Data from the Conservation Atlas of Australian Plant communities 1879-1989 (1995)

These data are the result of the retrieval of a continent-wide dataset collated in the 1980s of 711 terrestrial and littoral vegetation surveys made across the continent of Australia between 1879 and 1989. These data were collected and digitised to enable an objective assessment of the conservation status of Australian plant communities (Specht et al. 1995*). Accessible paper and digital sources from this project have been retrieved, and georeferences and sources updated to produce a collection of observations of species at sites using the Darwin Core standard (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/). The data recovery project provides a sustainable open-access resource to the research community and others to enable better long-term comprehension of vegetation change, and to provide insight into the complexities of data recovery and the long-term challenges of effective data curation. * Specht R.L., Specht A., Whelan M.B., Hegarty E.E (1995) Conservation Atlas of Plant Communities in Australia. Southern Cross University Press in association with the Centre for Coastal Management.