What has been done under the Rural Towns Program?
The Department of Agriculture, Western Australia’s Rural Towns Program has completed three important phases of its plan to arm 37 rural WA councils with the right tools to fight salinity. Phase One commenced with the Community Boreholes Project. More than 1000 groundwater-monitoring boreholes were installed in 32 rural towns throughout the agricultural region. These groundwater-monitoring boreholes provided the means to begin the next phase of the program. Phase Two involved testing the groundwater from the established boreholes. These tests included measuring the watertable level and gathering data on water quality, flow rates and other aquifer characteristics. Using the data gathered from the testing phase, Department of Agriculture hydrologists have produced computer-generated models to predict movement of the watertable and salinity spread. These models show the likely effect of various salinity management strategies suitable for each area, and as results became available, the Depa
