Dealing with salinity in Wheatbelt Valleys - Department of Water

argue that they were really abnormally calm years
in the 100 year history.
Frost and Burnside
MORE SUCCESSES AND EMERGING
DIFFICULTIES
Salinity as an issue? Productivity increases in the 1980s and 1990s
What was being said about salinity in the years of
expansion? Very little it seems. Although the
causes of dryland salinity or more properly
secondary salinity were generally well known, it
was never seen by the scientific community and
most farmers as being of major concern for
agriculture before 1980. By the mid 1970s, salt
was recognised as a serious issue on some farms
and occurring in small areas in many farms. The
survey carried out in 1974 showed that less than
2% of cleared farmlands was affected (Burvill
1979d). The prevailing view was that:
‘...a major part of Western Australian farmlands,
however, will never become unproductive because of
salt. The 98% unaffected will, if properly farmed,
sustain and increase rural production.’ (Burvill
1979d, p.104).
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Department
of Agriculture devoted some resources into
developing productive uses for saline land
principally using native species of saltbush (Atriplex
species) and bluebush (Maireana species). This
represented one of the few occasions in Australian
agriculture when attempts were made to develop
an economic value from native as opposed to
exotic species.
Where other than purely agricultural values were
at risk, however, Governments took prompt
action. Increased salinisation of waterways
recognised early in the 1900s eventually reached a
point where further clearing in the catchments of
the remaining fresh rivers posed a threat to
irrigation systems and domestic supplies.
Government instituted clearing controls (with
compensation for those affected) in a number of
south-west catchments in the 1970s in the face of
considerable opposition by farmers in these areas.
Elsewhere in the State, some further clearing of
land for dryland farming occurred through the late
1970s and into the 1980s, mainly in marginal areas,
although increased concern about secondary
salinisation limited activity.
– 7 –
By 1980, virtually all the land that could be used
for agriculture in the Wheatbelt was cleared and
farmed. Subsequent increases in production have
come from dramatic increases in total factor
productivity – measured as the ratio between
outputs and inputs. Table 6 presents trends for
productivity growth for the Central, Northern and
Eastern Wheatbelt regions, compared to graingrowing
regions in Southern Australia (i.e. graingrowing
areas in SA, Victoria and southern New
South Wales).
What Table 6 does not show is how the nation’s
grain industries have performed compared to
other agricultural industries, or in relation to the
whole economy. While the grain industries have
achieved productivity gains of 3.5% per annum
over the last 20 years, broadacre sheep farms have
managed only 0.8%, with beef properties
performing somewhat better at 1.6% productivity
increase per annum (Knopke et al. 2000).
By the mid-1990s Australian agriculture
contributed around 3% Gross Domestic Product
(GDP), down from 15% in the 1950s. The rural
sector’s contribution to total exports had dropped
from around 75% to 28% (Pollard 2001). The
Central Wheatbelt in Western Australia
contributed 23% of Western Australia’s total
wheat income ($411,970,000) in 1995/96 and 6%
of the wool income ($39,435,000) (AgStats 1997).
1n 1996/97, about one tenth of Australian farm
businesses were responsible for almost half of
farm business turnover and cash operating surplus.
This trend was mirrored in the Central Wheatbelt
where in 1997 broadacre farms averaged
2,500 hectares. Property size was skewed to a
large number of smaller operations – during this
period it has been estimated that about 12% of
the State’s grain-growers produce about half the
total crop.
The implication of these figures is that while in an
overall sense, agriculture now contributes
significantly less to Australia’s overall GDP, the
impact of the agricultural industry within the
regions must not be underestimated. Agricultural
income in 2001 remains very much the economic
backbone of most rural centres and regions.