Esperance Plains - Land Use

Land Use

Approximately 87% of the Esperance Plains region falls within what the Department of Agriculture and Food calls the "Intensive Land-use Zone" (ILZ), the area of Western Australia that has been largely cleared and developed for intensive agriculture such as cropping and livestock production. Within this area, 45.4% of the native vegetation remains uncleared. The remaining 13% of the region falls within the "Extensive Land-use Zone" (ELZ), where the native vegetation has not been cleared but may have been degraded by the grazing of introduced animals and/or changes to the fire regime. Thus about 47.3% of the total Mallee region has been cleared. The majority of clearing was undertaken by the Government of Western Australia between 1949 and 1969 under three programs: the War Service Settlement program, the subsequent Civilian Settlement program, and the Esperance Land Development program. The first two of these were programs of assisted settlement in which the Government cleared, fenced and stocked virgin crown land, then sold it to aspiring settlers; the last was a partnership with an American-based company that developed nearly 5000 square kilometres (2000 mi²) of land near Esperance for sale. There has been very little clearing since 1980.

More than half of the remaining vegetation is now in protected areas, such as the Fitzgerald River National Park and the Nuytsland Nature Reserve. It therefore has only medium priority under Australia's National Reserve System.