[Aliantha]

We've been a pretty treeless place in comparison to most other continents for a very long time Zen. That's what I was referring to. By very long, I mean tens of thousands of years. And I did say that we've done our best to get rid of most of what we found, and yes, I was referring to indoor fireplaces. I don't know anyone who would choose to burn gum tree timber indoors.

eta: Reasons people choose not to burn gum indoors is partly due to the potential for explosion, and largely because gum is notoriously difficult to mill, and tends to wreck blades, so can't be cut to size very easily.

This was a large part of the reason for the settlement on Norfolk Is when Australia was first settled by the Brits. They thought there was plenty of timber for dwellings but when they tried to cut the mostly gum tree forests, all they did was destroy their blades. Norfolk Pines were found to be much more suitable so they decided to go chop all of them down instead.