Expressions of Interest open for Plumwood Mountain Caretakers Position
The Stone House at Plumwood (Brian Rapsey, 2024)
Plumwood Inc. are seeking expressions of interest for a couple/two people interested in caretaking the residential area on Plumwood Mountain from March 2025 onwards. Please see the call-out below, and feel free to share with others who may be interested and suitable. The first-round of EOIs are due 31st Dec 2024, but will remain open for candidates interested in future timeframes. Plumwood Inc. will respond to all applicants and interview a short-list of prospective candidates in Jan 2025. Please reach out to plumwoodmountaincommittee@gmail.com with any further questions.
CARETAKER CALL-OUT
Plumwood Incorporated is searching for a suitable couple* to live onsite as caretakers of the off-grid residence on Plumwood Mountain from March 2025. Surrounded by exceptional old growth forest and an expansive library, this position offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience Plumwood’s living legacy and contribute to the management of a heritage-listed residence on Indigenous-owned land.
Through a non-financial reciprocal relationship, caretakers live rent free in one of the cabins in the residential area on Plumwood Mountain. In exchange, their key responsibilities include maintaining the dwellings and gardens in this area, caring for the artefacts in Val’s ‘living museum’, helping to facilitate workshops on the Mt, and hosting residents and guests. Caretakers must be willing to continue established relationships with the Walbunja Rangers, Batemans Bay Local Aboriginal Land Council, Walbunja elders and community and facilitate BBLALC aspirations and access to the property. Caretakers will actively participate in the Plumwood Inc. as committee members and will be, in turn, supported by this small but active organisation committed to fostering decolonial and eco-cultural change.
The ideal candidates must be determined to live a sustainable, minimal existence in keeping with Val Plumwood’s ecofeminist philosophies as well as the environmental-cultural values of the BBLALC and Plumwood Inc. While some existing off-grid skills are ideal, the current caretakers and wider Plumwood Inc. members will help guide the new caretakers into this position. The caretakers role is undertaken on a three-year contract with an initial six-month trial, that is open to further extension if successful.
If this truly unique opportunity speaks to you, please submit an Expression of Interest to plumwoodmountaincommittee@gmail.com. The first round of EOI are due by the 31st December 2024, but will remain open for future timeframes. EOIs should explain who you are, why you are interested in this role, and why you would make suitable caretakers + two referees.
*As Plumwood is a secluded off-grid property, we have found that couples offer the appropriate level of safety and support needed for this role. We apologise to those who do not fall under this category.
Plumwood Caretakers Cabin (Clancy Walker, 2021)
ABOUT PLUMWOOD MOUNTAIN
Plumwood Mountain is 120-hectare property on the unceded lands and waters of the Walbunja peoples of the Yuin Nation, near present day Braidwood, NSW. Home to ancient Gondwana plumwood (Eucryphia moorei) forests, Plumwood Mountain became the home of pre-eminent environmental philosopher and activist Val Plumwood in the 1970s. Surrounded by National Park and protected under the state’s first Voluntary Conservation Area agreement, the Mountain is largely forested with a small off-grid residential clearing comprising an octagonal stone house, slab hut, and residency cabin overlooking the coastal escarpment. After Val’s death in 2008, stewardship of Plumwood Mountain was passed to Plumwood Inc., an evolving non-for-profit organisation committed to conserving Plumwood’s legacy and engaging a wider community in workshops and residencies. After surviving the 2019/2020 fires, Plumwood Mountain was listed on the state heritage register as a place of exceptional cultural/natural significance. In 2024, Plumwood Mountain was returned to Walbunja custodianship, and is now owned by Batemans Bay Local Aboriginal Land Council (BBLALC). Walbunja Rangers care for the entire bush property using traditional land management practices, while Plumwood Inc. retains responsibility for maintaining the 1.4-hectare cleared residential area containing the dwellings and gardens, which BBLALC has leased back to Plumwood Inc. on a 99-year basis.
Plumwood Reading Well (Brian Rapsey, 2024)