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Can Australian farming survive climate change and is there a role for Australian farmers to help mend the damage of salinity and desertification?  In the age of industrial scale farming, is traditional farming a lost cause - a sentimental fantasy?

These are the important problems and questions that farmer, author and activist Patrice Newell will address in the 2008 Karrakatta Lecture at The University of Western Australia next Monday 7 July 2008.

After careers as a model and television presenter, Patrice Newell left the big city and joined partner Phillip Adams in buying Elmswood, a historic property in the Upper Hunter, and became a full-time land manager.  Her experiences were narrated in her best-selling book "The Olive Grove".

She has been battling drought and environmental disaster for over twenty years.  Her first hand experience of Australia's agricultural crisis will be the basis of her insightful lecture.

The Karrakatta Club Lecture is held every year in association with UWA's Institute of Advanced Studies.  Founded in Perth in 1894, the Karrakatta Club was the first women's club in Australia.

WHAT:           Karrakatta Club Lecture

WHEN:           6pm, Monday 7 July, 2008

WHERE:        Social Sciences Lecture Theatre (Faculty of Arts Building).  Enter UWA from Hackett Entrance 1.

Media references

Audrey Barton (Institute of Advanced Studies)  (+61 8) 6488 4797
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8) 6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716