Half of Australia 'untouched' by humans

More than 40 percent of Australia, an area the size of India, remains untouched by humans, making the country as critical to the world's environment as the Amazon rainforests, a study said yesterday.

Australia has some of the last great wilderness, with three million square kilometers largely unchanged by industrial civilization, a report for international conservation watchdogs the Pew Environment Group and Nature Conservancy said.

"It's rare on earth in this century," Australian wildlife ecologist and report author Barry Traill told local radio. "We need to hold onto this country. It's just so precious," he said.