LAND USE

OVERVIEW

Land use reflects both the activities undertaken and the institutional arrangements put in place for a given area for the purposes of economic production, or the maintenance and restoration of environmental functions (SEEA Central Framework 2012).

Land use data has been collated for the State of Queensland. Tables 1-4 in the Downloads tab present changes in land use in physical and monetary terms between 30 June 2011 and 30 June 2016. Land use and unimproved land value data in this publication has been sourced from the Queensland Land Valuations file (also referred to as Valuer-General's (VG) data) from the Department of Natural Resources and Mines (DNRM). Land use data has been reported under the Australian Valuations Property Classification Codes (AVPCC). The land values in this release have been aligned with the Australian System of National Accounts, 2015-16 (cat. no. 5204.0), excluding the 'Other' category which is non-rateable land.

Users should note that the land use data in this publication is representative of the primary land use for a property. Changes, for example, from ‘Forestry - Commercial Timber Production’ to ‘Livestock Grazing’ does not necessarily indicate a decline in forestry, but a change, or reclassification, in the primary use of a property.

See Explanatory Notes for more information.


MAIN FINDINGS

The State of Queensland covers approximately 173.0 million hectares. The total unimproved land value of this area increased from $621.4 billion to $721.5 billion between 2011 and 2016.

Residential land use

'Residential' land was the highest valued land use in Queensland with an unimproved land value of $415.0 billion and $518.7 billion in 2011 and 2016 respectively. This increase of $103.7 billion included $27.8 billion of additions, $5.0 billion of reductions and a positive revaluation of $81.0 billion. The greatest change in 'Residential' land value came from the net increases of existing 'Residential' land ($67.4 million), as well as the reclassification of 'Vacant Residential' land to 'Residential' land ($33.8 billion).

'Residential' land accounted for only 0.1% of the total Queensland land area in 2011 and 2016. The total area of 'Residential' land increased from 199,250 hectares to 235,452 hectares. This included 60,724 hectares of additions and 24,523 hectares of reductions. The area of ‘Residential’ land expanded over the 5 year period largely at the expense of primary production land uses. Around 60% of the net change to 'Residential' land came from 'Livestock Grazing' (22,087 hectares).

Net increases and decreases to Residential land use - 30 June 2011 to 30 June 2016
Land Use Description	Land area	Unimproved Land Value
	Hectares	$'000
Opening stock 30 June 2011	199 250	414 969 470
Residential	-	67 404 353
Commercial	114	505 994
Industrial	6	193 833
Extractive Industries	np	10 525
Infrastructure, Utilities and Community Services	8	17 772
Agriculture Cropping - Sugar Cane	687	241 338
Agriculture Cropping - Other	183	245 974
Livestock Grazing	22 087	648 212
Livestock - Special Purpose Structures	75	71 678
Horticulture - Orchards	-7	11 892
Horticulture - Other	87	20 020
Horticulture - Special Purpose Structural Improvements	np	41 996
Forestry - Commercial Timber Production	507	437 151
Vacant Residential	12 113	33 786 329
Unallocated (a)	242	110 919
Not Classified (b)	-	-
Total net change	36 202	103 747 983
Closing stock 30 June 2016	235 452	518 717 453
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells).
np not available for publication but included in the totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated.
Any discrepancies between totals and sums of components in this publication are due to rounding.
(a) This includes land uses that could not be allocated to AVPCC.
(b) No land use information available.

'Residential' and 'Vacant Residential' land have been separated in this account due to the high variability of changes to and from the 'Vacant Residential' class. Queensland had 1.9 million hectares of 'Vacant Residential' land in 2011 and 1.8 million hectares in 2016. A large area of land (67,763 hectares) was converted from 'Vacant Residential' to 'Livestock Grazing' between this period. Some of these changes in land use may include reappraisals of data attributed by the Valuer-General (VG) office.

Primary production land uses

In both accounting periods, around 86% of land area in Queensland had a land use type related to primary production. In order of total land area these included: 'Livestock Grazing' (83%), 'Agricultural Cropping - Other' (2.2%), 'Agriculture Cropping - Sugar' (0.4%), 'Livestock - Special Purpose Structures' (0.1%), 'Horticulture - Orchards' (0.1%), 'Forestry - Commercial Timber Production' (0.1%), 'Horticulture - Other' (0.03%) and 'Horticulture - Special Purpose Structural Improvements' (0.01%) as at 30 June 2016.

'Livestock Grazing' is the most common land use type in Queensland by land area and covered around 83% of all land uses in both 2011 and 2016. Over the accounting period this land use experienced a decrease of 0.3% from 144.2 million hectares to 143.8 million hectares. This included 547,046 hectares of additions and 937,174 hectares of reductions. 494,657 hectares of land were reclassified from 'Livestock Grazing' to 'Agriculture Cropping - Other' between 2011 and 2016. Some of this change may be due to mixed farming systems which rotate between pasture and cropping.

The greatest percentage change in land use was 'Forestry - Commercial Timber Production' with a decrease of 34% between 2011 (121,359 hectares) and 2016 (80,325 hectares). This was comprised of 8,184 hectares of additions and 49,218 hectares of reductions. Over this period, 35,379 hectares of land was reclassified from 'Forestry - Commercial Timber Production' to 'Livestock Grazing'. Note that this is a reclassification of primary land use and does not necessarily indicate a decline in forestry.

Opening and closing stocks of primary production land uses - 30 June 2011 to 30 June 2016
Land use description	Opening stock 30 June 2011	Closing stock 30 June 2016	Percent change
Area	Hectares	Hectares	%
Agricultural Cropping - Sugar Cane	706 781	679 414	-3.9
Agriculture Cropping - Other	3 231 472	3 728 083	15.4
Livestock Grazing	144 227 578	143 837 449	-0.3
Livestock - Special Purpose Structures	129 989	123 851	-4.7
Horticulture - Orchards	104 879	103 982	-0.9
Horticulture - Other	46 448	46 605	0.3
Horticulture - Special Purpose Structural Improvements	17 670	15 034	-14.9
Forestry - Commercial Timber Production	121 359	80 325	-33.8
Unimproved Land Value	$'000	$'000	%
Agricultural Cropping - Sugar Cane	1 581 097	1 738 147	9.9
Agriculture Cropping - Other	3 935 664	3 908 004	-0.7
Livestock Grazing	17 376 227	15 007 853	-13.6
Livestock - Special Purpose Structures	377 537	411 573	9.0
Horticulture - Orchards	333 825	396 746	18.8
Horticulture - Other	215 005	195 170	-9.2
Horticulture - Special Purpose Structural Improvements	69 450	57 172	-17.7
Forestry - Commercial Timber Production	111 195	85 336	-23.3
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells).
Any discrepancies between totals and sums of components in this publication are due to rounding.

Other land uses

The net area of land classified as 'Industrial' reported modest changes with an increase of 2,827 hectares (or 3.7%), while the unimproved value of this land use increased by $3.2 billion (or 17%) between 2011 and 2016. Approximately $1.6 billion of this increase in value came from land that had been previously classified as ‘Vacant Residential’.

Land classified as 'Extractive Industries' remained relatively stable in both area and value between 2011 and 2016. The total net area decreased by 1.3% (or 13,869 hectares) from 1.10 million hectares to 1.09 million hectares. In contrast, the total value of 'Extractive Industries' increased from $539.9 million to $550.2 million (an increase of 1.9%).

In both 2011 and 2016, 'Infrastructure, Utilities and Community Services’ made up a small (less than 0.01%) proportion of total land use in Queensland. Nonetheless, this land use experienced an increase in land area of 10% (from 4,118 hectares to 4,536 hectares between 2011 and 2016). The land value of 'Infrastructure, Utilities and Community Services’ increased 16% (or $280.2 million) over the same time period, from $1.8 billion to $2.1 billion.