SoE2020: Rural Land Use Change in Queensland, 1999-2020

Since 1999, the proportion of Queensland that is rural land not settled has increased by 6.9 million hectares (34.26%). The data, provided by the Queensland Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, shows Cape York Natural Resource Management region had the greatest increase (2,039,292ha) while Southern Gulf NRM region had the least (53,072ha). It was last updated in May 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze regional differences in rural land expansion based on Natural Resource Management region statistics
• Model long-term land use trends based on the 1999-2020 time frame
• Assess environmental policy impacts on land conversion rates based on the reported percentage changes

Strengths

• Provides specific percentage (34.26%) and absolute (6.9 million ha) change figures for the state.
• Includes granular regional comparisons, citing a 38.1% increase for Cape York NRM and a 3.0% increase for Southern Gulf NRM.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

[email protected], Queensland Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation

Time Range

1999 to 2020

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-27 14:38:55.702246; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Queensland, Australia, with breakdowns by Natural Resource Management regions