ABSTRACT
The ecosystems of the tropical north of Australia are supported by a rich flora with many unique features reflecting their geological and climatic history. They occupy part of a region that has long been isolated from other land masses and, until recent times, has been sparsely populated compared with most other habitable regions of the world. Australia’s tropical ecosystems, in facing the combined stressors of an increasing population and land-use development as well as the continuing effects of global climate change, will undergo changes calling for strong and, in many cases, novel forms of land management. Mine-site rehabilitation is an ongoing and growing problem for northern Australia. One of the imperatives for a sustainable healthy environment is the maintenance of biological diversity, which, in the tropical north of Australia, inevitably requires the active participation of one of the major landholder groups, the Aboriginal community.
