Salinity in Australia
[3] Land clearing in Australia has resulted in a loss of this native vegetation, replaced largely by agriculture and pasture crops.
These are often shallow rooted annual plants which are unable to intercept and adequately absorb stored and rising ground water.
[5] Over time this process has caused the thin top-soil layers to become irreversibly salty and no longer suited for agriculture.
[7] High soil salt levels have dramatic impact on plant root zones, in both native vegetation as well as agricultural and pasture crops, natural wetlands and surrounding water ways.
[9] The current levels of salinity in Victoria are relatively small, with the main impact expected to occur in high risk areas in the coming years.
These high risk areas include the Campaspe, Loddon, Corangamite, Glenelg-Hopkins, Goulburn-Broken catchments, and Wimmera and Mallee regions.
[9] At current rates however, salinity is predicted to have moderate scale impacts on land and infrastructure by 2050, with 12,000 km of roads, 1500 km of rail lines, and around 2.8million hectares of agricultural land, remnant vegetation, and wetlands and streams negatively affected[13] The Australian governments have taken an integrated approach to target different scales of management.
The approach is to manage the salinity issue at national, regional and state levels, down to local and individual farmers.
[15] The National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAPSWQ), implemented together with the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) program, ran from 2000 to 2008.
[16] The goal of the NAPSWQ was to motivate and enable regional communities in preventing, stabilising and reversing trends in salinity; improve water quality and secure reliable allocations for both human, industrial and environment use.
[17] The overarching objectives of the NHT were biodiversity conservation, sustainable use of natural resources, community capacity building and institutional change.
This has reinforced the view of the State of Environment (SoE) Report that concluded that the condition of these resources continues to decline despite the best efforts of the community and government'.
Outcomes of NRM programs in Western Australia include re-vegetation, fencing, soil treatment, drainage works, treatment for soil erosion, monitoring programs, support of community projects, training, conservation agreements and a Strategic Tree Farming project.
Often lacking however, is the presence of scientific skills and detailed knowledge needed to develop viable technical and economic salinity management options.
[32] It is also suggested that community-based approaches may reinforce existing power structures, disadvantaging those who are already marginalised when making decisions about salinity management.
Landcare groups involve community members and landowners working together in a voluntary capacity to improve land management practices.
[32] Established in Victoria in 1987, Saltwatch is an ongoing community- and school-based program focused on monitoring salinity levels in Australian waterways.
Students, teachers and community members are involved in collecting water samples from their local area, conducting salinity tests and recording this data.
It is an effective educational tool that provides opportunities for partnerships to be developed between government agencies and the wider community, however it is not necessarily linked directly to the implementation of salinity management strategies.
In these instances as evaporation will not occur at a faster pace than rainfall, it is likely to result in excessive additions to aquifers, which is also known as deep drainage.
