Total native forest area 155,835

The purpose of this chapter is to place the current project to develop a farm forestry financial model and a multi-objective decision support system in context of the farm forestry scene in Australia and to highlight relevant aspects of past research. As part of this, a brief overview of the history of forest use in Australia and the developing plantation estate is provided. The nature and extent of farm forestry in Australia is discussed, including an assessment of recent developments in the two key regions in the current study. The key elements of past research, which are relevant to the current project, are then identified. 2.1 The Australian Forestry Sector Historically, forestry activities in Australia have been based on the exploitation of the extensive eucalypt forests that existed at the time of European settlement or has regenerated following the exclusion of regular fire events. The forest resource has been depleted since European settlement, and large tracts of forest land have been withdrawn from timber production following a bitter public policy debate between the forestry industry and conservation groups. At present about 17.5 M ha are currently in conservation reserves (Table 2.1). It is likely that over the next 10 years further large areas of native forest will be placed within conservation reserves. Table 2.1. Area of native forest and plantation estate in Australi