Ag Mag | the agriculture newsletter

LAND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN THE GREAT BARRIER REEF CATCHMENTS: RELEASE OF FINAL DATA

The December 2009 addition of the Ag Mag broadly outlined the collection strategy for the land management practices survey conducted in the Great Barrier Reef catchment from August 2009.

Preliminary results from this survey were released on the 22nd December 2009 in Land Management Practices in the Great Barrier Reef Catchments, Preliminary, 2008-09 (cat.no. 4619.0). The survey covered 28 of the 30 catchments draining into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. These 28 catchments cover a total land area of over 38 million hectares across 5 Natural Resource Management (NRM) Regions stretching from the Daintree World Heritage area in the north to the Sunshine Coast in the south.

The preliminary release produced experimental estimates of land used for agriculture, fertiliser application, herbicide use and ground cover in riparian regions for each of the 5 NRM regions.

Following up on the preliminary results, the ABS plans to release final experimental estimates in Land Management Practices in the Great Barrier Reef Catchment, Final, 2008-09 (cat. no. 4619.0.55.001), on 23 April 2010. Most tables will describe land management practices at the catchment level with the possible inclusion of experimental estimates for properties grouped by the size of the holding and estimates for the four sub-catchments in the Burnett River catchment.

In addition several maps will be produced to illustrate the spatial aspect of the data.

For more information please contact Eric Morris on 02 6252 7332 or by email at eric.morris@abs.gov.au.