With balloons needing open space to take off and land, the spread of crops through the Avon Valley is leaving landing sites increasingly limited.<\/p>\n
Liberty Balloon Flights director and chief pilot Nick Brau said the number of available paddocks had shrunk dramatically over the past three years.<\/p>\n
He estimated 95 per cent of their key landing locations were now under crop.<\/p>\n
“Especially this last season, we just noticed a very big percentage of fields that used to be grazing land are now in crop,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It has become a real worry and the trend has happened very quickly.”<\/p>\n
Balloon flights take off and land on farming properties. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Ashleigh Davis)<\/p>\n
Mr Brau said two landings on crops, for safety reasons, had occurred in the past season, which was something he had never previously experienced.<\/p>\n
“We try to avoid it as much as we can, but if safety requires that we do land, we will,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Obviously we try to minimise any damage … as much as we can; it really is a worry.”<\/p>\n
Other locations suitable for ballooning were too far from Perth to attract passengers, with the valley’s proximity to the city critical, Mr Brau said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Avon Valley has hosted international ballooning events due to its favourable conditions. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Eliza Bidstrup)<\/p>\n
Live export ban impact<\/p>\n
WA Farmers president Steve McGuire said the looming live sheep export ban was influencing the industry shift to crops.<\/p>\n
“We’ve seen about a third of the sheep going out of the system, which is probably three to four million sheep over a couple of years,” Mr McGuire said.<\/p>\n
“It is believed that this year is the biggest acreage put into crop that WA has ever seen.<\/p>\n
“There’s not really more people getting into cropping \u2026 it’s just farmers putting more crop in for themselves.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Steve McGuire says the live export ban is pushing people to put their land under crop. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n
Figures highlight expansion<\/p>\n
Data from the Grain Industry Association of WA (GIWA) shows 9.2 million hectares of land currently under crop in the state, compared to 8.28 million hectares in 2019.<\/p>\n
GIWA crop author and grower Michael Lamond said the Northam shire had seen a 30 per cent drop in pasture properties since 2019.<\/p>\n
Having once had balloons land in his horse paddock, he said he anticipated the challenges for pilots to continue.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Grain Industry Association of WA says about 9.2 million hectares are under crop. (ABC South West: Kate Forrester)<\/p>\n
“The thing about hot air ballooning is when they land, they have a basket and the balloon comes down and flattens the crop,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s not necessarily fatal early in the year, but as you get closer to harvest, if you damage the crop and push it over, it doesn’t recover.”<\/p>\n
The phase out of live sheep exports would likely make the transition to cropping permanent, Mr Lamond said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
People travel to Northam specifically for hot air ballooning. (Supplied: Angie Roe Photography)<\/p>\n
Tourism concerns<\/p>\n
With hot air ballooning a major winter tourism drawcard, Northam shire president Chris Antonio said the lack of landing spots was concerning.<\/p>\n
“We’re just having a watch and wait approach,” he said.<\/p>\n
“At this stage there appears to be enough [landing area] but much more pressure, it probably would put it at risk, which would put the whole industry at risk.”<\/p>\n
Mr Antonio said the shire was working with balloon companies to identify possible landing areas and establish relationships with other landholders in the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The move from sheep to grain by a growing number of West Australian farmers is causing an unexpected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,103923,103921,99,103917,103919,103920,103924,103918,45,103922,85052],"class_list":{"0":"post-155824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-avon-valley-attractions","11":"tag-avon-valley-balloons","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-hot-air-balloon","14":"tag-live-sheep-ban","15":"tag-live-sheep-exports","16":"tag-live-sheep-transitions","17":"tag-northam-balloons","18":"tag-wa-news","19":"tag-wa-tourism","20":"tag-wheatbelt-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}