Most of Australia is much drier than New Zealand and as a consequence most Australian vegetation types and their floras are very different from ours.^182,183 Vegetation types with counterparts in New Zealand — moist closed forests and open alpine communities — are restricted to the wetter and more mountainous eastern fringe of the continent and Tasmania. Even here it is estimated that prior to the arrival of man only about 1 per cent of Australia was occupied by closed forests and much less than that by alpine communities.