Why grow seaweed at Donald?
The Donald region of North Central Victoria experiences dryland salinity that is the result of saline groundwater discharge from two regional groundwater systems. Both systems comprise saline groundwater that ranges in concentration from about 20,000 to 30,000 uS/cm This is broadly equivalent to about 40 – 60 percent of the salinity of sea water. This groundwater is very similar in chemical composition to that of the ocean. This is not surprising since most of the salt has been introduced from the ocean via rainfall over millennia. Small quantities of salt introduced in ionic form in rainfall have been concentrated in soil and weathered rock during transpiration by native vegetation. Groundwater in the Donald region is in most instances quite saline and very similar in chemical composition to seawater. These circumstances, together with long hours of sunshine over the summer months, present opportunities to trial the cultivation of seaweed for industrial purposes. Strong community inte
