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A woodland monitoring network has been progressively established within the 60 Mha of Queensland's grazed woodlands since 1982. A subset of monitoring sites within this network has been demonstrated to represent a study area of 27 Mha of eucalypt woodlands. The results from monitoring this study area have shown that the woody biomass stocks are increasing. This woody plant proliferation or thickening is providing a large carbon sink of 18 Mt C /yr in the 27 Mha study area. If extrapolated over the 60 Mha of grazed woodlands in Queensland, the carbon sink is approximately 35 Mt C/yr, which is equivalent to 25% of Australia's net emissions in 1999. This sink is not currently included in Australia's greenhouse gas inventory. The woody plant proliferation is also reducing pasture growth affecting the productivity and viability of livestock producing properties.