As part of a basic inventory of the rural lands of NSW, land capability maps of the Eastern and Central Divisions were prepared by the then Soil Conservation Service. The standard eight-class classification was used based on an assessment of the biophysical characteristics of the land, the extent to which these will limit a particular type of land use and the technology available for land management. The classification has an hierarchical sequence, ranging from land with the greatest potential for agricultural or pastoral use, to that which is entirely unsuitable for either.