Three overview essays explore the broad nature of Australian landscapes, the ways in which we have used and abused them, our attitudes toward them, and the ways we have perceived them. Seven case studies then explore the history of human-environment interactions in more detail across a variety of scales of time (decades, centuries, millennia) and space (sectors, regions, districts).

There are analyses of small districts, large regions and natural resource sectors, from the Great Barrier Reef and the Brigalow domain, through the high country to the arid centre. In the Conclusion, Bill Gammage argues that the critical question facing us is not the current catch-phrase 'sustainable development', but sustainable damage - how much can our environment take?