Australia's forests

Key information on Australia’s forests is presented here. Detailed information on Australia's forests is available from Australia’s State of the Forests Report. Preparation of Australia’s State of the Forests Report is a commitment made by governments in the National Forest Policy Statement.

Forest area

Australia has a total of 133.6 million hectares of forests comprising 131.5 million hectares of native forests, 1.82 million hectares of commercial plantations and 0.24 million hectares of other forest. These forests cover 17 per cent of Australia’s land area. Australia has 3 per cent of the world's forest area and the seventh largest reported forest area of any country worldwide.

Forest types and distribution

Australia's native forests are dominated by eucalypts (77 per cent), followed by acacias (8 per cent) and melaleucas (5 per cent).

Australia's plantations consist of 1.1 million hectares of exotic softwood (predominantly Pinus radiata), and 0.7 million hectares of hardwood (predominantly eucalypt species such as Eucalyptus globulus).

Climate and soil properties broadly determine the distribution of forest types and classes across Australia, although other factors, especially fire frequency and intensity, are important.

Native forests are generally located in areas with an average annual rainfall of more than 500 millimetres, with the notable exception of mallee forests. Australia's commercial plantations are mainly located in areas with more than 700 millimetres of annual rainfall. Most of Australia is too dry to support forests, and arid or semi-arid lands occupy about 70 per cent of the interior, where average annual rainfall is less than 350 millimetres.

Further details on Australia’s forests are available at Forests Australia.

Forest tenure and ownership

The ownership of a forest, especially native forest, has a major bearing on its management intent. The six tenure classes used for forests land in the National Forest Inventory are amalgamations of the wide range of classes used by various state and territory jurisdictions. The classes can be grouped on the basis of ownership as public or private, with a small area of unresolved tenure. Publicly owned forests include ‘multiple-use public forest’, ‘nature conservation reserve’, and ‘other Crown land’. ‘Leasehold forest’ is forest on Crown land (land that belongs to a national, state or territory government) that is typically privately managed. For commercial plantations, the ownership of the land can be different from the ownership of the trees, and management arrangements can be complex.

Six tenure categories are recognised for land carrying Australia's forests, covering both public and private management:

• Multiple-use public forest - Publicly owned state forest, timber reserves and other land on which a range of forest values are managed by state and territory government agencies in accordance with relevant Acts and regulations. The forest values can include provision of wood for harvest, supply of water, conservation of biodiversity, recreation, and environmental protection.
• Nature conservation reserve - Crown land formally reserved for environmental, conservation and recreational purposes, including national parks, nature reserves, state and territory recreation and conservation areas, and some formal reserves in state forests as defined by jurisdictions. It does not include informal reserves and those pending gazettal. The commercial harvesting of wood and non-wood forest products is generally not permitted in nature conservation reserves.
• Other Crown land - Crown land reserved for a variety of purposes, including utilities, scientific research, education, stock routes, mining, water-supply catchments, and use by First Nations communities. Includes Crown land that is unreserved or unallocated. Excludes leasehold forest, nature conservation reserve, and multiple-use public forest.
• Private forest - Land held under freehold title and typically under private ownership. It excludes leased Crown land, but includes land held under freehold title with special conditions attached for designated First Nations communities.
• Leasehold forest - Crown land held under leasehold title and generally privately managed.
• Unresolved tenure - Land where data are insufficient to determine land ownership status.

First Nations estate – Substantial areas of Australia’s land and forest estate have recognised ownership, management, or special rights of access or use by First Nations people and communities, and together make up the First Nations estate. More than half of Australia’s forests (69.5 million hectares, 52 per cent by area) is identified as part of the First Nations estate as one of four broad First Nations land tenure and management categories: First Nations owned and managed; First Nations people managed; First Nations people co-managed; and Other special rights. About three-quarters of this forest area is in Queensland and the Northern Territory. The data here are from Australia’s State of the Forests Report 2018.

Plantations – Until the early 1990s, state governments were the major plantation owners in Australia. In the intervening period, there has been increasing private sector institutional investment in plantations. As such, private ownership of plantations has increased from 32 per cent in 1996 to 73 per cent in 2021-22. The data here are from Australian Plantation Statistics 2023 update.