National Trees¶
Disclaimer
Overview¶
National Trees is a raster dataset representing tree coverage and heights, derived from remotely sensed imagery.
Geoscape Australia welcomes your feedback on the National Trees Dataset. We also publish regular product development updates on our website (www.geoscape.com.au).
Release Summary¶
This product was released to customers on 31 March 2026 with data extracted on 4 March 2026.
This release is a full national data population for Version 1.8 of the National Trees product, described by the National Trees Product Description v1.8.
Any issues that have been identified for this release are described in the Issues section.
This release includes updates for the areas listed in the table below.
Locations of updated areas by State¶
State |
Location |
Urban Area (km2) |
|---|---|---|
ACT |
Australian Capital Territory |
498 |
NSW |
Albury City Council |
73 |
NSW |
Armidale Regional Council |
26 |
NSW |
Ballina Shire Council |
31 |
NSW |
Bayside Council |
3 |
NSW |
Blue Mountains City Council |
84 |
NSW |
Camden Council |
19 |
NSW |
Campbelltown City Council |
41 |
NSW |
Central Coast Council |
137 |
NSW |
Cessnock City Council |
20 |
NSW |
Georges River Council |
15 |
NSW |
Goulburn Mulwaree Council |
30 |
NSW |
Hawkesbury City Council |
64 |
NSW |
Ku-ring-gai Council |
24 |
NSW |
Lake Macquarie City Council |
236 |
NSW |
Lismore City Council |
37 |
NSW |
Maitland City Council |
87 |
NSW |
Mid-Coast Council |
6 |
NSW |
Newcastle City Council |
119 |
NSW |
Northern Beaches Council |
63 |
NSW |
Port Stephens Council |
94 |
NSW |
Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council |
76 |
NSW |
Shellharbour City Council |
42 |
NSW |
Shoalhaven City Council |
45 |
NSW |
Sutherland Shire Council |
98 |
NSW |
Tamworth Regional Council |
38 |
NSW |
The Council of the Shire of Hornsby |
55 |
NSW |
The Hills Shire Council |
2 |
NSW |
Tweed Shire Council |
121 |
NSW |
Wollondilly Shire Council |
5 |
NSW |
Wollongong City Council |
162 |
NSW |
Yass Valley Council |
2 |
NT |
Darwin Municipality |
93 |
NT |
Darwin Waterfront Precinct Municipality |
1 |
NT |
Litchfield Municipality |
203 |
NT |
Northern Territory Rates Act (Prescribed Area A) Area |
25 |
NT |
Palmerston Municipality |
60 |
QLD |
Brisbane City |
80 |
QLD |
Gold Coast City |
439 |
QLD |
Ipswich City |
1 |
QLD |
Lockyer Valley Regional |
1 |
QLD |
Logan City |
650 |
QLD |
Redland City |
179 |
QLD |
Scenic Rim Regional |
95 |
QLD |
Toowoomba Regional |
159 |
VIC |
Wodonga City |
57 |
Total |
4,396 |
^ Location names are derived from intersection with the most recent Local Government Area dataset.
Spatial files of the updated areas are available upon request via support@geoscape.com.au.
Change Notifications¶
Versioning Update (Starting June 2026)¶
Beginning June 2026, all data products will transition to a standardised versioning format: MAJOR-MINOR-EXTRACT (e.g., 004-000-001). This approach provides a clear and consistent structure, making it easier for users to identify product versions and understand update levels at a glance. The change is intended to improve transparency, reduce ambiguity, and support more efficient integration and usage of our data products.
Implementation of New Zip File Naming and Packaging Standards (Starting August 2026)¶
As part of ongoing improvements to product consistency and packaging standards, updates to zip file naming conventions and internal packaging structure will be implemented, starting in August 2026.
Zip File Naming
Two standard naming patterns will be used, depending on whether an extract contains spatial information:
Spatial Tables:
{PRODUCT-NAME}_{RELEASE YYYYMM}_{REGION}_{CRS}_{FORMAT}_{VERSION MAJOR-MINOR-EXTRACT}.zip
Aspatial (Insights) Tables:
{PRODUCT-NAME}_{RELEASE YYYYMM}_{REGION}_NODATUM_{FORMAT}_{VERSION MAJOR-MINOR-EXTRACT}.zip
Packaging Structure
All zip files will follow a simplified, flat directory layout:
No nested folders
The primary data file will be located at the top level of the zip.
Note: The product package will no longer include supporting content.txt files.
These changes ensure consistent packaging across all products, reduce complexity, and support improved automation and user experience.
Issues¶
New Issues¶
No new issues to note.
Resolved Issues¶
No resolved issues.
Known Issues¶
The progress and status of known, ongoing issues are summarised below. For specific and further details on each issue, please refer to the Release Report identified in the ‘Release identified’ column.
Ongoing product issues¶
Release Identified |
Theme - Issue Name |
Issue Brief Description |
Progress/Resolution |
Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Dec-16 |
Building - Tree heights near buildings and other trees |
Terrain elevation values used in the calculation of tree heights have been found in some cases to be affected by the surrounding tall features such as buildings and other trees. |
No update at this time. |
Open |
Mar-22 |
Trees over-capture |
On Buildings, it has been observed that there are some situations where significant portions of some roofs have been captured as tree features. This is different from actual tree overhang and may be due some combination of building proximity to actual tree features, dark roof colour and/or shadow across roofs. In Dense, Shadowed and Water Areas, the spectral signature of these areas can incorrectly result in features being extracted as trees during remote sensing. Height calculation can help to exclude the majority of these during production, but where heights are determined to be greater than 2 metres they may persist. |
We are working with our partner to limit these occurrences, as well as improving our processes to identify and correct the situations where they are present. |
Open |
Jun-22 |
Trees restricted to Surface Cover extents |
Trees and Surface Cover have been designed to physically align the cells. Since the introduction of new capture methods new capture areas that extend past the raster index are clipped. |
This will be investigated and resolved in a future release. |
Open |
Sep-25 |
Carparks introduced as Tree features |
There is an issue where carpark areas were mistakenly introduced into the Trees product. We have removed these trees within Sydney AOI_ID = ‘16837’ and Adelaide AOI_ID = ‘16183’ in the September 2025 Trees data. This issue may exist elsewhere in Australia. We will continue to resolve this issue in future releases. |
This will be investigated and resolved in a future release. |
Open |
Future Considerations¶
This section outlines enhancements or changes under consideration, but not planned into a specific release. For further details on future initiatives, please contact Geoscape Support.
Annex A – Release Counts¶
National Trees Theme - Summary¶
Total coverage of National Trees by state¶
State |
Total Area (km2) |
|---|---|
QLD |
4058 |
VIC |
1333 |
ACTNSW |
3395 |
TAS |
286 |
NT |
127 |
SA |
331 |
WA |
663 |
National |
10192 |