Irrigators in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) face a salinity triple threat, namely: dryland salinity on their land and surface-water and groundwater salinity in their water. The geological and climatic characteristics of the MDB make it prone to salinity. In addition, climatic changes, including periods of drought, and irrigated agriculture have triggered secondary salinization, abating the natural process of leaching salt through the soil and raising the salinity levels in rivers, groundwater and land. Irrigators are highly affected by high salinity levels due to declining crop yields and as a result have had to adapt. Water trading has now been adopted to the point where it is a common adaptation tool used by the majority of MDB irrigators. What is unknown is how various salinity issues on water and land have influenced water trading adoption. This study uses a number of unique water market and spatial databases to investigate the association between the severity and extent of areas which suffer from salinity and permanent water trade in the southern MDB from 2000/01–2010/11, holding other regional characteristics constant. It was found that larger volumes of permanent water entitlements were likely to be sold from areas suffering from higher dryland salinity. In addition, increases in the concentration of groundwater salinity was found to decrease volumes of surface-water entitlements sold, providing evidence that groundwater entitlements (where they are viable substitutes) have been increasingly used as substitutes for surface-water entitlements. Other key influences on water sales included water prices and net rainfall.