National Land Account, Experimental Estimates

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The National Land Account provides statistics to measure changes in land attributes over time, both from an economic and an environmental perspective.

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Reference period
2021
Released
27/11/2024
Next release Unknown

Key statistics

  • The area of land that was managed for resource protection (e.g. reserves) increased nationally by 14.1 million hectares between 2015–16 and 2020–21.
  • 56.2 million hectares of natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous land (e.g. grassland) became natural surfaces (e.g. bare earth) between 2015 and 2020.
  • Total land value increased 48.4% to $7,733.0 billion between 2015–16 and 2020–21.

Land Use

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

In 2020–21:
  • 43.6% of total land (335.2 million hectares) was grazing native vegetation (e.g. unmodified grazing land)
  • 19.4% of total land (149.3 million hectares) was managed resource protection (e.g. reserves)
  • 10.8% of total land (82.9 million hectares) was other minimal use (e.g. largely unused land)
  • 9.4% of total land (72.2 million hectares) was nature conservation (e.g. national parks).

*Includes all other land use classes.

 

Definitions of each class for land use, cover, tenure, and value can be found in the Classifications section of the land account methodology page.

Land use data included in this release is preliminary for all financial years. As a result, estimates for these financial years will differ from the Land use of Australia 2010–11 to 2020–21 data when published by ABARES later this year. ABS will include published land use data in a future update to the National Land Account. For details refer to the methodology section of this publication.

Between 2015–16 and 2020–21:

Managed resource protection increased by 14.1 million hectares (10.5%), of which:

  • 12.8 million hectares were previously other minimal use
  • 1.2 million hectares were previously nature conservation
  • 0.1 million hectares were previously grazing native vegetation.

This was primarily driven by an increase in Western Australia (13.7 million hectares).

Production native forests increased by 0.8 million hectares (10.2%), of which:

  • 1.1 million hectares were previously other minimal use
  • 0.3 million hectares transitioned to nature conservation.

This was primarily driven by increases in Victoria (0.5 million hectares), Queensland (0.4 million hectares), and New South Wales (0.2 million hectares), and a decrease in Tasmania (0.3 million hectares).

Grazing modified pastures increased by 2.5 million hectares (5.5%), of which:

  • 1.0 million hectares was previously other minimal use
  • 0.8 million hectares was previously grazing native vegetation
  • 0.6 million hectares was previously dryland cropping.

This was primarily driven by increases in New South Wales (0.8 million hectares), Queensland (0.7 million hectares), and Western Australia (0.7 million hectares).

Land Cover

Land cover refers to the observed physical and biological cover of the Earth’s surface and includes natural vegetation and abiotic (non-living) surfaces.

In 2020:
  • 43.4% of total land (334.4 million hectares) was natural surfaces (e.g. bare earth or rock)
  • 37.6% of total land (289.3 million hectares) was natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous (e.g. grassland)
  • 11.6% of total land (89.1 million hectares) was natural terrestrial vegetated: woody (e.g. tree covered)
  • 6.7% of total land (51.5 million hectares) was cultivated terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous (e.g. agricultural land).

*Includes all other land cover classes.

Between 2015 and 2020:

Natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous decreased by 70.0 million hectares (-19.5%), of which:

  • 56.2 million hectares transitioned to natural surfaces
  • 10.3 million hectares transitioned to cultivated terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous
  • 3.5 million hectares transitioned to natural terrestrial vegetated: woody.

This was primarily driven by decreases in Western Australia (-28.7 million hectares), the Northern Territory (-22.1 million hectares), and New South Wales (-12.5 million hectares).

Cultivated terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous increased by 4.1 million hectares (8.6%), of which: 

  • 10.3 million hectares was previously natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous
  • 4.8 million hectares transitioned to natural surfaces
  • 1.4 million hectares transitioned to natural terrestrial vegetated: woody.

This was primarily driven by increases in New South Wales (5.6 million hectares) and Victoria (1.7 million hectares), and a decrease in Western Australia (-3.4 million hectares).

Natural terrestrial vegetated: woody increased by 3.1 million hectares (3.6%), of which:

  • 3.5 million hectares was previously natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous
  • 1.4 million hectares was previously cultivated terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous
  • 1.8 million hectares transitioned to natural surfaces.

This was primarily driven by increases in New South Wales (1.9 million hectares), Queensland (1.8 million hectares), and Victoria (1.5 million hectares), and a decrease in Western Australia (-2.7 million hectares).

Land Tenure

Land tenure is the manner in which a party holds or occupies an area of land. It is a way of identifying who has the right to use and occupy land in accordance with the different types of ownership.

In 2020–21:
  • 30.8% of total land (237.0 million hectares) was freehold
  • 27.7% of total land (213.1 million hectares) was pastoral term lease
  • 13.1% of total land (100.7 million hectares) was other crown land
  • 11.1% of total land (85.4 million hectares) was pastoral perpetual lease.

*Includes all other land tenure classes.

Freehold category includes freehold and freehold Indigenous tenure types i.e. land held by Indigenous land trusts.

Between 2015–16 and 2020–21:

Freehold increased by 8.0 million hectares (3.5%), of which:

  • 3.3 million hectares were previously other perpetual lease
  • 1.9 million hectares were previously pastoral term lease
  • 1.4 million hectares were previously freeholding lease.

This was primarily driven by an increase in Queensland (5.6 million hectares).

Pastoral term lease decreased by 2.8 million hectares (-1.3%), of which:

  • 1.9 million hectares transitioned to freehold
  • 0.6 million hectares transitioned to pastoral perpetual lease
  • 0.2 million hectares transitioned to other term lease.

This was primarily driven by decreases in South Australia (-1.2 million hectares), Queensland (-1.0 million hectares), and the Northern Territory (-0.6 million hectares).

Nature conservation reserve increased by 0.6 million hectares (1.0%), of which:

  • 0.2 million hectares were previously other crown land
  • 0.2 million hectares were previously pastoral perpetual lease
  • 0.1 million hectares were previously pastoral term lease.

This was primarily driven by increases in New South Wales (0.4 million hectares) and Western Australia (0.3 million hectares).

Freehold category includes freehold and freehold Indigenous tenure types i.e. land held by Indigenous land trusts.

Land Value

As of 30 June 2021, total land value was $7,733.0 billion: 

  • 82.0% ($6,340.4 billion) of total land value was residential
  • 7.2% ($559.0 billion) of total land value was commercial
  • 5.5% ($422.6 billion) of total land value was rural
  • 5.3% ($411.0 billion) of total land value was government.
Between 2015–16 and 2020–21:
  • The value of land increased 48.4% nationally, from $5,212.3 billion to $7,733.0 billion.
  • Value of residential and rural land increased 52.1% and 52.0% respectively, the largest percentage increases nationally.
  • New South Wales accounted for 39.3% of the total land value of Australia while only accounting for 10.4% of land area.
  • Tasmanian and Victorian residential land value increased 91.5% and 61.8% respectively, the largest percentage increases of all the states and territories.
  • The value of commercial land decreased in Western Australia (-12.0%) and the value of government land decreased in the Northern Territory (-6.9%). These were the only states to experience a decrease in these land value classes.

Land tenure within nature conservation areas

In 2020–21, nature conservation areas in Australia had the following tenure ownership:

  • 59.5% (42.9 million hectares) was nature conservation reserve
  • 18.8% (13.6 million hectares) was freehold
  • 11.3% (8.1 million hectares) was other crown land.

*Includes all other land tenure classes.

Freehold category includes freehold and freehold Indigenous tenure types i.e. land held by Indigenous land trusts.

Across the states and territories:
  • Nature conservation reserve ownership was highest in the Australian Capital Territory (99.4%), followed by Victoria (95.6%) and New South Wales (88.8%).
  • Freehold ownership was highest in the Northern Territory (61.3%), followed by South Australia (52.1%) and Queensland (26.4%).
  • Other crown land ownership was highest in Western Australia (26.8%), followed by the Northern Territory (8.2%) and South Australia (0.8%).

*Includes all other land tenure classes.

Freehold category includes freehold and freehold Indigenous tenure types i.e. land held by Indigenous land trusts.

Related information

National Land Cover Account, 2020

Data downloads

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Data cubes

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Methodology

National Land Account, Experimental Estimates methodology, 2021