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.

References

v

van Gorsel E, Wolf S, Cleverly J, Isaac P, Haverd V, Ewenz C et al. (2016). Carbon uptake and water use in woodlands and forests in southern Australia during an extreme heat wave event in the ‘angry summer’ of 2012/2013. Biogeosciences 13(21):5947–5964.

V

Varcoe T, O’Shea HB & Contreras Z (2015). Valuing Victoria’s parks – accounting for ecosystems and valuing their benefits: report of first phase findings, Parks Victoria & Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Melbourne.

Venter O, Sanderson EW, Magrach A, Allan JR, Beher J, Jones KR, Possingham HP, Laurance WF, Wood P, Fekete BM, Levy MA & Watson JEM (2016a). Global terrestrial human footprint maps for 1993 and 2009. Scientific Data 3(1):160067.

Venter O, Sanderson EW, Magrach A, Allan JR, Beher J, Jones KR, Possingham HP, Laurance WF, Wood P, Fekete BM, Levy MA & Watson JEM (2016b). Sixteen years of change in the global terrestrial human footprint and implications for biodiversity conservation. Nature Communications 7(1):12558.

Villalobos Y, Rayner PJ, Silver JD, Thomas S, Haverd V, Knauer J, Loh ZM, Deutscher NM, Griffith DWT & Pollard DF (2021). Was Australia a sink or source of CO₂ in 2015? Data assimilation using OCO-2 satellite measurements. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussion 2021:1–44.

Viscarra Rossel RA, Chen C, Grundy MJ, Searle R, Clifford D & Campbell PH (2015). The Australian three-dimensional soil grid: Australia’s contribution to the GlobalSoilMap project. Soil Research 53(8):845–864.

Viscarra Rossel RA, Lee J, Behrens T, Luo Z, Baldock J & Richards A (2019a). Soil organic carbon fractions and vulnerability: particulate, humus and resistant organic carbon (dataset), version 4, CSIRO, Canberra, https://doi.org/10.25919/5ca56d1d0166b.

Viscarra Rossel RA, Lee J, Behrens T, Luo Z, Baldock J & Richards A (2019b). Continental-scale soil carbon composition and vulnerability modulated by regional environmental controls. Nature Geoscience 12(7):547–552.