Environmental Degradation and the Legal Imperatives of Improvement: Forest Policy in Western Australia from European Settlement to 1918

Abstract

The Australian forests have experienced deforestation since European settlement in 1788. According to Bradshaw, Australia has lost nearly 40% of its forests and the remaining forest is highly fragmented and degraded. In Western Australia (WA), Australia’s only biodiversity hotspot, forests cover approximately 16% or 21.0 million hectares. In the southwest and central parts of the state these forests are significantly cutover and degraded. In some instances, particularly in the wheatbelt, the local cutover has been complete. For example, in the Avon Botanical District (the central part of the wheatbelt) over 93% of the original vegetation and 97% of the woodlands were removed. William Wallace, an officer of the Forest Department, estimated that between 1829 and 1920, 1 million acres of forest was cut. The Forests Department Annual 1921 Report lamented: [S]eventy five years of practically uncontrolled cutting, and entirely uncontrolled burning have reduced this national asset to such a condition that only a negligible quantity of sound young trees is growing to the acre on the portion that has been cutover. Today the only significant forests that remain in Western Australia are the Jarrah, Karri and Wandoo forests. However, these forests have been significantly degraded and contain approximately 30% of their original forest cover.