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We recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the sovereign Traditional Owners of Australia and thank them for their stewardship of this Country, its lands, waters and skies. We respectfully acknowledge their culture and customary practices, and pay respect to their Ancestors, Elders and future leaders.

For the first time, the State of the Environment report includes a strong Indigenous narrative across all 12 thematic chapters, a narrative crafted through recognising the leadership, collaboration and authorship of Indigenous Australians who continue their connection as Traditional Owners to their lands, waters and skies.

Click to view the State of the Environment report

 

On 28 March 2025 the government assumed a Caretaker role. Information on websites maintained by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water will be published in accordance with the Guidance on Caretaker Conventions until after the conclusion of the caretaker period.

Due to technical issues, graphs, maps and tables are currently not displaying within the main content, however, are available via the chapter resources navigation bar. We are working on a solution to resolve the issue.

Graphs, maps and tables

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Figure 01 Total number of Indigenous heritage listed sites on state and territory statutory registers, 30 June 2020
Graph showing that the highest number of sites is in New South Wales (around 100 thousand) followed by Victoria (around 40 thousand).

ACT = Australian Capital Territory; NSW = New South Wales; NT = Northern Territory; Qld = Queensland; SA = South Australia; Tas = Tasmania; Vic = Victoria; WA = Western Australia

Notes:

  1. Figures for NSW are from the Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System, for Qld from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Heritage Database, for the NT from the Archaeological Sites Database, and for the ACT from the Indigenous sites database.
  2. The NT figures include 143 sites classified as Macassan (but the number of Macassan sites is likely to be higher).
  3. A small number of Indigenous heritage places are also listed on national lists, and on some state and territory heritage registers established under general or historic heritage legislation, but these places have not been included here due to their generally small number and overlaps in some cases.

Source: McConnell (2021d)

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For more information, go toIndigenous heritage
Figure 02 Number of Indigenous heritage sites added each year to state and territory statutory registers, June 2016 to June 2020, aggregated
Graph showing that the sites added per year is reasonably consistent. New South Wales has added around 17 thousand since 2016, Queensland more than 4 thousand and Victoria just under 3 thousand.

NSW = New South Wales; Qld = Queensland; SA = South Australia; Tas = Tasmania; Vic = Victoria; WA = Western Australia

Notes:

  1. Figures for NSW are from the Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System (no data were supplied for 2015–16), and for Qld from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Heritage Database.
  2. No data were supplied for the Australian Capital Territory or the Northern Territory.
  3. No places were removed from lists except in Western Australia, where 20 places were removed between June 2016 and June 2020 (no data were supplied for NSW).

Source: McConnell (2021d)

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For more information, go toIndigenous heritage
Figure 03 A koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) – one of Australia’s iconic species
Figure 04 Australia’s terrestrial and marine protected areas, including Indigenous Protected Areas, highlighting new places since end of 2015
Figure 05 Australia’s National Reserve System, showing the protection level of Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia regions, 2020 (left); and change in protection level of regions, 2016–20 (right)
Figure 06 Pressures that are considered to have the greatest impact on natural heritage, in terms of survival, condition and integrity, 2021
Bar graph showing that the highest-ranked pressures are rising temperature from climate change, altered fire regimes due to climate change and inadequate government resourcing.

Note: Ranking is based on aggregating the survey respondents’ 5 pressures identified as having the greatest impact on natural heritage. A value of ‘1’ was allocated to each selected pressure.

Source: McConnell (2021a)

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Go to data.gov
For more information, go toNatural heritage
Figure 07 Expert opinion on priority management actions for improving protection of Australia’s natural heritage
Figure 08 Marnpi dreaming, bronzewing pigeon, 1994
Figure 09 A-tents, Cooleman Plain, Kosciuszko National Park
Figure 10 Pressures that are are considered to have the greatest impact on geoheritage