The rural land market in Australia is a very complex property market. This complexity is not limited to the volatility of the returns in the rural land market, but also those factors that influence the change inland prices within specific rural property markets. Rural land returns – over the period 1975-1996, there has been higher than the returns achieved from residential and commercial real estate in respective rural areas: traditional farming areas have not provided the same level of returns as developing and marginal farming areas. Economic and financial factors and rural land prices – there is significant correlation between rural land price trends in adjoining areas with similar land use and level of farming development: as the distance between specific rural area increases the correlation between changes in land price decreases. Modelling rural land values – relationship between change in rural land prices and the change in economic factors is more significant in the developing and marginal cropping areas compared to the traditional cropping areas: there is a more significant association between rural land prices and rural economic factors when the economic factors are lagged, rather than contemporaneous. Rural property and valuation implications – rural land sales in one location are generally not an accurate measure of changing prices in another location: factors other than rural economic factors have a greater impact on rural land prices in areas which are closer settled or where alternate non agricultural land uses are available / Master of Commerce (Hons.)