The National Land & Water Resources Audit plays a vital role in the consistent collection, collation and reporting of Australian natural resources information. This enables governments to determine what needs to be measured, how to measure it and where there are gaps in what is being measured.

The Audit has recently completed a five-year program working with the states and territories, and other Government agencies, to look at what information existed on a series of indicators of resource condition for native vegetation, invasive plants and animals, land salinity, aquatic ecosystems, soil condition and estuarine, coastal and marine ecosystems.

To facilitate systematic updating and use of the data, the Audit has set up a website of sources and repositories for natural resources information. These include:

• The Australian Natural Resources Atlas provides a number of tools as well as access to theme summaries and reports from the Audit. It also includes the Map Maker, a tool for creating maps at regional, state and national levels.

• The Australian Natural Resources Data Library enables discovery of, and access to, data and information products.