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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 between 1 January and 30 June 2024.

Deaths

During the period 1 January to 30 June 2024, a total of 31 on-farm deaths were reported. In the corresponding period for 2023, there were 20 cases.

Since 2001, 1,774 people have lost their life on a farm due to non-intentional injury in Australia. Of these, 1,538 cases (86.7%) have been finalised and ‘closed’ by a coroner. Children under 15 years were present in 246 cases (14%). Persons in the 50+ years category (n=902) accounted for 50.8% of all reported incidents. Males were involved in 1,568 cases (88.4%). Tractors (n=283) and quads (n=227) are the leading agents causing fatal injury since 2001.

Injuries

An additional 78 non-fatal on-farm injury events were reported in Australian media for the reporting period. Thirteen (17%) of the injury events involved children aged under 15 years. Quads (n=35) were the leading cause of injury. These incidents were followed by cattle (n=8), horses (n=8), motorbikes (n=6) and tractors (n=5). These five agents (n=62) accounted for more than 79% of all incidents reported. More than 83% of the incidents occurred in Queensland and New South Wales.