Pre-1750 Native Vegetation Map of Southern Forests, Australia

3,086,200 hectares of south-eastern New South Wales were mapped to classify terrestrial, wetland, and estuarine vegetation into 206 distinct groups. The dataset, produced by the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, provides a pre-European settlement baseline for the South-east Highlands, Australian Alps, South-west Slopes, and SE Corner bioregions. Mapping was conducted at scales between 1:25,000 and 1:100,000.

Use Cases

• Model historical habitat extent based on the 206 mapped vegetation groups.
• Assess pre-European settlement landscape composition for the Southern Forests region.
• Establish a baseline for measuring vegetation change over time using the detailed spatial mapping.
• Analyze the distribution of wetland and estuarine vegetation types prior to 1750.

Strengths

• Covers a large, precisely defined area of 3,086,200 hectares.
• Provides a detailed classification with 206 distinct vegetation groups.
• Offers a historical baseline with a pre-1750 temporal reference.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to data_gov_au.

Provenance

Source

NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

Collection Method

Vegetation classification and mapping at scales between 1:25,000 and 1:100,000.

Time Range

Pre-1750 baseline.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-12 21:11:45.961265; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Forests region of south-eastern New South Wales, Australia, covering specific bioregions.