Surviving and thriving on Wilpoorinna Station in South Australia’s northern outback demands total independence.
Over five decades of running livestock across this country, my family has learned that keeping a pastoral business alive means embracing change, especially technological leaps that previous generations couldn’t have imagined.
Forty years ago, we relied on a wire “party line” strung between wooden posts for phone calls. Today, each of our vehicles has a Starlink connection, and satellite messaging keeps us connected in every corner of the station, proving how fast technology reshapes what’s possible out here.
Electrification offers Australian agriculture a huge opportunity to gain real control over our production costs.
As farmers, we cannot control the weather, and most of us certainly can’t control global oil and diesel prices. But we can take charge of our power.
Since we are way off-grid, we relied on diesel generators for power, and before 2017 we turned them off every night.
Today, after installing subsidised solar panels across all our sheds and batteries to capture the energy, we have 24-hour power and save tens of thousands of dollars every year. The diesel generators are still there for backup, but we rarely need them.
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s battery rebates were a huge help in making that switch, proving that targeted policy support delivers genuine financial returns for regional producers.
Replacing our diesel water pumps with solar-powered pumps and installing water telemetry – which reduces how often we must drive out to check watering points – has decreased our exposure to diesel price hikes, currently driven by conflict in the Middle East.
Despite these proven savings, whenever people discuss electrifying agriculture, critics immediately point to the current limitations in heavy machinery batteries.
Fixating on large machinery is missing the point. The 2026 harvest won’t be fully electric, but electrification starts small and builds momentum. Just look at our workshop, where nobody changes a tyre without a battery-powered Milwaukee tool anymore.
We need government policy frameworks and support today so future harvests depend less on volatile diesel.
Furthermore, practical electric alternatives already exist right now across the agricultural sector. Irrigation pumps account for 25 to 35 per cent of on-farm diesel use in cropping and cotton regions, and there are cost-effective electric alternatives available today.
Efficient electric options are also ready for refrigeration, processing, hot water, and stationary power, running seamlessly off solar and battery systems farmers are already installing.
As input costs like diesel and fertiliser climb, technology allows us pastoralists to maintain the margins we need to stay in business.
It is a pastoralist’s dream to run machinery and vehicles with lower servicing costs, fewer moving parts, and minimal maintenance. When technology reaches the point where larger farming machinery and vehicles are fully electric and affordable, Australian farmers will grab the opportunity to upgrade with open arms.
However, outdated rules and regulatory barriers are also holding us back. Right now, a farmer can’t share solar power generated on one title with a shed or pump next door if it sits under a separate title, even under the same ownership. Liquid fuel faces no such artificial barrier, and governments can fix this rule overnight.
This is why the Electrify Australia campaign, launched on 14 September at Parliament House in Canberra by a coalition of leading consumer, business, civil society and research organisations, is so vital. It brings a clear, unified message to Canberra about what regional communities and farmers need from our leaders.
To unlock agriculture’s potential, Australian federal and state governments need to deliver a dedicated Electrified Farming program to accelerate the switch to electric machinery and equipment where alternatives are already available.
Governments should support the installation of electrified farm equipment by expanding proven models like the On Farm Connectivity Program, or a similar funding model.
We also need regulatory reforms to level the playing field between electricity and increasingly expensive diesel, through a comprehensive review and reform of network tariffs, metering, and connection rules.
Finally, we need funding for an Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) style cluster demonstration across 20 to 30 farms in a single irrigation district to prove scale and build industry confidence.
The switching to rooftop solar, batteries and electric equipment is already underway across the country.
Giving primary producers the tools and control to store, share, and use their own power will strengthen the resilience of Australian agriculture for generations.
It is time for governments to back regional Australia and let us get on with electrifying our properties.
Ellen Litchfield is a South Australian pastoralist, veterinarian and the Program Manager for Climate & Nature Agri-Leaders at Farmers for Climate Action. Ellen and her husband live on the family property in the arid lands of northern South Australia near Lake Eyre where they run cattle and sheep on the pastoral rangelands.
