Publication Date

7-2025

Publisher

Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development

City

Perth

Abstract

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) monitors and reports on the vegetation condition of pastoral rangelands in Western Australia. Two levels of reporting are provided: every 5 years a full report (this report) details the state, trend and risk of decrease of vegetation condition in the pastoral rangelands using information derived from remotely sensed and on-ground data; in the intervening years, short reports are provided based on remotely sensed data.

This full report is based on remotely sensed vegetation cover data, rainfall data, livestock data and station-level rangeland condition assessment (RCA) data available in November 2024. Data is presented for 23 land conservation districts (LCD) across the pastoral rangelands. Individual LCDs are grouped into Kimberley, Pilbara, Upper Southern Rangelands and Lower Southern Rangelands regions.

Total cover in June–August 2024 was strongly influenced by rainfall in the preceding 1 to 2 years. The risk of the total cover of a key pasture or vegetation functional group falling to or remaining at below-average or very much below-average levels was high or very high in 11 LCDs, which is less than the estimate of 17 LCDs in the 2023 annual report.

Station-level assessment of pasture condition and erosion – using rangeland condition assessment (RCA) – was resumed in 2016 after ceasing in 2009. The RCA data collected since 2016 suggest that pasture condition remains generally worse in the Southern Rangelands compared to the Northern Rangelands. RCA data show that on a regional basis, average changes in the pasture condition were non-significant in the Kimberley, Pilbara and Lower Southern Rangelands, while pasture condition improved in the Upper Southern Rangelands.

Number of Pages

43

Keywords

pastoral rangelands, vegetation cover, cover risk of decline, pasture condition, Western Australia

Disciplines

Agriculture | Environmental Monitoring | Natural Resources Management and Policy | Sustainability

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