The absolute and relative areas of the major landcover types of the Australian continent.
Most categories are the vegetation classes used in AUSLIG (1990). Some of these 28 classes are omitted because they are too small to meaningfully map. These figures have been determined for before the arrival of European Australians in 1788 and are taken directly from p. 54 of the Atlas of Australian resources, Volume 6, "Vegetation", AUSLIG (1990).
| Code | Structural form | Area (1000 km2) |
Area ( % ) |
Totals |
| T4 | Tall closed forest | 1 | - | T = < 1% |
| T3 | Tall open forest | 62 | 0.8 | |
| M4 | Closed forest | 37 | 0.5 | M = 23% |
| M3 | Open forest | 547 | 7.1 | |
| M2 | Woodland | 1003 | 13.1 | |
| M1 | Open woodland | 174 | 2.3 | |
| L4 | Low closed forest | 8 | - | L = 27% |
| L3 | Low open forest | 33 | 0.4 | |
| L2 | Low woodland | 571 | 7.4 | |
| L1 | Low open woodland | 1476 | 19.2 | |
| S3 | Open scrub | 90 | 1.2 | S = 34% |
| S2 | Tall shrubland | 1138 | 14.8 | |
| S1 | Tall open shrubland | 1363 | 17.7 | |
| Z3 | Open heath | 13 | 0.2 | Z = ~6% |
| Z2 | Low shrubland | 372 | 4.8 | |
| Z1 | Low open shrubland | 101 | 1.3 | |
| H2 | Hummock grassland | 45 | 0.6 | |
| G4 | Closed grassland | 14 | 0.2 | G = ~7% |
| G3 | Tussock grassland | 359 | 4.7 | |
| G2 | Open tussock grassland | 115 | 1.5 | |
| G1 | Sparse grassland | 14 | 0.2 | |
| F4 | Dense sown pasture | - | - | F = ~1% |
| F3 | Sown pasture | - | - | |
| F1 | Sparse open herbfield | 59 | 0.8 | |
| Littoral | 22 | 0.3 | ||
| No vegetation | 65 | 0.8 | N = ~1% |