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Space Administration (NASA) pictorial imagery of a significant proportion 
of the country was made available during 1973 and 1974. Along with other 
discipline groups, forest managers examined this imagery however their 
experience was limited to handling the 4th or 5th generation copies many 
months after the imagery was recorded. 
Most applications examined in the forestry area were not published and 
examples of interest are difficult to locate. In a survey of forestry 
authorities carried out on behalf of the Australian Department of Science 
in late 1975 (Benson 1976), five forest services indicated interest in 
Landsat and three reported the results of their investigations. All 
indicated that their conclusions were constrained by the poor quality of 
the data used and that better and wider results could be expected to flow 
from better quality imagery. Most authorities considered that the mapping 
of major forest fires was both practical and of acceptable accurary par- 
ticularly where field access was difficult. Smith (1974) reported using 
Landsat single band and colour composite imagery to map the Mt Buffalo fire 
for total area burnt and areas showing severe damage and crown scorch. The 
assessment was carried out 'at a satisfactory level' in 1% hours by simple * 
photointerpretation techniques. Some effort was directed to determining 
the best colour balance of colour composites for this type of work. 
With restrictions placed on the use of the tape recorders on Landsat 
in recent years, image acquisition over Australia has been very limited. 
The bulk of imagery obtained has been associated with the Large Area Crop 
Inventory Experiment (LACIE) sponsored by NASA however special requests for 
imagery of natural disasters have generally been met by NASA and wildfires 
have on occasions been treated this way. In one such instance McArthur 
(CSIRO, D.F.R., pers. comm.), investigating major grass fires in western 
Victoria in February 1977, used a standard colour composite Landsat image 
to modify his field collected data. It clarified several major anomalies 
and could have saved several days in the field had it been available more 
quickly. 
Imagery has been requested of fires in central and southern New South 
Wales and northeast Victoria during the 1977-78 fire season. One request 
for coverage in late December 1977 was met but the data did not reach 
Australia until mid May and have yet to be evaluated. Such delays are 
acceptable when developing applications systems but if satisfactory mapping 
accuracy or efficiency can be demonstrated the additional requirement to 
provide imagery in as short a time as possible must be met. This can only 
be considered where direct data receiving facilities are available for the 
region being monitored. 
PROSPECTS FOR LANDS AT IMAGERY 
IN AUS TE ALI A 
The Australian Government decided in mid 1977 that a Landsat Data 
Receiving Facility would be installed in Central Australia at Alice Springs 
and a Data Processing Facility set up in Canberra. The Australian Landsat