Sustainably managing the defence estate: Selected case studies

Abstract

The Australian Defence estate includes extensive training areas and facilities. Almost all Defence facilities were previously managed for other purposes, including forestry and grazing. Today most of the Defence estate is less intensively managed than before, and in most places plant communities are recovering, when compared to a fully natural reference state. Carefully documenting past and contemporary land management practices, and their observed effects on the indicators of vegetation condition over time, provides land managers valuable insights for adaptive management. To illustrate this, the Vegetation Assets States and Transitions (VAST-2) framework was applied to two former Defence sites—the Tianjara Defence Training Area and the Belconnen Naval Transmitter Station—and the current Royal Australian Air Force Base at Amberley. Assessments of the degree of transformation at each site were benchmarked to a fully natural reference state, and underpinned by a comprehensive and systematic chronology of land management practices and standardized criteria and indicators. The analysis provides actionable knowledge for site and landscape management. It also highlights the contribution of deliberate land management regimes to maintaining or improving the condition of the Defence estate for military, biodiversity conservation and national land management purposes.