Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific : an environmental history / Don Garden.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-317) and index.

Series foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. The wide brown land -- 2. The broad blue ocean -- 3. "The tragic ringbarked forests" : Australia 1788-1900 -- 4. "Broad, busy bulldozed acres" : Australia 1901-2001 -- 5. "And mar the loveliness of ages" : New Zealand and the Pacific to 2001 -- 6. Contemporary concerns -- 7. Case studies -- Documents -- Bibliography essay -- A to Z -- Time line -- Index.

Of interest to students and academics alike, this book provides a much-needed synthesis of the recent literature on the environmental history of Australia and Oceania. Charting the creation of the Australian continent from the ancient land mass of Gondwanaland to the arrival of humans, this book maps out the key trends in the region's environmental history. Especially fascinating are the chapters highlighting how successive waves of human migration created environmental havoc throughout the region, leading to the collapse of the Easter Island civilization and the spread of nonindigenous flora and fauna. From the controversies over the reasons why creatures such as the marsupial lion and the giant kangaroo became extinct to such contemporary problems as deforestation and global warming, this book contains sobering lessons for us all. --Publisher.