• Download report PDF

  Download

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 31 December 2023.

Deaths

During the period 1 January to 31 December 2023, a total of 32 on-farm deaths were reported. In the corresponding period for 2022, there were 55 cases.

Since 2001, 1,742 people have lost their life on a farm due to non-intentional injury in Australia. Of these, 1,511 cases (86.7%) have been finalised and ‘closed’ by a coroner. Persons in the 50+ years category (n=884) accounted for 50.7% of all reported incidents. Children under 15 years were present in 244 cases (14%). Males were involved in 1,535 cases (88.1%). Tractors (n=276) and quads (n=219) are the leading agents causing fatal injury since 2001.

Injuries

An additional 122 non-fatal on-farm injury events were reported in the Australian media for the current reporting period. Fifteen (12.3%) of the injury events involved children aged under 15 years. Quads (n=35) were the leading cause of injury. These incidents were followed by horses (n=21), cattle (n=13), motorbikes (n=10) and tractors (n=9). These five agents (n=88) accounted for more than 72% of all incidents reported. More than 86% of the incidents occurred in Queensland and New South Wales.