"Large parts of Australia face a problem from rising salt levels, putting farms, drinking water, and rivers at risk. The trouble dates from the introduction of European crops, whose shallow root systems did not reach the water table.
As a result, water levels slowly rose, bringing with them old salt deposits which are gradually poisoning the land.
EDIT
BBC Radio 4's environment programme Costing the Earth went to Australia to see the damage the salt is doing. It reports on the way railways, roads and gas pipelines are all succumbing to corrosion, and says it is estimated that by 2050 there will be no water fit to drink in one of Australia's largest cities, Adelaide.
Outside the cities, huge tracts of the most productive farmland are being choked by the salt. The 13.7 million hectares (33.85 million acres) of agricultural land that are likely to be threatened by the middle of the century will exceed the current total area devoted to wheat, Australia's principal crop. Already, waterholes used by Aboriginal people are contaminated, sheep are being killed by the salt, and some of the great wines of the Barossa Valley have been put at risk."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3564857.stmYet another story overshadowed by Laci, Jacko and Kobe, et. al.