock.

In 2020 there were nine deaths as a result of on-farm workplace incidents in Victoria.