Dryland salinity is one of the most prominent and intractable problems facing farm managers in the extensive non-irrigated farming systems of southern Australia. The issue was ignored by policy makers until late in the twentieth century, but is now the sole or partial subject of government...

The replanting of trees and other high water use perennial plant options has been the major focus of dryland salinity management in recent times. Hydrologists have indicated that unless these options are taken up on a very large scale, little can be done to control ongoing land salinisation in...

Commercial export from Australia of native birds, wild or captive bred, is prohibited. This paper firstly describes the current legislation and regulations that restrict the export of native birds and discusses why governments have adopted such a regulatory approach to bird species preservation....

Currently, there are very few options for salinity management in low rainfall environments (less than 350mm annual rainfall). The challenge for salinity management in traditional farming systems, is to balance the profitability of annual crop based systems with sustainable high water using...

Modelling complex systems such as multiple-use reservoirs can be challenging. A legitimate question for scientists and modellers is how best to model their management under uncertain rainfall. This paper studies whether it is worth using a stochastic model that requires more effort than a much...

Ethanol production is increasingly commonplace in many grain producing regions. This paper uses the grain producing region of Western Australia as a case study to illustrate how the location and size of an ethanol plant affects its grain accumulation costs. Specifically, this study examines how...

Private and many publicly funded plant breeding organisations charge farmers for use of varieties they develop. This article compares four alternative charging mechanisms and outlines responses to these alternatives by farmers and plant breeders. Risk‐averse farmers and breeders are shown to...

The Fitzgerald River National Park is one of the world’s 25 biological hotspots, containing many endemic flora and fauna species. Its unique biodiversity is being threatened by the introduced root pathogen, Phytophthora cinnamomi. We evaluate the cost-effectiveness of strategies to manage...

Oil mallees are one of the preferred options to combat dryland salinity in the Western Australian wheatbelt, but their economics are uncertain. We compare three scenarios: on-farm mallee oil production, industrial oil and wood-based electricity production, and a combined oil, electricity and...