Brickwork begins to fret, leading to loss of load-bearing capacity and eventual structural failure. Valuable infrastructure such as roads and railways, hospitals and wheat silos will be abandoned as salt rises to destabilise foundations. And as we approach the close of the century, we face the fact that farming is not the profitable business it once was. Money is scarce, and certainly is not there to replace the investments made in more hopeful years. Salt has been precipitated through rainfall through millions upon millions of years.
Salt is brought over the land from the fine aerosol spray thrown up from the oceans.
Each little aerosol droplet is capable of seeding a raindrop. But whereas most countries of the world have significant mountain ranges, well formed drainage channels and fast flowing rivers to carry the salt back to the sea, Western Australia is almost flat. Drainage is sluggish. Water lies around close to the surface and is rapidly evaporated by the blazing sun and drying winds of the long arid summers. This leaves the salt in the ground, often concentrated near the surface.