Environment

More than 70 species found in New South Wales before European settlement are now extinct, including 24 of the arid zone mammal species. Over 1,000 more species are listed as threatened.

The need to find and map mineral resources in the young colony resulted in the New South Wales Government establishing the Geological Survey of New South Wales in 1875.

Demand for groundwater has increased as access to surface water supplies has become constrained. Groundwater resources are now being managed through water sharing plans for sustainable long-term usage.

The New South Wales mining industry makes a significant contribution to the economy. In 2009-10, the estimated value of mineral production in New South Wales was $17 billion.

The NSW park system began with the establishment of the Royal National Park in 1879, the first national park in Australia and the second in the world. Royal National Park was declared ‘for the recreation of the inhabitants of the colony’. Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park was created shortly afterwards in 1894. The first land in Australia to be permanently reserved was Kosciuszko National Park in 1944, the largest national park in NSW and one of the largest conservation areas in Australia.

The River Styles® Framework provides a coherent basis for determining the types of rivers that occur at different positions in the landscape, how these rivers behave, their physical condition and recovery potential.

Land and soil capability classification is a major tool to assess the sustainability of land management practices in New South Wales.

Water use in New South Wales is about 7,000 gigalitres per year. Around 80% of this water is sourced from regulated rivers, those where flows are controlled by large rural water storages.

New South Wales has very diverse types of native vegetation. There are rainforests and deserts, wetlands, heathlands, grasslands, alpine herbfields, and eucalypt forests and woodlands.

In New South Wales, about 6% of the state is wetland and the majority of wetlands are found west of the Great Dividing Range.