Before European settlement, white box was the dominant species found in large continuous forests stretching from Southern Queensland, through Western NSW and Victoria known as White Box Yellow Box Blakely’s (Red Gum) Woodlands. Box-Gum Grassy Woodland is now listed as a “critically endangered” ecological community under the Australian Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act and its management is bound to the Matters of Before European settlement, white box was the dominant species found in large continuous forests stretching from Southern Queensland, through Western NSW and Victoria known as White Box Yellow Box Blakely’s (Red Gum) Woodlands. Box-Gum Grassy Woodland is now listed as a “critically endangered” ecological community under the Australian Federal EPBC Act and its management is bound to the Matters of National Environmental Significance guidelines. When listed as critically endangered in 2006, the Australian Government estimated that as little as 0.1% of the original White-Box Grassy Woodland exists in pristine or near pristine condition, and these examples are noted as being extremely rare, and usually quite small in size. An example is the Leard Forest in Northern NSW, which is regarded as the largest White-Box Grassy Woodland that fits the critically endangered criteria. Due to its significance as one of the few remaining examples of these ecosystems, the Leard Forest White Box woodland has been subject of much debate and community opposition to open cut coal mining projects over recent years.