Australia has many forests of importance due to significant features, despite being one of the driest continents. As of 2009[update], Australia has approximately 147 millionhectares of native forest, which represents about 19% of Australia's land area.[1] The majority of Australia's trees are hardwoods, typicallyeucalypts, rather than softwoods like pine. While softwoods dominate some native forests, their total area is judged insufficient to constitute a major forest type inAustralia's National Forest Inventory.[2] TheForests Australia website provides up-to-date information on Australia's forests. Detailed information on Australia's forests is available fromAustralia's State of the Forests Reports that are published every five years.
There are 458 forest communities distributed across Australia. These have been grouped into the following seven native forest types, which are characterised by dominant species and the structure of the forest:
Plantation forests (softwood and hardwood) have been defined as an eighth group that covers trees planted for commercial use.
In Australia the states and territories are responsible for managing forests.[3] Guidance is primarily provided by the 1992 National Forest Policy Statement (NFPS).[4] The NFPS allows for the inclusion ofRegional Forest Agreements, which are 20-year plans for the management of native forests.
| Forest | State | Image | Notable features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine National Park | Victoria |  | Extensive mountain ash and snowgum forests. |
| D'Aguilar National Park | Queensland | Large nature reserve on the western boundary of the City of Brisbane, bordering on theMount Coot-tha Reserve, that supports a large variety of native plants and animals. | |
| Brown Mountain forest | Victoria |  | Located inEast Gippsland, Victoria, abuts theErrinundra National Park, and is notable for containing large tracts of old growth forest, including over fifty mountain ash trees estimated to be over 300 years old. The eucalypt forest provides key habitat for rare and threatened species such as thepowerful owl, thespotted quoll, mainland Australia's largest marsupial carnivore, and thelong-footed potoroo, Victoria's rarest marsupial. Campaigns to protect the area from logging led to blockades and non-violent direct action in 1990 and 2009.[5] |
| Central Highlands (Victoria) | Victoria |  | Contain cooltemperate rainforests; dominated bymyrtle beech andsouthern sassafras, with an understorey of ferns and mosses. They may also containeucalypt trees andAustralian blackwood. Eastern forests of the Central Highlands such as theToolangi State Forest and Melbourne's forested water catchments provide habitat for the threatenedLeadbeater's possum. |
| Cumberland Plain Woodland | New South Wales |  | Found in scattered forms in theGreater Western Sydney area, it is made up of drysclerophyll woodlands and forests, reminiscent of theMediterranean forests, totaling only around 6400 hectares. Grey Box (Eucalyptus moluccana) and Forest Red Gum (Eucalyptus tereticornis) dominate the woodland. |
| Wet Tropics Rainforest | Queensland |  | Tropicalrainforest nearTropical North Queensland. At around 1200 square kilometres the Wet Tropics Rainforest is a part ofAustralia's largest contiguous area of rainforest. Contains 30% offrog,marsupial andreptile species in Australia, and 65% of Australia'sbat andbutterfly species. 20% ofbird species in the country can be found in this area including the threatenedcassowary. Added to the World Heritage List in 1988. This followed campaigning by environmentalists, including blockades against logging and road construction earlier in the decade.[5] |
| Disappointment Reference Area | Victoria | Extensive mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forest with dense treeferns along many creeks. Prior to the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, which burnt the majority of the reference area, this forest has not been burned since the 1700s, making many of the trees ~300 years old. | |
| Errinundra forests | Victoria |  | TheErrinundra National Park in East Gippland contains the largest remaining cool temperate rainforests in Victoria. Theseold growth forests harbour many rare and threatened species of flora and fauna, includingpowerful owls,tiger quolls andlong-footed potoroos. |
| Gloucester National Park | Western Australia |  | Karri eucalyptus forests that includes theGloucester Tree,Western Australia's most famous karri tree (pictured) |
| Gondwana Rainforests of Australia | New South Wales | .jpg) | Remnants ofGondwanaland forests. Pictured isPoint Lookout, New England National Park, NSW. |
| Goolengook | Victoria | Old growth cool temperate rainforest in Eastern Victoria. | |
| Great Otway National Park | Victoria |  | Diverse range of landscapes and vegetation types including some old growth eucalyptus forest. |
| Karawatha Forest | Queensland |  | Protected bushland atKarawatha, Queensland. |
| Kinglake National Park | Victoria |  | Whilemuch of the forest area was logged in the early part of the 20th century, many old growth trees remain. |
| Lake Mountain | Victoria |  | Old growth mountain ash and snowgum forests, including habitat for the threatenedLeadbeater's possum. |
| Lamington National Park | Queensland/New South Wales |  | PartGondwana Rainforests of Australia of theWorld Heritage site on theQueensland/New South Wales border. One of the largest uplandsubtropical rainforest remnants in the world and the most northernsouthern beech cool temperate rainforest in Australia. |
| Leard State Forest | New South Wales | The biggest remnant of natural bushland on the Liverpool Plains in north-west NSW and the most extensive and intact stand of the nationally listed critically endangered box-gum woodland remaining in Australia. It is habitat for 34 critically endangered species and several endangered ecological communities.[6] | |
| Limpinwood Nature Reserve | New South Wales | World Heritage listed wilderness region of 26 km2 situated in the Border ranges of north easternNew South Wales. Vegetation is primarilysub-tropicalrain forest with some wetsclerophyll forest. | |
| Mount Buffalo National Park | Victoria |  | Over 550 native species occur; the most significant vegetation communities are the alpine and sub-alpine communities. The lower slopes have communities of mixed gum and peppermint, including the bogong gum,Eucalyptus chapmaniana. These grade into pure stands of alpine ash,Eucalyptus delegatensis around 1100 metres elevation, and subalpine woodland of snow gum,Eucalyptus pauciflora above 1300 metres. Numerous endemic plant species. |
| Wollumbin National Park | New South Wales |  | Included in theUNESCO World Heritage Listings in 1986. Extensive subtropical rainforest remnants. |
| Mount Read (Tasmania) | Tasmania | Despite extensive historic mining and human activity on its slopes, Mount Read has unique and significant stands of rareHuon pine forests on its slopes. | |
| Pilliga forest | New South Wales |  | Australia's largest inland native forest. Covering over 450,000 hectares. |
| Sherbrooke Forest | Victoria |  | Wetsclerophyll forest with the dominant tree species being the mountain ash,Eucalyptus regnans, the tallestflowering plant in the world. The forest has recovered well from logging that occurred from the mid-19th century until 1930. Sherbrooke Forest is famous for its population ofsuperb lyrebirds. |
| Springbrook National Park | Queensland |  | Part of theWorld Heritage siteCentral Eastern Rainforest Reserves. Rainforest and eucalypt forest. |
| Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest | New South Wales |  | The main canopy trees are turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera), grey ironbark (Eucalyptus paniculata), narrow-leaved ironbark (Eucalyptus crebra) and red ironbark. Very few remnants of Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest remain. |
| Tarkine | Tasmania |  | Extensive stands of eucalypt forest and cool temperate rainforest that includes ancientmyrtle beech trees. Conservationists have intermittently blockaded logging in the forest since the mid-1990s.[5] |
| Tarra-Bulga National Park | Victoria |  | Remnant cool temperate rainforest in the Stzelecki Ranges. The deeply incised river valleys of the park are dominated by wet sclerophyll tall open forest of mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans), with an understorey of blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon), hazel pomaderris (Pomaderris aspera) and tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica andCyathea australis). Pockets of the park feature cool temperate rainforest, including myrtle beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii). |
| Tuart Forest National Park | Western Australia | Contains rare old growth Tuart (Eucalyptus gomphocephala) forest. | |
| Walpole-Nornalup National Park | Western Australia |  | Contains rare old growth giant Tingle eucalypt forest known as "The Valley of the Giants". |
| Wielangta forest | Tasmania |  | Part of remnant glacial refugia forest and contains blue gum eucalypt forest and pockets of cool temperaterainforest. The forest is a key habitat of rare and threatened species, including theTasmanian wedge-tailed eagle,swift parrot,broad-toothed stag beetle,spotted-tail quoll andeastern barred bandicoot. A rare orchid (Corunastylis nuda) has also been discovered in the forest. |
| Wollemi National Park | New South Wales | Capertee_River.jpg) | Contains the only known wild specimens of theWollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis), a species thought to have become extinct approximately thirty million years ago, but discovered alive in three small stands in 1994. |
Over the years, bushfires have destroyed a lot of trees and this in turn destroyed the habitat of many animals;[7] most notably koalas numbers have decreased nearly 30% across Australia since 2018.[citation needed]
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