I really want to thank Bob Bolton(the singular) and Benjamin for the info!..it clears up a lot of concepts that have been fuzzy for years!!

sadly, the part that hurts me, is

"the Government clearing objectives that have stripped away 90% of the trees that were holding down the last of the thinnest soil on earth! "

I am a woodturner/collector, and those wonderful Australian trees are some of the most eagerly sought in the woodcollectors society...(we NEVER cut rare trees just to get a sample..always use fallen or legally cut timbers)...to think the govt. encouraged stripping them!! Arrggh!! (I think that the prettiest wood I ever saw was a piece of desert Gidgee!)