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1. The hydrological part of the FOREST-BGC model was originally developed to estimate evaporation (ET) loss from coniferous forests in the USA. Application of the model to eucalypt communities in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) in Australia required both modification and testing of the model.

2. A soil evaporation component was added following Ritchie (1972). Leaf water potential, originally expressed as a function of soil water content (given as a fraction of field capacity), was altered to reflect soil water potential. To model better the interaction between the evaporation of free intercepted water from the canopy and transpiration, the model was modified after McNaughton & Black (1973) to reflect the suppression of transpiration by a wet canopy.

3. The modified model was tested against data from two Australian plant communities. The first data set was a lysimeter study of water loss from a coastal eucalypt forest; the second soil moisture data set was from a semi-arid eucalypt woodland in the MDB. Predicted soil water deficits agreed well with observed values in both systems. The study demonstrated the potential of such a model for estimating how changes in land cover or climate might affect local and regional water balances.