We can do this by studying the surviving vegetation, whether it be in large tracts or small patches, and by examining historical records. Rainforest and dry sclerophyll woodland are the two most important natural vegetation types. Rainforest has tall trees which grow close together over an undergrowth of smaller trees and climbers. The leaves of rainforest plants are of various sizes, some being very large, and most are soft. Only a few of the many different kinds of tree shed all their leaves once a year.
Rainforest has many different kinds of animals as well as plants.
Dry sclerophyll woodland is very different. Its trees are smaller and less closely packed, and the undergrowth is a more diffuse assemblage of low shrubs and grasses. Other types of natural vegetation are found in the region, notably the taller, denser, sclerophyll forest which inter-fingers with the rainforest. In addition, a great deal of local variation occurs within these main sorts of vegetation. Human interference, such as the logging of forest or clearing land for farms, may encourage some species at the expense of others, or even create an entirely new vegetation.