Get reliable rangeland science

Domestic livestock statistics across all Australian jurisdictions have been collected since 1788. Cattle, sheep and horse numbers for the period were digitised from paper sources. Statistical district boundaries were also digitised from mapping sources for each year and coded to link to the digitised livestock records. Estimation of pre-European vegetation, natural waters, the development of stock water areas (bores, small dams), irrigation (fodder crops and pastures) and protected areas were used to distribute livestock within each statistical district for each year. This work focuses on historical data as part of an undertaking to produce a comprehensive Australian high resolution time series map (1km2 grid) of livestock from 1788 to 1980. Such data is of use in grazing system models and other applications such as estimating long term methane emissions to help understand the long-term impacts of domestic livestock grazing pressures on the landscape and atmosphere. This data collection shows a decline in data quality, due to the declining number and increased areas of statistical districts reporting livestock population. The results document the expansion of domestic livestock in area and numbers from first settlement and the probable distribution at a finer scale.