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.

Reference

Seymour JR, Doblin MA, Jeffries TC, Brown MV, Newton K, Ralph PJ, Baird M & Mitchell JG (2012). Contrasting microbial assemblages in adjacent water masses associated with the East Australian Current. Environmental Microbiology Reports 4(5):548–555.

Bibiloni-Isaksson J, Seymour JR, Ingleton T, van de Kamp J, Bodrossy L & Brown MV (2016). Spatial and temporal variability of aerobic anoxygenic photoheterotrophic bacteria along the east coast of Australia. Environmental Microbiology 18(12):4485–4500.

Jeffries TC, Curlevski NJ, Brown MV, Harrison DP, Doblin MA, Petrou K, Ralph PJ & Seymour JR (2016). Partitioning of fungal assemblages across different marine habitats: marine fungal biogeography. Environmental Microbiology Reports 8(2):235–238.

Brown MV, van de Kamp J, Ostrowski M, Seymour JR, Ingleton T, Messer LF et al. (2018). Systematic, continental scale temporal monitoring of marine pelagic microbiota by the Australian Marine Microbial Biodiversity Initiative. Scientific Data 5:180130.

Raes EJ, Bodrossy L, van de Kamp J, Bissett A, Ostrowski M, Brown MV, Sow SLS, Sloyan B & Waite AM (2018). Oceanographic boundaries constrain microbial diversity gradients in the South Pacific Ocean. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(35):E8266–E8275.

Frade PR, Glasl B, Matthews SA, Mellin C, Serrão EA, Wolfe K, Mumby PJ, Webster NS & Bourne DG (2020). Spatial patterns of microbial communities across surface waters of the Great Barrier Reef. Communications Biology 3:442.

Messer LF, Ostrowski M, Doblin MA, Petrou K, Baird ME, Ingleton T, Bissett A, Van de Kamp J, Nelson T, Paulsen I, Bodrossy L, Fuhrman JA, Seymour JR & Brown MV (2020). Microbial tropicalization driven by a strengthening western ocean boundary current. Global Change Biology 26(10):5613–5629.