In Australia, demand is increasing for soil information because of the emergence of large-scale environmental problems and the need for rural industries to be more efficient. The survey coverage of Australia has improved during the last 15 years but large regions still have only rudimentary soil information, and commissioning of new surveys has declined. Effort is being directed to making best use of existing information through the Australian Soil Resource Information System (ASRIS- www.asris.csiro.au ). ASRIS provides online access to the best available information on soil and land resources in a consistent format across the country and the level of detail depends on the survey coverage in each region. ASRIS has a spatial hierarchy of land units. The upper three levels provide general descriptions of soils and landscapes across the continent while the lower levels provide more detailed information for regions where mapping is complete. Landscape data include digital terrain attributes, remotely sensed images and climate surfaces. A consistent set of land qualities is described for land units, and descriptions from the lowest level are used to generate summaries for the upper levels. The land qualities relate to soil depth, water storage, permeability, fertility, salinity and erodibility. ASRIS includes a soil profile database with fully characterized sites that are known to be representative of significant areas and environments. The system also provides a web map service and it can be viewed using software such as Google Earth and NASA World Wind. ASRIS aims to provide soil information for simulation modeling at a range of scales and for a variety of purposes. This is exposing weaknesses in methods of survey because modellers require estimates of functional properties of soils with supporting statements on uncertainty. Modelers also require online access to soil data that are compatible with archives of remotely sensed data from satellites, digital elevation models and weather records. We describe our methods for estimating uncertainty and for supplying input data to models of hydrological processes and farming systems. Finally, we outline how ASRIS provides a framework for monitoring soil change across Australia.