Nowanup lies between Koi Kyeunu-ruff (the Stirling Ranges) and the Fitzgerald River National Park. It acts as an important bridge for biodiversity between the two locations. Many Noongar Elders knew the area before it was cleared for farming and recognise its cultural significance. The selection of plants for the revegetation has been shaped by the traditional practices and cultural knowledge of the Noongar Elders. These herbarium sheets show a selection of the plants from Nowanup’s bushlands.

In the 1960s the Australian government designated the land at Nowanup as suitable for agriculture and the wild bush was cleared for sheep farming. The land degraded and became barren, earning the nickname ‘Death Valley’. Returning Country to Indigenous stewardship allows people to use traditional cultural practices for landcare. This includes harvesting traditional foods and medicines, and performing cultural ceremonies, and cultural burning.

Around the world, European-style farming excludes Indigenous People in order to raise animals and grow crops. At Nowanup, these actions led to the widescale degradation of Noongar land and waters. Now the cultural revegetation project has started to heal land and heal people. Colonisation, modern borders and disputes over land and water often mean that certain people are excluded from decision-making.