Dealing with salinity in Wheatbelt Valleys - Department of Water

Frost and Burnside
At the beginning of the 20 th Century Government
policy, particularly the settlement schemes, aimed
to shift people into the country. The beginning of
the 21 st Century sees the opposite, where farm
economics and labour micro-economic reform are
causing rural communities to become
progressively smaller and farm size to become
progressively bigger. The Eastern Wheatbelt
reflects this trend to a greater degree than many
rural areas (see Table 6). The median age of
farmers in the 1996 census was 44 years,
significantly higher than the 38 years in other
industries. Between 1991 and 1996, the
population in the Shire of Merredin declined by an
estimated 2.5%, and many wheatbelt shires lost
double this percentage (Haberkorn et al. 1999).
ABS census data also show that the Central
Wheatbelt region is one of the more severely
affected in terms of population decline. The
results also showed that more men (25.36%) have
left the region than women (23.95%) between
1991 and 1996.
Paradoxically in view of the settlement policies
promoted by Government in the early 1900s,
reduced population in wheatbelt towns was
occurring partly as a result of micro-economic
reforms in labour management in Government
organisations – such as the key transport and
infrastructure providers. Another trend is the
intra-regional population shifts from small
settlements to so-called ‘sponge towns’ that are
sufficiently large to retain and develop services.
Collectively, these trends imply that the load to
sustain the agricultural industry is being shouldered
by fewer and older people. The impact of these
social trends in the Wheatbelt is important in the
management of valley floor salinity. The most
significant would be the declining scope and
capacity for individuals to allocate funds to manage
a problem that has very few known solutions, is
substantial in its geographic size and complicated
by its temporal scale. A second implication is the
pressure on Governments to develop policy that
assists in maintaining a focus on research and
development in salinity and viable solutions and
also support processes that will enable salinity to
be addressed in an environment of continuing
social change.
OUR STORY – WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Our story could conclude on a morbid tone of
decline and pessimism; however, there is in fact
considerable optimism that should be drawn from
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the findings in this paper and it is these points of
opportunity that bring this paper full circle. While
there is concern for the direction of social trends
in the rural regions, there is a growing awareness
and appreciation of the impact of valley floor
salinity on agriculture (National Land and Water
Audit 2001) and an acknowledgment that
‘something needs to change’. Further, we have a
robust and innovative agriculture with a capacity to
make further productivity gains that can be used to
address natural resource management needs.
Finally, we have excellent traditions in developing
technologies for difficult environments.
The qualities that have influenced the development
of the Wheatbelt and have contributed, albeit
unwittingly, to valley floor salinity will continue to
influence change. These qualities of deliberate
Government intervention, resilience to pressure
and a capacity to innovate and adapt have each
influenced the rate and type of community and
industry development. Policy development will be
guided by the fact that the people who live and
work the valley floors, must live with and adapt to
increasing salinity. In particular, the disconnect
between a productive agriculture on the one hand
and emerging natural resource issues needs to be
removed. In this regard, Government policy must
enable individuals and rural communities to
develop strategies that help them to achieve their
‘visions’ for their rural landscape and rural
community. The language and actions will be
mainly about resilience - being the ability to cope
with change.
Governments will also need to continue
investment in research and development in order
to develop viable and effective land use systems
that can be productive in an environment of excess
water. In the community, the qualities of
resilience and a capacity to adapt and innovate will
continue to support their involvement in salinity
management. It is unlikely that the level of the
pressures and challenges experienced in
agriculture over the last one hundred years will
change over coming decades. We can however
learn from these experiences. Salinity may be
regarded as a threat but it may also be seen as an
opportunity for agriculture to redefine its vision,
creating new industry opportunities that may lead
to a resurgence in community and development
throughout the Western Australian Wheatbelt.