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

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Wise BS, Telfer CF, Lai EKM, Hall NG & Jackson G (2012). Long-term monitoring of boat-based recreational fishing in Shark Bay, Western Australia: providing scientific advice for sustainable management in a World Heritage Area. Marine and Freshwater Research 63(11):1129–1141.

Lynch TP (2014). A decadal time-series of recreational fishing effort collected during and after implementation of a multiple use marine park shows high inter-annual but low spatial variability. Fisheries Research 151:85–90.

Ochwada-Doyle FA, Mcleod J, Barrett G, Clarke G & Gray CA (2014). Spatial patterns of recreational exploitation in eastern Australian ROFAs: implications for zonal management. Fisheries Management and Ecology 21(5):383–397.

Wood G, Lynch TP, Devine C, Keller K & Figueira W (2016). High‐resolution photo‐mosaic time‐series imagery for monitoring human use of an artificial reef. Ecology and Evolution 6(19):6963–6968.

Lynch TP, Smallwood CB, Ochwada-Doyle FA, Lyle J, Williams J, Ryan KL, Devine C, Gibson B & Jordan A (2020). A cross continental scale comparison of Australian offshore recreational fisheries research and its applications to marine park and fisheries management. ICES Journal of Marine Science 77(3):1190–1205.