IT has been a tragic week on Australian farms, with a worker fatally crushed by a hay bale on a property in Victoria and child dying after an accidental shooting at a property in New South Wales.
WorkSafe Victoria is investigating the death of the 48-year-old truck driver on a farm at Toolleen, Victoria. It is understood a tractor was being used to unload hay bales from a trailer when a bale dislodged and fell three metres onto the man on Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, a man and a teenager have been charged following a fatal firearm incident on Sunday near Goulburn, NSW.
The NSW Police said in a statement when officers arrived they were told a nine-year-old boy had been injured after the unintentional discharge of a firearm. It said the boy was treated for serious neck injuries by NSW Ambulance paramedics, but he died at the scene.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
A 14-year-old boy and a 33-year-old man have since been arrested and taken to Goulburn Police Station, following an investigation.
NSW Police said the teenager was charged with possessing an unauthorised firearm and granted conditional bail to appear before a children's court on 16 May, 2025.
The man was charged with allowing an unauthorised person to possess a firearm and not keeping the firearm safely. He will appear before the Goulburn Local Court on 14 May, 2025.
These incidents follow several other deaths on Australian farms earlier this year, including a fatality following a side-by-side vehicle accident on a farming property at Tungkillo, South Australia, and an ATV accident involving a 78-year-old man on a farm in Wangaratta, Victoria.
