As hunters drove the island 's most distinguished megafauna , the thylacine -LRB- or Tasmanian tiger -RRB- , to extinction ; as the hydroelectric industry dammed rivers and drowned mountains ; and as timber companies left valleys looking like the hide of some wild animal with its fur ripped away , Tasmania limped through much of the 20th century as , in Conrad 's words , '' Australia 's shame and embarrassment . ''