This layer contains marine and coastal features across Victoria. This data consists of conservation and protection zones, cultural and heritage areas, energy and resource extraction sites, defence and national security areas, locations of ports and shipping channels, fishing and aquaculture areas, and areas of natural environment and biodiversity importance.

This dataset is now OBSOLETE. A copy has been taken and is called OBSOLETE_FORESTS.WORKING_FOREST_AREAS_20131001. The lastest version of this dataset is called FORESTS.VICFORESTS_ALLOCATION_APR2019 The Allocation Order 2013 made under section 13 of the Sustainable Forests (Timber) Act 2004 allocates and vests specified timber in State forests to VicForests for the purpose of harvesting and selling. This dataset specifies the spatial extent and location of these timber resources, by forest stand type. Correction The WORKING_FOREST_AREAS spatial data layer stored in the corporate library between November 2013 and January 2019 contained an omission. Allocated area was omitted from the layer in error. Some area located approximately between Bairnsdale and Orbost was not included in the spatial data layer. Please contact the Custodian for more information.

Victorian State-wide dataset containing features of interest including boating clubs, camping grounds, caravan parks, historic sites, lifesaving clubs and lookouts as identified by the Victorian Regional Coastal Boards and reviewed as part of the Future Coasts SECAP project.

Areas of catchments that drain directly to Victorian estuaries - i.e. not via major freshwater tributaries. This data updates the previous EST_CATCH (Deakin) layer for use in the 2021 Index of Estuarine Condition. Boundaries were determined from a digital elevation model (DEM) and were compared with DELWP boundaries for some estuaries (where DELWP data existed (i.e. in the estuary fluvial catchment layer [WATER_EST_FLUV_VSDL] available on the Victorian Spatial Data Library [January 2020]). On steep land (the Otways, east Gippsland etc) the boundaries align well. On the flatter areas there are some discrepancies between the DEM derived boundary and the DELWP derived boundary. For some catchments the DELWP boundaries are more accurate, but for others the DEM derived boundary is more accurate. Final catchment boundaries were determined by adopting the DEM derived boundary where there was good alignment with the DELWP layer and then adjusting just the contested boundaries to choose the one that appeared most accurate based on the rationale specified for each estuary below.

MOG2009 is now OBSOLETE Please refer to FORESTS.MOG for updated extent. Old growth forest was defined under the Code of Practice 2007 as forest which contains significant amounts of its oldest growth stage in the upper stratum usually senescing trees and has not been subjected to any disturbance, and if so the effect of which is now negligible. This data layer contains modelled old-growth forest which was updated by the department in 2009 in consideration of historical timber harvesting and fire disturbances. Previous old growth base layers used different sources to establish MOG 2009. The base layer in the western part of the state was og100 and the base layer for the eastern Victoria, other than East Gippsland FMA was mog2003. The base layer for East Gippsland FMA was mog100-2007eg. In the process to develop MOG2009, the previous old growth base layers were updated where necessary with the following input datasets : Lastlog25 (current to Jun 2013-14), lastburnt100 (current to the end of the 2009-10 fire season), fire_sev2006, fire_sev2007ap, fire_sev2007sp and fire_sev2009_poly (in East Gippsland FMA only). The old growth forests in the base layers were identified to meet the Victorian definition of old growth forest based on a set of modelling criteria, rules and input datasets. The data is not considered to be reliable (definitive) at scales less than 1:100,000. The old growth polygons should be treated as modelled information and whilst care has been taken in developing this layer, there is no guarantee that the information has been confirmed through extensive field checking. While some limited validation of Old growth polygons has been carried out in most studies, significant levels of field checking were undertaken in the mapping of analysis input datasets.

This layer contains marine and coastal features across Victoria. This data consists of conservation and protection zones, cultural and heritage areas, energy and resource extraction sites, defence and national security areas, locations of ports and shipping channels, fishing and aquaculture areas, and areas of natural environment and biodiversity importance.

The Allocation Order 2013 made under section 13 of the Sustainable Forests (Timber) Act 2004 allocates and vests specified timber in State forests to VicForests for the purpose of harvesting and selling. This dataset specifies the spatial extent and location of these timber resources, by forest stand type. The Allocation Order 2013 was amended in October 2014 and April 2019. The dataset VicForests_Allocation_Apr2019 specifies the spatial extent and location of the vested timber resources according to the April 2019 amendment, gazetted on 24 April 2019.

IEC2021_ESTUARY_BOUNDARIES is the spatial boundaries of the merged polygons in the IEC2021_SUB_VEG layer.

Coastal Wave Model Statistics dataset is a high-resolution third-generation wave model based on unstructured grids. WAVEWATCH III was used to investigate the wave climate of Bass Strait and South-East Australia over the period 1981 to 2020. The model results are extensively validated against a network of coastal buoys and demonstrate that the model can capture the overall wave characteristics in this region. Analyses of model outputs across the 40-year period show that significant wave height has increased by approximately 5% and a slight counterclockwise rotation of peak wave direction has occurred with likely implications for coastal processes. Seasonal variations show higher significant wave height in winter compared to summer, which is driven by dominant Southern Ocean swell. The peak wave direction in the eastern region shifts from south-westerly in winter to south-easterly in summer. In autumn and winter, there is a statistically significant correlation between wave conditions and the Southern Annular Mode. During these seasons, a southward movement of Southern Ocean low pressure systems is associated with increased significant wave height, an increase in the peak wave period and a counterclockwise rotation of the peak wave direction. 1. Liu, J., Meucci, A., Liu, Q., Babanin, A. V., Ierodiaconou, D., & Young, I. R. (2022), The wave climate of Bass Strait and south-east Australia. Ocean Modelling, 172, 101980. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2022.101980. 2. Tran, H. Q., Provis, D., & Babanin, A. V. (2021), Hydrodynamic Climate of Port Phillip Bay. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 9(8), 898. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse9080898

Victorian state-wide dataset containing information on natural features at each ocean beach relating to the surf zone and hydrology, beach system or type, dominant shoreline geology and beach presence. The dataset includes surf zone data on rip currents, swash gradient, tidal range (neap and spring), modal wave height, dominant swell direction and wave frequency. This dataset has been adapted from the Australian Beach Safety and Management Program (ABSAMP) 1999, joined with the VicCoastline 2008 dataset and the geology classified using the smartline coastal data segmentation dataset as produced in the Australian Coastal Geomorphic and Stability Mapping Project.