Lease Inspection & Assessment Program

Lease inspections and assessments use common methods to determine the condition of the land and compliance with these conditions.

The land assessment and resulting report are used to determine lease extensions at intervals of no more than 14 years.

The assessment must:

be thorough
be undertaken by people trained and experienced in land assessment
use recognised scientific techniques
include a determination of the capacity of the land to carry stock.

The first "round' of assessments was initiated in 1990 and completed in 2000. During the program, about 5500 permanent photopoint sites were established and each pastoral property, or 'run' was provided with a photo-manual of the photopoints established and data collected.

The methods used by the assessment staff during the first round are detailed in the report Rangeland Monitoring, Resource Inventory, Condition Assessment and Lease Inspection Activities in South Australia conducted by Paul Gould, Brendan Lay, Rodger Tynan and Ian Watson of Primary Industries and Resources SA (PIRSA).

Methods common to Inspections and Assessments include:

collation of all relevant existing information
field inspection including communication with land managers on issues, stock numbers and changes in improvements
setting up and re-monitoring of photo-points
assessment of paddock condition rating
entry of data and updating of inventory for production of maps
production of a report for consideration of the Pastoral Board.

In addition, an assessment can include use of the "Land Condition Index" (Lange, R.T, Lay, B.G. and Tynan, R.W. (1994) Evaluation of extensive arid rangelands: the Land Condition Index (LCI). Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 118, 125-131). This method is used to compare land condition from one time to another but also comparatively across a district for each pasture type.

The Arid Lands Information System (ALIS) is the repository for all data associated with the program, including spatial information and monitoring data.

For further information about the Lease Inspection and Assessment Program, contact the Pastoral Program:

Freecall: 1800 678 447
Fax: (08) 8303 9320
GPO Box 1047
Adelaide SA 5001