Australia contains a wide variety of forests, approximately 19% of land used by forests only, which means 149.4 million hectares of land. In which, 147.4 million hectares of area contains native forests and 2 million hectares of area comprises of plantation. Australia is the one of the highest areas of forest in the world and has about 3.75% of the world’s forest. In Australia, native forests are controlled by 78% of eucalypts, subsequently 7% of acacias and 5% of melaleucas. And remaining 2 million hectares of plantation contains exotic softwood and hardwood in equal quantities.
In Australia properties of climate and soil are mainly determines the different types of forests, fire frequency and intensity, which are very important. Most of the Australia land is too dry because to maintain forests as arid or semi-arid lands, which occupies 70% of interior where average annual rainfall is less than 350 millimeters.
Forest conditions and ownership:
Conditions are very important in forest management because the owner of the land has some primary responsibilities for its management.
Here six conditions are recognized for Australia's native forests, which are:
1. Multiple-use public forest: Crown land used for a range of values containing timber harvesting, water conservation and environmental protection etc. This forest occupies 9,410 hectares of land.
2. Nature conservation reserve: Crown land normally reserved for environmental protection and conservation purposes. This forest occupies 22,371 hectares of land.
3. Forests on “other crown land”: This land is used for a variety purposes and it occupies 10,862 hectares of land.
4. Private forests: These forests are privately owned lands and which occupies 38,099 hectares of land.
5. Leasehold forest: These forests are privately managed leased Crown lands, which are commonly used for grazing and this forest occupies 65,132 hectares of land.
6. Unresolved tenure: For this type of forests, ownership status has not been defined.
Different types of Native forests, which are separated by main species and the structure of the forest:
| Alpine National Park | Lamington National Park |
| D'Aguilar National Park | Limpinwood Nature Reserve |
| Brown Mountain forest | Mount Buffalo National Park |
| Central Highlands (Victoria) | Mount Warning National Park |
| Daintree Rainforest | Mount Read (Tasmania) |
| Disappointment Reference Area | Sherbrooke Forest |
| Errindundra forests | Springbrook National Park |
| Gloucester National Park | Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest |
| Gondwana Rainforests of Australia | Tarkine |
| Goolengook | Tarra-Bulga National Park |
| Great Otway National Park | Tuart Forest National Park |
| Karawatha Forest | Walpole-Nornalup National Park |
| Kinglake National Park | Wielangta forest |
| Lake Mountain | Wollemi National Park |
| Tenure | Area (‘000 Hectares) | Proportion of Total |
| Multiple-use public forest | 9,410 | 6% |
| Public nature conservation reserve | 22,371 | 15% |
| Other Crown land | 10,862 | 7% |
| Private forest (including Indigenous) | 38,099 | 26% |
| Leasehold forest | 65,132 | 44% |
| Unresolved tenure | 1,524 | 1% |
| Total native forest | 147,397 | 100% |