Our penchant for a 'blank canvas' has proved costly

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ustralians penchant for a blank canvas was discussed just today during a car trip to Seymour.

With what can be seen now as a perverse pursuit, early Australians cleared away most of the natural tree growth throughout the Murray Darling Basin, particularly in the Goulburn Valley.

Sadly, those practices have changed little and with the emergence of centre-pivot irrigation, it seems they have worsened.

Australian’s have a less than honourable land-clearing history as the destruction of our tree stock takes with all the under-storey that is the traditional habitat of the many species, large and small, that are an essential part of human well-being.

Now the “WWF fires a warning shot over Australia’s land-clearing record”, discussed in the article on The Conversation.