Land clearing in Australia describes the removal of native vegetation and deforestation in Australia. Land clearing involves the removal of native vegetation and habitats, including the bulldozing of native bushlands, forests, savannah, woodlands and native grasslands and the draining of natural wetlands for replacement with agriculture, urban and other land uses.
As much as 70% of Australia's native vegetation has been cleared or modified in the past 200 years, most of which has occurred in the last 50 years. Prior to European settlement native vegetation covered most of Australia but now only 87% of the country is vegetated by native species. In total 13% of Australia's native vegetation has been lost due to land clearing, with the majority of this being native forests and woodlands.
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“The land is the host and humans merely guests.”
—Chinese proverb.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Alex Atkinson, British humor writer. repr. In Present Laughter, ed. Alan Coren (1982)