Between 2012 and 2018 the Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTERN) integrated key established plot networks across Australia to tackle critical questions associated with the impacts of disturbance on Australian ecosystems. LTERN brought together some of Australia’s leading ecologists as well as drawing together a range of existing long-term ecological monitoring programs to examine Australian ecosystems in new ways. LTERN was composed of 12 ecological plot networks across Australia which had been actively monitored for several years and in some cases decades. These plot networks spanned a number of ecosystems including tropical savannas, tall eucalypt forests, mallee woodlands and shrublands, alpine regions, and deserts. The networks also covered multiple land tenures and land uses including plantation forestry, conservation, restoration, tourism and agriculture. These networks are designed to monitor biodiversity and better understand disturbance regimes associated with fire, logging, livestock grazing, invasive species, extreme weather events and climate change.