Wheat has long been one of Australia's most important primary products, but in fact there's only a small part of the country where it grows well, the Australian Wheat Belt. Other areas are too dry or too wet.

But now a new type of wheat has been developed that can grow where it never has before.

Forty percent of Australian farmers are in the high rainfall area between the Wheat Belt and the coast. They are mainly graziers, whose fortunes rise and fall with meat and wool prices.

And these low prices can impact on a whole community.

These areas have always been far too wet for growing wheat. Rust and diseases have set in and the crops have failed.

But these communities may be in for a lift in their fortunes.

A new wheat variety called Lawson, developed by CSIRO's Dr Jim Davidson, not only thrives in wet conditions, it can be grazed to the stubble by sheep and cows before bouncing back again.

"Our project is producing long season winter wheats that can be sown early in autumn in order to produce large quantities of leafy fodder by winter, when they can be grazed into the ground by sheep and cattle and will recover from grazing to produce large yields of grain."

Dr. Davidson produced Lawson by crossing all the most productive wheats and going through seven generations of selection.

In its first season of commercial production it topped the highest previous recorded yield of wheat in Australia.

By expanding the Wheat Belt, Lawson could mean the difference between survival and extinction for many small Australian country communities.