Sarah is a Matthew Flinders Professor of Water Economics and leads the Water, Environment and Food economics policy group (WEF group) in the College of Business, Governance and Law at Flinders University. Sarah is a past President and a Distinguished Fellow of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society (AARES), a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and was awarded the Distinguished Public Policy Fellow award by the Economic Society of Australia in 2024. She was an ARC Future Fellow (2014-2018) and has over 160 peer-reviewed outputs in the research areas of irrigated farming, climate change, Murray-Darling Basin, organic farming, water markets, water scarcity, mental health, and food waste.

She is an Associate Editor of Agricultural Economics, and has been past editor of the Australasian Journal of Water Resources, and past Associate Editor of Water Resources and Economics, the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics and guest editor for a special issue of Agricultural Water Management. Sarah is on a number of editorial boards, including: International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Water. In 2023, Sarah was awarded the Jill Hudson award for environmental protection at the SA Environment Awards.

Sarah was born on an irrigated dairy farm in NSW, and grew up on a dryland mixed farm at the top of the Great Dividing Range in the New England region. She has worked as an economist both nationally and internationally, in places such as University of Adelaide, Rural Solutions South Australia, ESCAP United Nations (Bangkok), Environment Agency (UK) and the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies.

• Surface and Groundwater Economics
• Environmental and Agricultural Economics
• Murray-Darling Basin
• Climate change adaptation
• Water Policy
• Mental Health
• Water Markets
• Organic Agriculture
• Water Trading.

Sarah has secured over $6 million in research and contract grants as a sole applicant. She has also contributed to teams winning over $47 million in primarily category 1 funding, frequently as lead researcher. 

Recent funding highlights include a $1 million grant from DCCEEW for blue carbon ecosystem restoration and $249,000 from the SA Drought Hub for economic research on marginal farming. Significant collaborations with partners such as the NT Government, DEW and CSIRO have been instrumental in securing these grants, reflecting a strong focus on water security, sustainability, and agricultural economics.

Sarah has made significant contributions to public policy in Australia and internationally, particularly in water management and economic studies. Her work has influenced Federal legislation, informed UN water initiatives, and shaped critical reports for the MDBA, ACCC, and other key organisations.

PhD:

2019: Farmer and community mental health and water scarcity.

2018: Water markets and environmental outcomes.

2018: Investigating social license to operate in Australian farming.

2018: Role of small-scale irrigation in household outcomes.

2017: Socio-economic aspects of water reallocation in the Murray-Darling Basin.

2017: Financial outcomes and risk in water markets in Australia.

2017: Benefits and costs of organic farming in Australia.

2021: Social capital in Bangladesh.

2014: Exploring food consumption patterns in Fiji.

2014: Agricultural Innovation Platforms in southern Africa.

2012: Irrigator trade behavior in southern Murray-Darling Basin water allocation markets.

Masters:

2020: Alternative fertilizer and pesticide adoption.

2020: Distinguishing the issues and capabilities of the change to Organic Cultivation.

2020: Water resource in Mekong Delta, how could citrus growers in Mekong Delta use groundwater to adapt climate change.

2020: Increasing water use in the agricultural sector in India and Potential Solutions.

2017-18: The current and future use of drones in Australian irrigation.

2017-18: Investigating parallel trade between Australia and China.

2015-16: Exploring Dairy Exit in Victoria, Australia.

2015: Returns to investing in water markets in Australia.

Honours:

2023: Price Elasticity in Australian Water markets.

2022: Asset values in Murray-Darling Basin water markets.