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AgHealth Australia has been leading research into deaths and injuries on farm since 2004, providing the most comprehensive evidence on which to build prevention approaches to enhance the safety and wellbeing of people in Australian agriculture. Australian print and online media monitoring provides an avenue to highlight the prevalence of farm injury in a timely manner. This report focuses on injury events that occurred from 1 January to 30 June 2022.

During the period 1 January to 30 June 2022, a total of 21 on-farm deaths were reported. Quads (n=4) were reported most frequently as the agent of injury causing death. Of the total number of cases, males were involved in 19 (90.5%). In the corresponding period for 2021, there were 20 cases. 

An additional 58 non-fatal on-farm injury events were reported in the Australian media for the current reporting period. Seven (12.1%) of the injury events involved children aged under 15 years. Quads (n=9) were the leading cause of injury. These incidents were followed by horses (n=8), tractors (n=5), motorbikes (n=5) and side by sides (n=5). These five agents (n=32) accounted for more than 55% of all incidents reported. More than 55% of the incidents occurred in New South Wales.

Since 2001, 1,651 people have lost their life on a farm due to non-intentional injury in Australia. Of these, 1,454 cases (88.1%) have been finalised and ‘closed’ by a coroner. Persons in the 50+ years category (n=887) accounted for 53.7% of all reported incidents. Children under 15 years were present in 237 cases (14.4%). Males were involved in 1,457 cases (88.2%). Tractors (n=262) and quads (n=208) are the leading agents causing fatal injury since 2001.