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There is currently a growing coal seam gas (CSG) industry in Queensland, Australia. The industry requires beneficialuse strategies to consume the significant volumes of water released during CSG extraction. Irrigation of tropical and subtropical forage species for beef production is one option; however, quality of coal seam (CS) water varies due to moderate–high salinity and alkalinity. The application of chemically amended CS water over time could potentially increase soil salinity, which is known to reduce plant biomass production (Shabala and Munns 2012). While the salinity tolerance of many tropical and subtropical forage species has been investigated over the last 30 years (Russell 1976; Keating et al. 1986; Kitamura 1986; Hansen and Munns 1988; Deifel et al. 2006), there is a need to examine the tolerance of more recently released species and cultivars, which are suitable for planting in the Queensland CSG area.

In Australia, little work has been carried out on the im-provement of tropical or subtropical pastures in recent years. There seems to be an increasing demand for pas-tures that can withstand heavy grazing, while producing high yields of high quality forage in the humid subtropi-cal regions of Australia. Most graziers, who live in these areas, have small acreages, which they graze intensively. Cynodon spp. represent a potential source of grasses with these attributes. This study will evaluate the pasture potential of a large number of bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) ecotypes collected from across Australia.