Rangelands Overview - Queensland
- The rangelands cover most of Queensland (>70%), being mainly absent from the wetter eastern parts of the State.
- Throughout the central eastern and south eastern areas the rangelands form a mosaic with cropping lands which occur mainly on fertile clay soils that originally carried brigalow forest and bluegrass grassland communities.
- There are 13 bioregions wholly or partly within the rangelands of Queensland.
- The climate ranges from hot and dry desert in the south west of the state through to sub tropical and tropical in the north where the rainfall is summer dominant.
- Major river catchments include the Murray Darling Basin and the Lake Eyre Basin. Bioregions in the north generally drain into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Some bioregions have rivers that flow to the east of the Great Dividing Range.
- Land tenure includes leasehold, freehold and conservation areas. Freehold areas tend to be more prominent in the more mesic eastern and southeastern parts of the State. Aboriginal land is generally confined to Cape York Peninsula.
- Leasehold land is administered by the Department of Natural Resources. Other agencies with major interests in rangelands management are Department of Primary Industries and the Environment Protection Agency that manages national parks and reserves.
- World Heritage Areas include Riversleigh fossil mammal site in northwest Queensland.
- Vegetation types vary from semi arid tussock grasslands in the south west, through to Mitchell grass downs and a range of woodlands from semi arid to tropical.
- Pastoralism is the major land use with the beef industry found throughout the rangelands. The sheep industry is generally confined to the central western and southwestern areas of the rangelands.
- Summer (eg. grain sorghum, sunflower) and winter (eg. wheat, oats) crops are grown in the cropping lands.
- Irrigation for cotton and other crops occurs within the rangelands.
- Mining is an important industry including base metals at Mount Isa, bauxite at Weipa, coal in the Bowen Basin and natural gas and oil in the south west of the state.
- Significant Aboriginal populations occur mainly in the north, particularly in Cape York
Administration Arrangements
The Queensland Government has three agencies with responsibility for natural resource management in rangelands:
- Department of Natural Resources who assess and monitor Queensland's lands to ensure they are managed as effectively as possible. They are responsible for administering over 36,000 leases and other tenures over the State and are responsible for the following legislation - Land Act 1994, Water Resources Act 1989, Integrated Planning Act 1997 and the Rural Lands Protection Act 1985.
- Environment Protection Agency who have the key functions of environmental and biodiversity planning and along with their business group Queensland Park and Wildlife Service are charged with protecting Queensland's natural heritage in an ecologically sustainable way. They are responsible for the Environmental Protection Act 1994 and the Nature Conservation Act 1992.
- Department of Primary Industries is the rural economic development agency for Queensland's agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries. In the rangelands they are responsible for R.D.&E. to deliver economic, social and environmental benefits to Queensland.
Further Information
Link to photographic sequences
Link to the Map Maker to make a map using this information.
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