“Most of the giant trees of Gippsland were ringbarked and the land was burnt, several times to deal with regrowth, to clear the land for farming, one of the Strezlecki “Big Scrub” fires raining ashes on New Zealand. The timber was never used as it was too far from any markets and the enormous grey skeletons were a feature of the landscape well into the 20th century. This particular tree, after being ringbarked by a man with an axe and it and it’s forest companions burnt by a man with a match, is long dead by the time these fellows posed with the carcase”

https://esoteric-inkworks.tripod.com/friendsofthetrestlebridge/id4.html

https://brianwaltersmelbourne.blogspot.com/2010/07/tall-trees.html

Larger Resolution (but watermarked): https://www.alamy.com/negative-balook-victoria-circa-1895-the-men-of-the-cook-family-ringbarking-a-tree-the-tree-was-107-feet-in-circumference-10-feet-from-the-ground-image328795166.html