Encountering the South Australian landscape: early European misconceptions and our present water problems

The early Europeans perceived water and land in Australia in ways that led them to over-allocate and overuse water. As a result of this misperception Australians as a whole need to devise new policies to ensure that water allocation is within principles requiring environmental, social and economic sustainability. This will involve reduction of water allocations to growers and significant changes to pricing structures for urban users and industry. Environmental factors need to be measured and hard choices need to be made.