Snowy River
Indicator: Land Use
Results for this indicator are also available for [an error occurred while processing this directive]
What the results tell us for Snowy River
Maps of land use in | 1997 | 2000 | 2004 | 2008 (see below)
There have been no major landuse changes reported in Snowy River Shire in the current reporting period. As in 2004, conservation was the main landuse in Snowy River Shire in the current reporting period, accounting for 60% of the total Shire area. The other major landuse was agriculture, comprising some 32% of the Shire area.
How is the land being used now?
As was the case in the previous reporting period, of the total Snowy River Shire area (602,970 hectares), the dominant landuses at the end of the current reporting period were conservation (60%) and agriculture (32%) (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Major landuse in Snow River Shire, June 2008*
*The areas of some categories are too low to appear in the figure.
Source: 2004 State of the Environment Report
What has changed and why?
With no reported changes in landuse within the Shire during the current reporting period, there have been no major broadscale changes in landuse within the Shire between the end of the current and last three reporting periods (see Table 1). Minor changes include a decrease in land under timber production and a corresponding increase in conservation land.
| Landuse Category | 1997 | 2000 | 2004 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | 32% | 32% | 32% | 32% |
| Bushland | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% |
| Conservation | 59% | 59% | 60% | 60% |
| Quarries | 0.01% | 0.01% | 0.01% | 0.01% |
| Timber production | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Urban | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| Waterbodies | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% |
*2008 figures based on no reported changes from 2004.
Source: 2004 State of the Environment Report
Agriculture
The amount of land in the Shire under agricultural production has remained relatively stable since 1997 (see Table 1). With no reported changes in agricultural landuse in the current reporting period, grazing remains the major use of agricultural land (see Figure 2), as the Shire is mostly suitable for this (with varying degrees of productivity) due to the generally poor soils, low moisture during summer, a relatively short frost-free growth season, steep slopes and potential soil erosion.
During the previous reporting period, the area of cropping land increased by approximately 3,000 hectares while the area used for mixed farming decreased by about 2,500 hectares (see Figure 2). It is possible that some of these changes may have been the result of drought conditions. The 2002–03 drought was the third driest year since 1882.
Land capability data for Snowy River Shire, available from the Department of Natural Resources, indicate that only around 1% of the Shire is suitable for regular cultivation, while around 30% is suitable for grazing, with or without occasional cultivation. Of all rural land, 1% is not suitable for agriculture or is best protected by timber and 3% is suitable for regular cultivation (see Land degradation).
Figure 2: Agricultural landuse subcategories in Snowy River Shire in 1997, 2000 and 2004*.
Source: 2004 State of the Environment Report.
*no agricultural landuse subcategory data available for 2008 reporting period.
Timber production
There has been no reported change in the total area of land in the Shire under timber production during the current reporting period. However, during the previous reporting period, the total area of land under timber production decreased by approximately 3,000 hectares. This was due to a reduction in the area of state-owned timber production forests. The area of private lands under timber production has remained stable since 1997.
Bushland
There has been no reported change in the total area of bushland in the Shire during the current reporting period.
Conservation
While there was no reported change in the total area of land under conservation in the current reporting period, the area of land under conservation increased by approximately 3,300 hectares in the 2004 reporting period. This was due to land being rezoned or transferred from timber production and other Crown land under the Southern Regional Forestry Agreement (RFA) to help develop a comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system to protect forest ecosystems and conserve biodiversity.
Eight new nature reserves—Binjura, Bobundara, Ironmungy, Myalla, Ngadang, Nimmo, Paupong and Wullwye—covering approximately 3,300 hectares were dedicated within the Shire during the 2004 reporting period. Seven of these reserves comprised lands transferred from Crown land, while the eighth was transferred from State Forest land. As the majority of these reserves were dedicated over lands formerly zoned environmental protection under Snowy River Shire Council's Local Environmental Plan (LEP), they did not contribute significantly to an increase in conservation landuse within the Shire.
An additional 10,600 hectares of land in the Shire was added to Kosciuszko National Park during the 2004 reporting period. This area was Crown land previously zoned environmental protection under Council's LEP, except for about 300 hectares that was transferred from State Forest.
Future planning
As was reported in the 2004 State of the Environment Report, Council has undertaken a planning project for Jindabyne and the smaller towns and villages within the Shire to investigate lands for potential residential and rural residential growth. The Jindabyne residential planning project has been completed and adopted by Council. Areas have been identified for certain uses, however detailed density calculations have not been undertaken.
About the data
The landuse maps and statistics reported in this section are based on data from NSW State Government agencies, Council and satellite images. The primary purpose of the mapping was to assess trends in landuse change and not to provide an accurate account of the actual areas changed.
Snowy River Shire Council provided LEP data. In general the data provided by Council and State Government departments showed a higher level of detail than satellite classifications. Therefore, these layers were usually used as the primary source of data and supplemented by satellite imagery (Landsat data and SPOT VI data) as needed (mostly for agricultural landuses and bushland). Council provided broad landuse mapping data undertaken by Bordas and Lesslie (2002) to help verify areas of lands zoned rural residential which had been developed as such, and to identify extra areas of cropping and horticulture not picked up by Landsat analysis.
All landuse maps for Snowy River Shire were provided to Council for checking and correction, particularly for 2004 and 2000.
All percentages shown in this indicator are a percentage of the Shire and not a percentage of the landuse type. The extent of the various landuse types (hectares) were calculated from data that had been adjusted (normalised) to take account of (usually minor) differences between the size of Snowy River Shire as gazetted by Council, and the size calculated from spatial data.
There have been no reported changes during the current reporting period from the 2004 reporting period.
References
Bordas, V and Lesslie, R (2002) Land Use Mapping for the Snowy River Catchment in NSW, Bureau of Rural Sciences, Canberra.
