Any future expansion of irrigated agriculture in Australia is likely to occur in northern Australia. The region of Australia north of the tropic of Capricorn has abundant water resources -- over 60% of the nations surface water run-off (NLWA 2001). However, there are concerns that in the rush to develop this new bonanza we will simply make the same mistakes that plague existing irrigation systems. These include: water logging, salinization, soil acidification, erosion,