Sustainable Living Armidale (SLA), part of the international Transition Movement, invited several older people to share their memories of what was grown in the area, how food was marketed, and spoke about local enterprises.

Rosemary Lucas painted a lively picture of life on the farm early in the 20th century, highlighting self-sufficiency, exchange between neighbours, learning through junior farmers’ clubs, producer-vendor milkmen, and the importance of agricultural shows.

The village of Dumaresq flourished, with three freight trains a day carrying produce to the Brisbane markets.

John Williams told of using cow and sheep manure to maintain the soil for growing a range of vegetables, and his life as a boy packing cherries for the Brisbane market.

“We can do the same things again if we have to,” he said.

Many people were interested in the wide range of local crops. Wheat was grown throughout the region and there were four flour mills, until trains brought in cheaper flour from South Australia.

Many crops were grown, including peas, beans, sunflowers, potatoes, corn, carrots, pumpkins, cabbage, cauliflower, parsnips, turnips and there were many orchards.

Historian Graham Wilson told of the local brewery, closed after Tooth’s and Toohey’s lobbied the government for cheap rail freight. There was a cordial factory established, partly in response to poor quality town water, and factories for butter and soap as well as a tannery.

Speakers emphasised the rapid transition from local production and distribution, with considerable household self-sufficiency and neighbourly support, in the early to mid-20th century, to the situation today, where food distribution is dominated by the two main supermarkets, and most consumers expect year-round choice of all foods.

Turning to the future of local food, the forum heard from Robert Gasparre, who organises the twice-monthly Armidale Farmers’ Market which started in November and is growing rapidly, with local producers able to expand their production with the opportunity to sell directly to the consumer. Members of Armidale Local Food (ALF), a sub-group of SLA, spoke about the potential for community-supported agriculture schemes, where a group of town people buy into a farm project in return for produce at harvest, sharing the risks along with the harvest.