The Great Green Lie

This is a painting made by John Lewin in 1812 of the Coxes River in the Blue Mountains. Where's the forest?
Greenie scientists claim Australia was heavily forested when white man arrived and so we should turn it back to forest. But explorers describe grassy plains and lightly timbered woodlands. Here is more support for George Evans description of central western NSW as not being forested when white men arrived. Judge Baron Field visited Bathurst in 1822 writes,"The scarcity of wood takes away the log appearance of the cottages; they build of turf here and roof with straw or reeds, instead of wooden shingles.”
Many people observed the lack of tree cover on the Bathurst Plains and the lack of weatherboard buildings in Bathurst as a result. In fact anyone who has been to Bathurst will see hundreds of red brick houses. I taught local history at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst and made a special study of the brickmaking industry. In the 1860s the municipal council had more than 600 brickmakers registered. The variety of ‘frogs’ or makers’ mark depressions in local historic sandstock bricks have led many locals to collect them. I had my own collection. Why so many? Because, as far as my research could take me, bricks were fired on every building site, made from the clay dug from the site.
As with so many necessities of life, the colonists used whatever was at hand. And on the Bathurst Plains there was not much timber.

References:
"The Australian Landscape - observations of Explorers and Early Settlers" (D. G. Ryan, J. E. Ryan and B. J. Starr)
"The nature of pre-European vegetation in south eastern Australia: a critique of Ryan, D. G., Ryan, J. R., and Starr, B. J. (1995) The Australian Landscape- Observations of Explorers and Early Settlers" (J. S. Benson, P. A. Redpath)
"The extent of the Grasslands in the Central West of NSW prior to European settlement" (Darryl Cluff)
"The Future Eaters" (Tim Flannery)