NSW Identified Wilderness Areas Under the Wilderness Act 1987

Boundaries of identified wilderness areas in New South Wales, Australia, under Section 6 of the Wilderness Act 1987. The dataset is provided by the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and was last updated on May 12, 2026. It represents areas assessed as meeting statutory wilderness criteria, including being substantially unmodified by humans and of sufficient size.

Use Cases

• Map wilderness conservation priorities based on statutory criteria mentioned in the description.
• Analyze spatial relationships between identified wilderness and other land uses based on boundary data.
• Support environmental impact assessments by identifying areas with recognized wilderness values.
• Inform land management policy by distinguishing between identified and declared wilderness areas as described.

Strengths

• Data is defined by a specific legal framework, the Wilderness Act 1987.
• Boundaries are officially identified by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.
• Dataset is licensed under CC-BY-4.0 for open reuse.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Freshness should be verified as the last update date is in the future (2026-05-12).

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Areas are nominated and then assessed by the Department of Planning and Environment against criteria in the Wilderness Act 1987.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-12 15:55:22.828990

Geography

New South Wales, Australia