One Australian Dies on a Farm Every Six Days. Experts Say It's Not the Biggest Risks That Are Costing

Australians often picture farm accidents as dramatic, unpredictable events involving heavy machinery, livestock or extreme weather.

But according to new national research, it's often the ordinary jobs, familiar routines and everyday shortcuts that prove the most dangerous.

Ahead of National Farm Safety Week, Farmsafe Australia has released the 2026 Safer Farms Report, revealing 61 lives were lost on Australian farms in 2025, while a further 1,330 people were seriously injured. It marks the seventh consecutive year more than one person has died on a farm every week in Australia. 

The figures are sobering, but according to Farmsafe Australia Chair Felicity Richards, they don't tell the whole story.

"The reality is that most incidents don't happen because people don't care about safety," Ms Richards said.

"They happen during routine jobs, busy periods and moments of pressure when familiarity leads people to believe they'll be fine because they've done it hundreds of times before."

It's a pattern recognised across Australian agriculture.

Whether it's driving across a paddock without fastening a seatbelt, skipping a helmet because it's only a short trip, or pushing through fatigue to beat the weather, many of the behaviours that lead to serious incidents begin as seemingly harmless shortcuts.

"The risky moments rarely feel risky," Ms Richards said.

"That's why they catch people out."

The report has prompted Farmsafe Australia to focus on something fundamental: culture.

This year's National Farm Safety Week campaign, Set the Standard: Show 'Em How It's Done’, is built around a simple premise that the behaviours farmers demonstrate everyday influence everyone around them, from family members and employees to contractors and the next generation entering agriculture. 

Across the country, that message is echoed by farmers from vastly different industries.

On a poultry farm in New South Wales, operations manager Brad Vinecombe says a near miss forced him to completely rethink the habits he'd accepted throughout his career.

"It made me realise I'd taken safety for granted," he said.

"Now I've got a young family waiting for me at home, I look at every job differently."

In Queensland, bull handler Sophie Halliday believes the simplest habits often have the biggest impact.

"When you're working with livestock, you can't assume today will be the same as yesterday," she said.

"It's the everyday things, wearing your helmet, putting on your seatbelt and staying switched on, that make the difference."

Tasmanian sheep producer Josie Chester has another perspective.

For her, farm safety starts long before anyone receives formal training.

"Children copy what they see," she said.

"If we want young people to value safety, we have to demonstrate it ourselves every single day."

Meanwhile, New South Wales cotton grower Gavin Dal Broi believes agriculture must challenge the long-held belief that working longer, pushing harder and ignoring fatigue are signs of commitment.

"We wear fatigue like a badge of honour," he said.

"But sometimes the safest thing you can do is slow down."

For cattle producer Katie Saul, paperwork alone won't create safer farms.

"People don't follow procedures because they're written in a folder," she said.

"They follow what leaders demonstrate every day."

Despite representing different sectors and different states, all six Safer Farmers Ambassadors arrived at the same conclusion.

Culture isn't built through policies alone.

It's built through thousands of small decisions that people see repeated every day.

Ms Richards believes that's where the industry's greatest opportunity lies.

"Australian farmers are incredibly resilient people," she said.

"They solve problems every day and they care deeply about their families, workers and communities."

"But safety culture isn't built by telling people to be more careful.

"It's built when someone chooses to buckle a seatbelt, wear a helmet, stop and reassess a job, or has the confidence to speak up when something doesn't feel right."

With tractors, quad bikes and side-by-side vehicles continuing to feature prominently in farm fatalities, Farmsafe Australia says practical actions such as using rollover protection, reducing speed, wearing appropriate protective equipment and managing fatigue remain among the most effective ways to reduce serious injuries. 

For Ms Richards, however, the conversation extends beyond equipment.

"It's about recognising that every person on a farm is setting an example," she said.

"Whether we realise it or not, people are watching how we approach a task, how we respond under pressure and what we choose to walk past."

"The standards we demonstrate today become the standards others accept tomorrow."

As National Farm Safety Week begins, Farmsafe Australia is encouraging every person working in agriculture to ask themselves one simple question:

If someone learned how to farm by watching you today, what would they learn?