Australian farmland prices have doubled in the past decade. Is it time to put the ‘poor farmer’ narrative to bed?

Sheep graze on a recently harvested wheat field near Wagga Wagga. ‘In the past 30 years, the economics picture of regional Australia has changed markedly.’ Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Fig season is upon us so I spend the golden hour shooing the cockatoos away from the delicate purple fruit ripening in the hot autumn sun.

I discovered fresh figs when I moved to the farm in the mid-1990s. It was about the same time as a young politician called Pauline Hanson was causing a stir and farmers were being whipped into hysteria in the post-Mabo phase.