SeaStock owner Tom Puddy has told Countryman that the millions of hectares of saline water sitting across the Wheatbelt could be turned into a commercial asset rather than treated purely as an agricultural liability. The article frames dryland salinity as an underused resource that SeaStock believes can be monetised through seaweed cultivation.
Salinity affects an estimated 1.75 million hectares of Western Australian farmland, a legacy of land clearing that has raised water tables and brought salt to the surface across large parts of the grain belt. Countryman reports that this salt-affected land and water has historically been seen as lost production, but Puddy argues it could instead host Asparagopsis cultivation.
The article highlights Tammin and Mukinbudin as test sites where SeaStock is exploring whether saline groundwater can support seaweed growth away from the coast. These inland trials are aimed at proving the concept in real Wheatbelt conditions rather than relying solely on marine or laboratory settings.
Central to the plan is a decentralised, on-farm bioreactor model: rather than one large centralised facility, individual farms could run their own closed bioreactor units using local saline water, turning a farm-level problem into a farm-level revenue stream. Countryman notes this approach could open a new income pathway for Wheatbelt landholders grappling with salinity.
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