Native ecosystems as a post-mining land use

Native ecosystem rehabilitation is a common post-mining land use (PMLU) identified by miners and authorised under environmental authorities and progressive rehabilitation and closure plans for resource activities. In Queensland, when a native ecosystem is proposed as a PMLU, there is currently ambiguity about what constitutes best practice rehabilitation outcomes, whether these are achievable, and how to achieve them. The Office of the Queensland Mine Rehabilitation Commissioner undertook this work to evaluate options for native ecosystem rehabilitation on mine sites in Queensland.

Publications

Implications for leading practice

• Native ecosystem rehabilitation in Queensland, September 2023 (PDF, 381.0KB) .
  This implications for leading practice document distils the work undertaken and presents our views on leading practice approaches for native ecosystem rehabilitation.

Technical papers

• Evaluating Options for Native Ecosystem Mine Site Rehabilitation, February 2023 (PDF, 1,014.0KB) .
  This technical paper outlines a framework that supports mine rehabilitation planning in Queensland where the desired post-mining land use is a native ecosystem.
• Stakeholder Survey Report – Options for Native Ecosystem Mine Site Rehabilitation, February 2023 (PDF, 1.4MB) .
  This report summarises findings from a stakeholder survey to understand current perspectives on native ecosystem rehabilitation.
• Evaluating methods for assessing native ecosystem mine rehabilitation success, March 2023 (PDF, 708.1KB) .
  This technical paper assesses common ecosystem monitoring methods for their usefulness in the evaluation of different native ecosystems rehabilitation outcomes in Queensland.

Conference papers

• Exploring biophysical limitations and post-mining native ecosystem rehabilitation outcomes in Queensland (PDF, 180.4KB) . This conference paper was presented at the ACG Mine Closure conference in October 2022. The paper can also be accessed via Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Conference Paper: Exploring biophysical limitations and post-mining native ecosystem rehabilitation outcomes in Queensland.