For more than a century, pastoral families have worked across vast rangelands, shaping landscapes that remain some of the most intact in Australia. They did not achieve this by locking the country away. They achieved it by developing it with purpose, and the opportunity to build on that legacy has never been greater. 

Stretching across more than 45 million hectares, the pastoral estate is one of the NT’s greatest natural and economic assets. These are not untouched conservation reserves; they are working properties that feed Australian families, drive export markets, sustain regional towns, and anchor the Territory’s economy. And yet, through all that activity, they continue to maintain biodiversity through the same practical land management that underpins production. Native vegetation still covers 99.45% of the Territory, agricultural production on cleared land makes up just 0.22% while the remaining 0.55% is non-native vegetation. 

This is what the broader national conversation often misses. These landscapes did not remain intact because development was stopped. They remained intact because development was done well. Generations of pastoral families have invested in their land: installing water points that support whole ecosystems, stabilising soils through sustainable grazing, applying early dry-season cool burns to prevent destructive late-season fires, and managing weeds and feral animals long before Canberra discovered the language of biodiversity targets and environmental KPIs. 

This is not a theory about how development could work. It is proof of how development has worked, across millions of hectares, for more than 100 years. 

And it matters now more than ever. The Northern Territory still has room to grow. We have the scale, capability, and natural advantages to support further sustainable development from targeted intensification to diversified production that strengthens both business resilience and ecological outcomes. 

Healthy country produces healthy cattle, and healthy cattle businesses keep country healthy. In northern Australia, productivity and biodiversity have never been competing forces. They rely on each other. The Territory’s cattle industry brings in over $1.5 billion a year because its landscapes are thriving and they thrive through the meticulous work of pastoralists. 

Agriculture feeds Australia and the world, and the NT pastoral industry is a critical pillar of national food security. But the Territory demonstrates something even more powerful: that food production and biodiversity protection can coexist at scale when development is grounded in lived experience and connected to the land. 

“Biodiversity Is Better on Beef” reflects the quiet, daily work of people who understand their land intimately, who carry the responsibility of caring for it, and who know that their livelihoods depend on keeping the land strong and resilient. 

It is a legacy that endures because pastoral families invest in their land today so it can thrive for the next generation and the next hundred years. This is the NT’s contribution to Australia’s biodiversity story: a model where development strengthens ecological integrity, where production and conservation work together, and where some of the most productive landscapes are also some of the most biodiverse. TQ