The time 'around 1970' has been described as a watershed in global environmental consciousness, chiefly in the West, but with influences reaching as far as Japan and China. This emergence of powerful new environmental movements and organizations was linked to an unprecedented level of public awareness for issues like pollution, population growth, nuclear power and biodiversity. Yet, can this grand scale narrative be applied to the smallest scale? What was 'environmentalism' in the Victorian farming communities of Kerang, Swan Hill and Shepparton? And who were the 'environmentalists'?

In my paper, I will analyze the 'Salinity Action Groups' that emerged in rural Victoria in the 1970s aiming to overcome the social and environmental problems caused by increasing soil and water salinity. These activists were deeply entangled with the irrigation industry, government and business. Still, they were serious about environmental education, ecological thinking and the social problems that arise from environmental issues. They were rooted in their communites, highly receptive to the global topics of their time and linked transnationally.

Reflecting on this local Australian phenomenon within a global horizon can help understand it further and in turn add to the morphology of environmentalism in Australia and beyond.