Botanical Memory: Materiality, Affect and Western Australian Plant Life

Abstract

On a clear spring afternoon, I follow local conservationist Ian Smith around the rocky outcrops and through the wooded gullies of Mount Matilda in Western Australia (WA). After years of farming the region's flatlands, Ian dedicates his retirement to the promotion and protection of wildflowers- those endemic counterparts of canola and soy. Named the Wheatbelt, this 15,540 square kilometre part of the state lies between metropolitan Perth to the west and the arid goldfields to the east. Within this predominantly agricultural landscape, locales such as Mount Matilda are ecological islands, regarded by settlers as unsuitable for pastoral activities because of rugged terrain and noxious plants. Regularly on our ascent to the hill's highest point, Ian gestures at flowers with his walking staff-handcrafted from a local tree known as gimlet (Eucalyptus salubris)-as we exchange observations, ideas and recollections.