Expenditure data for production research in agriculture were collected from the published financial accounts of CSIRO, State Departments of Agriculture and major Universities with interests in agricultural research. In nominal terms expenditure on rural research in Australia rose from $9m in 1953 to $411m in 1988. Research intensity in nominal terms based on agric1..1ltural GOP rose by a factor of 7.5 from 0.6 percent in 1953 to 4.4 percent in 1988 after peaking at 4.9 percent in 1986. In real terms however, the increase in public sector research has been much less. In dollar terms expenditure increased from $9m in 1953 to $38m in 1988, a factor of about four. The growth in research intensity was also much lower. Real research intensity increased from 0.6 percent in 1953 to 1.6 percent in 1988 after a peak of 2.1 percent in 1973. This suggests pubic sector support for rural research, after increasing significantly in the '50s and '60s, has been drifting down since the early 70s.