This chapter will illustrate how rural areas in Australia have experienced mixed fortunes regarding socio-economic development and responses to threats to their well-being. Agriculture and mining located in rural and remote regions provide the majority of the country’s exports by value, though many of these areas are depopulating, with communities facing loss of multiple services and their most youthful population. Close to the major cities a different rurality has developed, with population numbers growing as urban migrants seek rural lifestyles, living and working in the countryside or commuting long-distance to the city. In these peri-urban areas problems include loss of prime agricultural land, farm fragmentation, inadequate infrastructure and threat of bushfires to the expanding settlements. Here the landscapes tend to be multi-functional, with tourism, food processing and a growing service sector adding to economic vitality. This contrasts with large areas of remote ‘outback’ Australia where there are often poor Indigenous communities, mining settlements supported by fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) operations, extensive cattle and sheep ranching, and substantial national reserves. Here there are pockets of poverty and ongoing threats to biodiversity and livelihoods from the effects of climate change. The chapter will focus on how different types of rurality are meeting the challenge of sustainable rural development. It will portray attempts to maintain and grow rural resilience in response to dynamic challenges. Whilst providing a broad overview for all of rural and remote Australia, the analysis will draw on three exemplars of this resilience: the peri-urban fringe of Adelaide, the remote ‘outback’ in the two westernmost states and the Northern Territory, and depopulating rural areas reliant upon a predominantly agricultural economy in sub-tropical and tropical Queensland. The chapter will also provide an overview of key policies impacting the sustainability of rural development and resilience of rural communities.