Historical data and monitoring can provide important information on how landscapes respond to environmental and human-induced change. We re-assessed plants, soils and livestock carrying capacity at a research station in eastern Australia after 42 years. We detected significant declines in the densities of key perennial shrubs (Atriplex vesicaria, Maireana astrotricha, Maireana pyramidata, -78%), an index of groundstorey plant quality (-8%), and the cover of erosion (-43%) between 1980 and 2022. Assessed ‘safe carrying capacity’ declined from 14.5 to 12.4 dry sheep equivalents per 100 ha over that period (-14.6%). These declines were evident in ranges and footslopes, but not on the plains. Shrubs declined by a similar percentage when assessed at a small spatial scale in one paddock. There was no clear indication that sheep stocking rates were driving temporal trends in plants. Rather, we attribute changes over more than 40 years to fluctuations in rainfall, and potentially, greater density of kangaroos and feral goats. Our study provides insights into moderately long-term changes in the biophysical attributes of rangelands and reinforces the importance of using historic data to assess environmental change as large areas of Earth become hotter and drier.