It’s a cool afternoon in amongst the plumwoods. Dappled sunlight pours through their twisted branches, illuminating wombat scratchings and funnel web labyrinths in the red basalt. The piercing call of a lyrebird breaks through the buzz of crickets, frogs, and the far-off sound of human laughter. Slowly, smoke from a nearby cultural burn floats through the damp rainforest, mingling the rich scent of eucalyptus with the sweet smell of northern sassafras, adorned in splendid white flowers.

Plumwood Mountain is a 120-hectare heritage-listed property on the lands and waters of the Walbunja peoples of the Yuin Nation. Owned by the Batemans Bay Local Aboriginal Land Council (BBLALC), Plumwood Mountain is a secluded bush property renowned for its vibrant more-than-human communities, nestled in between Monga and Budawang National Parks. A small residential area, containing Val Plumwood’s former house and gardens, is leased to the Plumwood Inc. committee on an ongoing basis.

Situated 830 metres atop the New South Wales coastal escarpment, Plumwood Mountain is home to unique Gondwana rainforest ecologies including the iconic plumwood tree (Eucryphia moorei), greater gliders (Petauroides volans) and spiny crayfish (Euastacus spp.). In 1974, prominent environmental philosophers Val Plumwood and Richard Sylvan moved to Plumwood Mountain and constructed a small off-grid house from local timber and stone. From the 1970s until Val’s death in 2008, Plumwood Mountain became a notable gathering place for activists, scholars and artists involved in environmental and political struggles. 

In 1996, Plumwood Mountain became the site of a native forest conservation agreement, which was formalised into a Voluntary Conservation Agreement in 2002. Since 2012, it has been managed by Plumwood Inc. as a ‘living museum’ to Val’s life and legacy. Despite these conservation efforts, wider Australian histories of colonial mismanagement led to the 2019/2020 Black Summer bushfires and catastrophic burning on Plumwood Mountain. Due to a number of factors, including Val’s fire-resistant gardens, many important species and the residential dwellings survived. Slowly Plumwood Inc. has been working to rebuild Plumwood Mountain as a place that can safely house human and non-human inhabitants and continue to contribute to eco-cultural change.

In 2023, Plumwood Mountain was listed on the State Heritage register as a place of exceptional natural and cultural significance. In September 2024, Plumwood Inc. officially returned the property to the BBLALC and back into Walbunja custodianship. By re-centring First Nations histories, presents and futures, the unfolding story of Plumwood Mountain continues to challenge the separation of humans from nature, reconfiguring the power relations of environmental and cultural heritage conservation.