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The Big Scrub rainforest in coastal northern NSW is a great example of this. It was between 800,000-900,000ha (2.2million acres) of subtropical rainforest, now less than 1% of it remains. It was all cleared in the mid-late 1800s - the Robertson Land Act at the time stated that land leased from the government could only turn to freehold (i.e. privately owned) if it was completely clearfelled (among other conditions). The rich rainforest soil was great for agriculture and dairying, so essentially all of it was knocked down and burned within a period of 30 years. Lease conditions almost always did not allow for the sale of timber, so millions upon millions of superfeet of red cedar and white beech (some of the finest timber in the world) along with other softwoods and hardwood went wasted.
Picrel shows previous extent (yellow) against current extent (green) - the entire ecosystem is essentially functionally extinct
