What is the definition of a forest?

A forest can be defined as an area that incorporates all living and non-living things and is dominated by trees that can grow to at least 2 metres high, with a canopy that covers 20% or more of the ground area (DAFF, 2010).

Forests are of course, so much more than that. They are ecosystems - a dynamic, constantly changing community of living things, interacting with non-living components. Forests are valued on social, environmental, cultural and economic factors, and are used, loved and appreciated by most people.

Australia’s forests occupy 149.4 million hectares; or 19% of the country’s total land area (DAFF, 2010). Two million hectares of this is comprised of planted forests otherwise known as plantations, established specifically to grow mostly wood products, with the remaining 147.4 million hectares comprised of a broad range of natural forest types.

Most of our forests are dominated by the evergreen broad leaved eucalypts, however a broad range of other tree species (e.g. acacias, melaleuca, and casuarinas) are represented in our forests as a whole.

The distribution of native forest across Australian states and territories is illustrated in the following pie chart. It highlights that the majority of native forests are in Queensland, the Northern Territory, NSW and WA, whereas Tasmania, the ACT, Victoria and SA have minimal areas of native forest.

The species found in Australia’s forests have evolved over many millions of years in isolation, as the continent split from the landmass of Gondwanaland about 135 million years ago. This has lead to the remnants of ancient forest compositions still found in some areas, alongside species that have subsequently evolved to cope with a regime of frequent bushfires, both natural and human caused. This makes many of Australia’s forest ecosystems quite unique as many species are found no-where else in the world.

Forests are most commonly described by type (the dominant tree species present), but can also be defined by their average height and canopy cover class (i.e. leaf cover). The most common forest height is between 10 - 30 metres, and the most extensive canopy cover class is described as woodland (between 20-50% canopy cover) typical of many forested areas in Australia.