Hawkesbury harvest - a multifunctional agriculture model for regional rural development

Across Australia there is growing policy emphasis on developing the resilience capacity of farmers, farming families and rural communities to deal with increasing climate and economic variability and uncertainty. Innovative ideas and concepts arise out of concern for the future of things people think is important to their quality of life. One such concept that has been developing as part of Sydney's landuse and food culture is Hawkesbury Harvest. Hawkesbury Harvest, which began in 2000 as a raw agritourism product, offering 13 destinations in the Hawkesbury Shire, has been evolving as a multifunctional agriculture development mechanism that now extends right around the Sydney Basin and down into the Illawarra region. This paper proposes that the Hawkesbury Harvest model has something to offer to rural NSW for developing resilience capacity. This is being recognised and is currently being acted upon by Regional Development Australia Southern Inland.