README FILE FOR AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL ENVIRONMENTS 

CONTENTS
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1)  INTRODUCTION
2)  DATA CUSTODIAN
3)  ACCESS AND CONDITIONS OF USE
3)  CITATION
5)  DISCLAIMER, COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE
7)  DATA INFORMATION
8)  GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE
9)  REFERENCES 
10) CONTACTS

1) INRODUCTION
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ABARES has developed 18 Australian Agricultural Environments (AAEs) to stratify survey collection and analysis for the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Land Management Practices Survey (LaMPS). The ABS has conducted the LaMPS to support Common Practices Assessments for the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI). The 18 AAEs differentiate broad environmental, land use and land management patterns across Australia’s agricultural landscapes. The regionalisation combines current ABS statistical units with published agro-ecological regions. The AAEs have been specifically developed to stratify data collection and analysis for the LaMPS and users of this regional classification should be aware of the limitations and currency of the underlying information when using these regional boundaries.

2) DATA CUSTODIAN
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The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) is the custodian of this dataset.

3) ACCESS AND CONDITIONS OF USE
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These data and report are available from: http://www.daff.gov.au/abares/publications 

Please note the citation and legal information in Sections 3 and 4 below.
In return for free access to these data, any citations and copies of publications arising from work using these data should be sent to info.abares@daff.gov.au.  

4) CITATION
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When referring to this dataset in publications: 

ABARES (2012) Australian Agricultural Environments. Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, Canberra, Australia.

5) DISCLAIMER, COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE
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The Australian Government acting through the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) has exercised due care and skill in the preparation and compilation of the data outlined in this publication. Notwithstanding, ABARES, its employees and advisers disclaim all liability, including liability for negligence, for any loss, damage, injury, expense or cost incurred by any person as a result of accessing, using or relying upon any of the information or data set out in this publication to the maximum extent permitted by law.

The Australian Agricultural Environments are provided ‘as is’ without guarantee or warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including without limitation, any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a specific purpose. Commercial decisions should not be made without more detailed studies. 

ABARES may at any time, at its discretion, amend, vary or modify these terms and conditions. Modifications to these terms and conditions will be effective immediately and any subsequent use of the database will constitute acceptance of the modifications.

Postal address:
DAFF ABARES
GPO Box 1563
Canberra ACT 2601
Phone: +61 2 6272 2010
Fax: +61 2 6272 2001
Email: info.abares@daff.gov.au 
Web: www.daff.gov.au/abares

© Commonwealth of Australia 2013

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Commonwealth Copyright Administration, Attorney General’s Department, Robert Garran Offices, National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600. 

These data are made available under the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License: 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

6) DATA INFORMATION
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The Australian Agricultural Environments (AAEs) are provided as a zipped shapefile created in ARCGIS 10.0 24MB

This file contains CODE – AAE number, NAME – AAE name, DESCRIBE – AAE description, and Area in HA for each of the 18 AAEs. 

7) GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE
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Data are provided as polygons unprojected, in geographic decimal degrees, referenced to the coordinate system GDA94.  

The data has the following spatial extent (coordinates of the cell outer edge):

Top = -9.142176 dd      
Left = 112.921114 dd,
Right = 153.638727 dd,
Bottom = -43.740510 dd

8) REFERENCES 
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Australian Bureau of Statistics 2013, Agricultural Resource Management Practices, Australia, 2011-12, 4630.0, Canberra June 
Data http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4630.0 
Survey 
http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/c311215.nsf/web/Agriculture+-+Agricultural+Resource+and+Land+Management

Rickards J, Walcott J and Lesslie R 2013, Australian Agricultural Environments: Regions for common practice assessments, ABARES technical report 13, Canberra, July.

Woodhams, F, Southwell, D, Bruce, S, Barnes, B, Appleton, H, Rickards, J, Walcott, J, Hug, B, Whittle, L & Ahammad, H 2012, The Carbon Farming Initiative: A proposed common practice framework for assessing additionality, ABARES technical report 12.2, Canberra, August.

9) CONTACTS
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Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences
info.abares@daff.gov.au 

July 2013