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

Johnson CR, Banks SC, Barrett NS, Cazassus F, Dunstan PK, Edgar GJ et al. (2011). Climate change cascades: shifts in oceanography, species’ ranges and subtidal marine community dynamics in eastern Tasmania. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 400(1–2):17–32.

Hyndes GA, Heck KL, Vergés A, Harvey ES, Kendrick GA, Lavery PS, McMahon K, Orth RJ, Pearce A, Vanderklift M, Wernberg T, Whiting S & Wilson S (2016). Accelerating tropicalization and the transformation of temperate seagrass meadows. BioScience 66(11):938–948.

Vergés A, Doropoulos C, Malcolm HA, Skye M, Garcia-Pizá M, Marzinelli EM, Campbell AH, Ballesteros E, Hoey AS, Vila-Concejo A, Bozec YM & Steinberg PD (2016). Long-term empirical evidence of ocean warming leading to tropicalization of fish communities, increased herbivory, and loss of kelp. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113(48):13791–13796.

Gervais CR, Champion C & Pecl GT (2021). Species on the move around the Australian coastline: a continental‐scale review of climate‐driven species redistribution in marine systems. Global Change Biology 27(14):3200–3217.