Ownership of protected areas 

National Reserve System - Governance Categories

Ownership of protected areas

National Reserve System - Governance Categories (PDF - 1.53 MB)

Over 43 per cent of the protected area estate that is counted towards the area of the National Reserve System (NRS) on the landmass of Australia is in over 7,250 properties that are publicly owned and managed by the Australian government or state and territory governments. These protected areas cover more than 65 million hectares and over eight per cent of Australia.

Indigenous Protected Areas are areas of Indigenous community owned and managed lands protected in Australia. They contribute the largest component (44 per cent) of the NRS covering more than 66 million hectares, which is over eight per cent of Australia. Note that these figures are a representation at the date CAPAD data was acquired and have increased since with new IPA dedications.

There are over 4,250 NRS protected areas on private land covering nearly six per cent of the NRS and over one per cent of Australia. They perform an important role in protecting biodiversity value on private land in the agricultural and pastoral regions of Australia.

Governance of protected areas (source: CAPAD 2020)
Governance Number of
protected areas		 Total area (ha) Proportion of total
protected area		 Percent of Australia Average size (ha)
Community

75

66,678,669

43.90%

8.67%

889,049
Government

7,254

65,505,877

43.13%

8.52%

9,030
Joint

1,810

10,775,813

7.09%

1.40%

5,953
Private

4,253

8,921,111

5.87%

1.16%

2,098
Total

13,392

151,881,469

100%

19.75%

11,341
State and territory levels of protection (source: CAPAD 2020)
Region Area (ha) NRS (ha) % of Jurisdiction
Protected		 Contribution to
NRS (%)		 Number of areas Average size (ha)
ACT 235,815 131,721 55.86% 0.09% 50 2,634
JBT 6,657 5,597 84.08% 0.00% 2 2,799
NSW 80,115,007 7,696,641 9.61% 5.07% 2136 3,603
NT 134,779,163 33,505,136 24.86% 22.06% 84 398,871
QLD 172,974,215 15,070,242 8.71% 9.92% 1,219 12,363
SA 98,432,191 29,654,594 30.13% 19.52% 1,991 14,894
TAS 6,840,139 2,893,241 42.30% 1.90% 1,598 1,811
VIC 22,744,373 3,996,874 17.57% 2.63% 4,468 895
WA 252,701,298 58,887,225 23.30% 38.77% 1,823 32,302
External   40,167 0.00 0.03% 18 2,231
Australia 768,828,859 151,881,469 19.75% 100.00% 13,389 11,344