the 1997 and 2000 State of the Environment Reports for Yass Shire are available on CD
Yass Valley Local Government Area is strategically located at the westernmost tip of the Southern Highlands of NSW, in close proximity to the Hume Highway and Canberra. This location, together with increased tourism, residential, commercial and industrial enterprises are prospering a government area already underpinned by a strong agricultural and natural resource base.
As a legacy of its long history of dryland grazing and the fragile nature of the landscape, Yass Valley Local Government Area remains vulnerable to erosion, salinity, loss of water quality and other biodiversity imbalances.
Large parts of the government area's 398,511 hectares—including the Murrumbidgee, Yass and Jugiong River catchments—are extensively cleared and settled and groundwater and surface water resources have been substantially exploited.
The Shire acquired a small part of the former Gunning and Yarrowlumla Shires in March 2004.
As of June 2007, some 14,112 people lived in the local government area. (Source Australian Bureau of Statistics comments on years 2001-2007 ABS Catalogue No 3218.0 (2008)
Yass Valley Local Government Area
