The settler's clearing of the Australian landscape during the white settlement made this land the white man’s. What is forgotten is the terrible violence meted out to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders at – and after – white settlement. There is a refusal, eg., by the Australian War Memorial, to tell the story of the violence that raged across the Australian colonial frontier after British invasion and occupation in 1788. That the violence took the form of a frontier war is often denied.
The ‘clearing’ of the landscape by the first European settlers forced Indigenous people off their traditional lands and into small Christian missions and government reserves.
What is noticeable about this landscape is the contemporary absence of Australian Aboriginal culture within the Australian landscape and the impact of European colonisation. You wouldn't know the history from looking at the pasture land and the scrubland.