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Abstract:
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(En)
The development of agriculture in south-western Australia has been characterised by the replacemnt of deep-rooted, perennial species of native vegetation with shallow-rooted, annual species. Except for the high rainfall areas, the native vegetation was able to intercept and transpire nearly all of the rainfall resulting in low stream flows and recharge to a groundwater system which was typically deep and restricted to the major valleys. The lack of surface or groundwater movement out of inland catchments used large quantities of cyclic salts to become stored in the regolith. Although annual crops and pastures can be high water users, they are poorly adapted to transpire rainfall outside of the growing season or to use excess water that becomes stored at
tion hazards in the wheatbelt and a large amount of reasearch has been conducted into the processes involved (George, 1993) and remedial action to take (George, 1990b; and McFarlane and Cox, 1992). Although mechanical solutions, such as surface drainage
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