01-11-2001

South Australian Premier, the Hon Rob Kerin, will launch South Australia's Dryland Salinity Strategy on Sunday 4th November 2001 at Cooke Plains in the State's Upper South East.

The launch will be followed by a barbecue luncheon featuring fish grown in above ground tanks using saline groundwater from an inland aquaculture venture supported by Australia's National Dryland Salinity Program (NDSP).

Cooke Plains, at the very bottom of the Murray-Darling Basin, has large areas of land seriously affected by dryland salinity. However, an innovative research and development program in the region, supported by the NDSP, shows how this problem might be turned to advantage by utilising the saline groundwater.

Stephanie Bolt, consultant with the Adelaide-based consultancy PPK Environment, has undertaken a project for the NDSP investigating a number of possible enterprises based upon the use of salt-affected land and water.

Ms Bolt said the project had revealed significant opportunities for the productive use of saline resources.

'Australia has vast quantities of saline groundwater which are increasingly coming to the surface, causing the area of salt affected land to expand,' Ms Bolt explained.

'Whilst every effort should be made to reverse this process, we now know that in many cases it may be an impossible task. The best we can do in some circumstances is to stem the rate of groundwater rise.'

Ms Bolt said that the NDSP project, designed to explore productive uses of saline resources, was largely undertaken from this realisation and the fact that water is such a potentially valuable resource in this dry continent.

'We have examined the practical and economic factors impacting on a range of enterprises,' she said. 'These include saltland pastures for grazing animals, forestry using salt-tolerant trees, inland aquaculture and desalination of brackish water to produce salts and fresh water,' Ms Bolt adds.

The Cooke Plains Saline Groundwater Interception Trial is a pilot project using saline groundwater to breed fin fish (black bream, whiting and schnappers), extract betacarotene from algae and to distil salt and bitterns from brine.

'Of all the industries the project studied, saline aquaculture is probably the most promising,' Ms Bolt said.

'However it is still in the research and development stage. Whilst it has the potential to deliver high value products from what is commonly perceived as an otherwise useless' resource, there are many obstacles that have to be faced to compete with traditional fish and aquaculture industries.'

Ms Bolt said the NDSP-funded project has made it possible for potential investors to assess the risks and opportunities in these enterprises. As research reveals more about saline resources and how they might be used, it should become increasingly possible to develop economically viable industries, she said.

Ms Bolt said the Federal Government had also shown its willingness to support this new enterprise by investing $150,000 through the National Action Plan for Water Quality and Salinity, which will be backed by a further $114,000 from the Natural Heritage Trust.

ENDS

MEDIA - Excellent photo opportunities at the site of the Cooke Plains Groundwater Interception scheme, where Mr Kerin will announce funding from the National Action Plan for Water Quality and Salinity for this innovative project.

Local interview talent in attendance at the launch will include:

• Mr Rob Smyth, local farmer and chair of the SA Dryland Salinity Committee
• Mr Alan Piggott, local farmer and chair of the Coorong Districts Soil Conservation Board
• Mr Steve Murray, local farmer and chair of the Coorong Districts Local Action Planning Group
• Mr Graham Gates, Project Officer for the Coorong Districts Local Action Plan

For further information please contact:

Please contact Land & Water Australia
Email: land&wateraustralia@lwa.gov.au
Phone: 02 6263 6000