Australian Natural Resources Atlas

Natural Resource Topics

Agriculture - Statistics - Tasmania

Tasmania

Introduction

Tasmania, Australia's only island state, covers an area of 67,800 sq. km, has a coastline of 3000 km, and occupies 0.88% of the total Australian area. It is less than one third the size of Victoria, and approximately 314 km from east to west and slightly more from north to south.

Tasmania is one of the most mountainous islands in the world. The highlands cover two thirds of the state, much of it more than 1000 metres elevation. Tasmania's mountains consist of a high central plateau which gradually breaks up into ranges to the south and west coasts. The eastern part of the plateau is known as the Land of 3000 Lakes. Lake St Clair is Australian's deepest. All the south-west corner of the state is protected. There are 5 mountain ranges and approximately 50 lakes in the South West National Park. There are only 15 national parks in Tasmania but they make up almost 13% of the land. Forests cover 43% of the state.

The climate offers mild summers and cool winters, with much of the mountainous region in the west and south receiving more than 3000 mm per annum, while in the eastern rain shadow rainfall is only about 750 mm. Snow can fall at any time of the year on the mountains and the temperature is likely to drop to freezing point up to 100 days a year.

Most of the population inhabits the south-east region and along the northern coastal strip where the rich soils yield the majority of the crops. Burnie and Devonport handle most of the state's shipping.

Tasmania was known as Van Diemen's Land until 1856. It was discovered by Able Tasman in 1642, and named after the East India governor who had ordered Tasman's expedition. In 1798 George Bass and Matthew Flinders circumnavigated the island and determined that it was separate from New South Wales.

The figures reported here are a subset of the Agricultural Census data from 1982/1983 to 1996/1997 published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, AgStats). The data has been analysed by the Bureau of Rural Sciences using a consistent geographic base. Further information about the data is available from the Australian Spatial Data Directory

Select one of the following Statistical Divisions to view information for that region:

The figures and text are reproduced with permission of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, © Commonwealth of Australia, 2000.

Statistics

Area of region (ha): 6,796,118.29

Area

Agroforestry

Apples

Berry Fruit

Cattle and Calves

Cereals excluding Rice

Grapes

Legumes

Non-Cereal Forage Crops

Oilseeds

Other Livestock

Other Non-Cereal Crops

Other Vegetables

Pastures

Pears

Pigs

Potatoes

Poultry

Sales of Livestock

Sheep and Lambs

Stone Fruit

Further information

Please Note: Not all the selected data items are available for every year or for every statistical region.

The figures reported here are a subset of the Agricultural Census data from 1982/1983 to 1996/1997 published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, AgStats). The data have been analysed by Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Australia to report them using a consistent geographic base. Further information about the data is available through the Australian Spatial Data Directory.

The subset includes 436 data items for plant production and 40 data items for livestock which were commonly available in the AgStats database over the 15 year period and each year for respondents having an Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO) above the cut-off of $22,500.

The data have been concorded by bringing data collected using different geographies to a consistent geographic base, being Version 2.6 Statistical Local Area (SLA) boundaries (ABS, 1996) and using the non-agricultural lands mask from the National Land and Water Resources Audit's National Landuse Map (1996/1997).

Before you download

Most publications are downloadable as PDF files. Adobe Acrobat Reader  is required to view PDF files.

If you are unable to access a publication, please contact us to organise a suitable alternative format.

Key

   Links to an another web site
   Opens a pop-up window