Intensive irrigation in southeastern Australia has led to widespread waterlogging and salinity in Murray-Darling basin. Measures to mitigate effects are hampered by political fragmentation. Creation of a water authority for basin may be an appropriate solution. USTRALIAN water policies are undergoing a fundamental reappraisal. Water remains key element in many national and regional developmental programs, but uncritical attitudes of past are being replaced by cautious, qualified endorsement of new proposals, as full implications of large-scale water-resource utilization become apparent. During two hundred years of European settlement on continent, water has been impounded, catchments systematically cleared and occupied, and wetlands and countless waterways regulated or improved. The demands from agricultural landuses and urbanization as well as environmental changes associated with them mean that few streams or bodies of water remain in original appearance or condition. Because availability of water is irregular in Australia over both space and time, conservation schemes have been easily justified on basis of perceived need and engineering feasibility. Until relatively recently, consideration of anticipated economic costs and benefits and possible environmental effects received little attention. In past two decades mounting criticism of economic viability of particular projects together with increased attention to environmental consequences has prompted close scrutiny of developmental proposals. Awareness that environmental consequences may be unforeseen and undesirable now extends from a narrow focus on downstream water quality to a range of perhaps hundreds of kilometers beyond a project site and an area of initial use. There is agreement that salinity is a crucial issue.' The discharge of water containing agricultural wastes is a primary contributor to salinity and deterioration of water quality in inland streams. In southeastern Australia effect of irrigation on salinity in lower Murray-Darling river system is a focus of concern. MURRAY-DARLING BASIN The condition of Murray-Darling river system has been described as the major, agricultural/environmental question in Australia today.2 The 1 A. Peck, J. Thomas, and D. Williamson, Salinity Issues (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1983), 2. 2 J. Kerin, Salinity, Agriculture and Murray River System, Radical 13 (1982): 6-7. * DR. PIGRAM is a senior lecturer in geography and planning at University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia 2351. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.249 on Wed, 03 Aug 2016 04:41:18 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW