Brian Ross wrote on Feb 26
th, 2017 at 12:43am:
We already have that, UnSubRocky. Australian native flora is highly salt-tolerant. The problem is the farmers have cleared most of it off the productive land, this has resulted in the salt laden water table rising to the point where it is affecting the introduced, colonial flora, which isn't salt tolerant and so it all dies off. Some farmers have already tried to create large canals which go down to the water table and take away a lot of the salt laden water. Problem is, it is less efficient than the native flora. You end up with more salt being drawn to the surface.
Lake Eyre is one of the lowest points in Australia. All water courses around it, flow into it. Water from the western side of the Great Dividing Range generally flow into it. Only the Murray-Darling doesn't. So, basically you're going to have to flood it, if you want to flood inland Australia. This will destroy a unique environment which has been created over the last 50K years. Flora and fauna uniquely adapted to it. Are you sure you want to do that?
The Bradfield Scheme wanted to essentially do that by turning the rivers flowing eastwards from the Great Dividing Range to the western side of the range, rather as the Snow Mountains Scheme did for the Snowy River, further south. Bradfield's scheme was hopelessly optimistic and of course failed to consider the effects on the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range, just as it failed to consider the effects on the western side.
I will have to start off by saying that this is interesting stuff that I did not know. I will look this topic up on the internet in the next few weeks.
Secondly, I just wanted to point out that there is nothing wrong with trying to find a solution to Australia's desertification. I was already aware that we have native trees that can counter the salinity of soils. Trees like salt grow (or whatever the scientific name may be). These types of flora have reversed the problems that farmers have encountered (perhaps caused) over the last 2 centuries. Salt grow being particularly useful in draining murky swamps (saline or otherwise) and allowing the surrounding environment to become useful fertile farmland.
Hearing through the grapevine that the government has undertaken to plant these native vegetations in areas where they are needed most urgently. But, I am told that this is going to take decades of growth and planting to recover good fertile farmland.
What I want to happen is for Australia's regional areas to have saline reduced soils over the next few decades. I know that is optimistic and perhaps unrealistic. But I think we have reached a point in our development when countering soil salinity is a bigger issue than we have entertained in the past. We can't simply go about our lives living in the past thinking that we should stick to a continent that is hopelessly unproductive in the interior, whilst packing our coastlines and cities with large populations.
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