Australia is in the midst of a land clearing crisis. Some estimate that 3m hectares of woodland will be cleared between 2010 and 2030.

This is having a huge impact on the environment. Loss of habitat is one of the main threats to about three-quarters of Australia’s 1,640 plants and animals listed by the government as at risk. Land clearing, and land-use changes that follow it, have caused a fivefold increase in the sediment pollution pouring on to the embattled Great Barrier Reef, further diminishing its ability to deal with climate change.

But the size of the areas being cleared are often so enormous that they can be hard to comprehend. As a result, the full scale of Australia’s land clearing is easy to underestimate.

Most people have a sense of the size of their local area or region. So Guardian Australia has created a tool that overlays areas over a map location of your choosing.

The drop-down menu below lets you choose an area that represents some clearing. If you type in a postcode, that area will be superimposed over that spot.

Take the first figure – WWF’s estimate of how much clearing Australia will have completed between 2010 and 2030. 3m hectares is hard to imagine, but superimposed over Sydney, you can see it covers an area from Wollongong to Newcastle, stretching from the coast to Bathurst.

Plug in your postcode and take a look.

Read more about Australia’s neglected environmental issues, including land clearing, threatened species and the erosion of environmental protections, in Our wide brown land series, which was made possible with the support and contributions of our readers.