When Megan Considine digs her hands into the soil of a small allotment by the Tumut River, she's not only taking a leading role in species conservation, she is connecting with her Indigenous culture.
"I honestly feel whole, this project just makes me feel whole," she said.
Ms Considine is a Wiradjuri-Walgalu woman and a coordinator of the Buugang Wambal conservation and connecting to country project.
The project is one of nine in NSW funded by the Department of Planning and Environment that is studying how ecosystems can be improved when Aboriginal people are involved in looking after traditional lands.
Buugang Wambal refers to the Bogong Moth Mountain in Wiradjuri language, one site the project has focused conservation efforts on.
But on the banks of the Tumut River, the critically endangered Tumut grevillea takes centre stage.
That's the plant Ms Considine is holding — a flowering shrub that almost exclusively occurs in a 6 kilometre corridor in the state's south-west.
When it flowers, its blossoms will be shocking red and pink, but for now Ms Considine and three other Aboriginal women are laying the groundwork, planting small seedlings.
"The focus is land management but also getting our people back onto our country to take care of it," she said.
"The project itself is about all of us, our community, and our people being out on our country."
Senior threatened species officer with the NSW Department of Planning and Environment, David Hunter, works alongside the community as part of the project.
Dr Hunter said the approach being taken through Buugang Wambal was the way of the future.
"We're out on country looking after species in places that are culturally very significant to the Brungle-Tumut community so we have a real role to play in facilitating access for community to get back on country," he said.
"We're [also] learning a whole new thing about these species and the possible traditional management tools that could be used to look after them."
Women's business
Local men have been involved in conservation of the endangered corroboree frog, but the grevillea project is where the women gather.
That is in keeping with long-standing cultural practice, according to Jasmyn Penrith, a Wiradjuri woman from Tumut.
"The grevillea is usually connected to women's business because we've found it around a lot of women's sites, it's really significant," she said.
Ms Penrith precisely places and covers one of the plants in soil with her bright pink manicure as she talked about the deeper connection working on country allows her to feel with the other women.
"It's different being out here rather than sitting around having a cuppa, you can feel the connection when we're doing stuff out on our land," she said.
For Jamie Freeman, working with the grevillea is about continuity.
"It's meaningful, we know that in the future they're going to grow, they're going to be here for our kids and that makes you feel better," she said.
Ms Penrith hoped her children would also be able to take care of the plants in the future.
"I can show my children, and my children's children, the work I did," she said.
"They'll be really excited when I show them and I can ask them if they want to be part of a project like this."
Future-proofing
Ms Considine is one of two community coordinators employed on the project, which comprises almost 40 Walgalu and Wiradjuri people.
But Mr Hunter said the funding for those roles was due to run out within eight months.
"We see this as a project that needs to be ongoing, this needs to be how we do business in biodiversity conservation," he said.
"We need to be moving forward with the traditional owners and doing everything in collaboration, and supporting the traditional owners to be on country."
Minister for Lands and Property Steve Kamper said the project was about listening to local Aboriginal people and taking the lead from them.
He said projects such as Buugang Wambal would be considered in a new Healthy Country Framework being developed by the Department of Planning and Environment, which would identify caring for country projects the community could be engaged with.
