Len Webb Ecological Images Collection

Image No. 11-39

Landscapes -- Land Use Patterns Hoop Pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) plantations - very successful, but dairying not so on these typically poor granitic soils which once supported simpler rainforest types with timbers of high commercial value Eungella Range, west of Mackay, Queensland June 1965 Larger image (117K)

In early days of colonial settlement (late 18th century), and persisting well into the last quarter of 20th century, the moister coastal subtropical-warm temperate zones of eastern Australia supported closed-canopy rainforest on higher fertility soils which excluded wildfires, with periodically burnt tall sclerophyll (mostly eucalypt) forests on poorer soils. The "closed nutrient cycling" under natural conditions was disrupted when rainforests were cleared for agriculture and grazing on all but the steepest slopes, resulting in soil erosion and weed invasion, and eventually general abandonment of farming except on the most favourable sites, e.g. alluvial flats.
Reference:
"The Rape of the Forests" by L.J. Webb, in The Great Extermination, edited by A.J. Marshall (Heinemann 1966, Panther 1968.

webhumans | text version | privacy | copyright matters | disclaimer