About the database
The Species of National Environmental Significance Database contains data on the distribution of species related to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

Southern Corroborree Frog
The distributions are produced by spatial ecologists in the Department using modelling software and environmental data to map the known and predicted areas of occurrence of EPBC Act listed species, including areas of potential habitat. The data are indicative rather than definitive, and they are a starting point for further investigation rather than the outcome of a comprehensive scientific assessment.
Species of National Environmental Significance (public grids)
To provide information to the community about Australia’s protected species, and in line with the Government’s policy of open data access, the Department’s threatened and migratory species distributions have been generalised to a 1 km grid resolution (0.01°) (or ~10km for species classed as sensitive by respective States and Territories). The generalised product is aimed at addressing concerns regarding the release of detailed locations of species sensitive to illegal collection and disturbance while still providing public access to the distributions of threatened species. The data are not suitable for either local scale analysis or area-based calculations.
The GIS data are coded as: ‘Species or species habitat likely to occur’ and ‘Species or species habitat may occur’. A ‘known to occur’ category is not identified in this product and has been included in the ‘Likely to occur’ category.
The Department aims to update the public grids every six months. Please note the source database is continuously updated as lists of species on schedules of the EPBC Act are amended or new information becomes available. The list of species, taxonomic names and status under the Act may therefore have changed since the data was extracted.
Prior to using any listing status against a species, please refer to the threatened species & ecological communities or Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT) webpages for current information.
Each update released supersedes all previous versions including the earlier 10km gridded threatened and migratory species maps and data products.
Download the latest GIS data
For further information, or to provide feedback, email: sprat@environment.gov.au