Gippsland Forests

The Lost Forests Of Gippsland by Geoff Harrison

Apparently much of Gippsland once looked like this scene, painted by Isaac Whitehead circa 1870.  The title of this oil is "A Sassafras Gully, Gippsland", and in Whitehead's time large areas of Gippsland were heavily timbered including massive mountain ash rivalling the redwoods of California.  But lumbering was well underway, hence the bullock train hauling split timber depicted in the lower left.  Photographer Nicholas Caire became popular in the late 19th century with his Gippsland views.  He warned that Gippsland's big trees were in danger of becoming things of the past if harvesting continued unabated.

I have an issue with the scale of this work.  To me the ferns seem far too large in relationship to the mountain ash and the bullock train.