<P> Nearly half of Australia's mangrove forests are found in Queensland (44% of Australia's total), followed by the Northern Territory (37%) and Western Australia (17%). </P> <P> In Western Australia, populations of mangroves are scattered down the coast; the population of the Abrolhos Islands is 300 kilometres south of the nearest population of Shark Bay, and the population at Bunbury is even further south than this (500 km). The Bunbury colonisation may have occurred relatively recently, perhaps only several thousand years ago, with propagules transferred by the Leeuwin Current . The most inland occurrence of mangroves in Australia is a stand of grey mangroves in the Mandora Marsh, some 60 km from the coast . </P> <P> Australian mangrove forests comprise 45 plant species from 18 families, which is more than half the world's mangrove species . One tree species, Avicennia integra, is found only in Australia - in the Northern Territory, east of Darwin . </P> <P> Each mangrove tree species is specific to particular latitudes and levels of tidal inundation . The greatest diversity of species is found in the far northern and north - eastern areas of Australia, and declines rapidly with increasing latitude . For example, Darwin Harbour, in the north of Australia, contains 36 mangrove tree species, while Bunbury, in the south, contains only one mangrove tree species . There are no mangroves in Tasmania . </P>

How many species of mangroves are there in australia