This research project centres on the production of a series of sculptural objects, jewellery pieces and vessels that examine contemporary Australian settler society’s relationships to the landscape and its history of appropriation, exploitation and degradation. These artworks employ botanical motifs and designs that are based on a selection of rainforest trees that are endemic to the sub-tropical rainforests of the east coast of Australia and figure prominently in the landscape surrounding Brisbane, Queensland. The main subjects of these artworks, red cedar, crows ash, hoop pine and silky oak, were heavily cut for timber and cleared for agriculture from the beginning of European settlement until well into the 20th century. The destruction of these forests drove the local economy and the timber of these trees became an integral component of local material culture in the form of houses, furniture and countless other objects. The wood from these trees became the very framework and fabric of local cities and towns as it was built into aesthetic forms that have become an important aspect of the collective experience of place in this region. Historic silverware and jewellery that was produced in the latter half of the 1800s has been an important aspect of this research as these pieces are powerful expressions of European settlers’ perceptions of the Australian landscape as a site of conquest and plunder. Selected contemporary artists whose work has been informed by these historic pieces and whose work offers contemporary responses to these objects, the depiction of the flora of Australia and the experience of inhabiting the Australian landscape are also considered in this research. The materiality of these objects, both historic and contemporary, and the cultural values that this embodies and represents is also an important area of investigation. Through my studio research I have sought to produce work that offers a contemporary critique of these historic objects and the cultural histories and values that they represent. While my work intends to honour the aesthetic beauty and biological importance of these trees and highlight their role in the history of settlement and the development of the architectural character of the region, it does so while acknowledging the symbolism of certain forms and materials and how the methods of making confer specific cultural values upon the objects produced. The work is intended to be a questioning of how these complex and conflicting factors can be fused into sensitive and nuanced artworks that invite deeper considerations of our perceived place in the landscape and how the actions of the past continue to inform the present.