Global warming is affecting extreme events, such as floods, droughts, heat waves and bushfires, with important consequences for human communities and ecosystems. Large-scale reforestation, especially in the tropics and sub-tropics, has the potential to help mitigate this warming trend and the projected increases in extreme events. This raises an important question for Australia: what is the potential of large-scale reforestation to help mitigate projected changes in climate during the 21st Century? An important first step in addressing this question is to accurately represent key land surface characteristics in a climate model. We evaluated land use and land cover data currently used in the CSIRO variable resolution Conformal-Cubic Atmospheric Model (CCAM) in preparation for simulating the climate impacts of large-scale reforestation in Queensland. CCAM land-use datasets are based on Boston University MODIS Collection 4 LAI and the IGBP (International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme) land use classification datasets. These datasets were adapted for use with the CSIRO Atmosphere Biosphere Land Exchange (CABLE) land surface model that is coupled to CCAM.