Land cover change and its environmental significance in the Herbert River catchment, north-east Queensland

There has been considerable recent concern over the amount of vegetation cl earance in the wet tropics of northern Australia. This paper reports on the results of a case study undertaken in the lower Herbert River catchment in north-east Queensland, which utilised remote sensing and Geographic Inform ation Systems (GIS) to assess both spatial and temporal changes in land cov er since European settlement in the mid-nineteenth century. We demonstrate that since European settlement there has been a substantial reduction in th e area of Melaleuca, rainforest, and eucalyptus-dominated land-cover patter ns. We also provide a range of quantitative measures to show that the lands cape diversity, integrity and quality of these ecosystems have also decline d between the 1860s and 1996. We conclude that reform is required at policy , planning and enterprise levels if the ecological, economic and social val ues of these systems are to be maintained in the future.