Building on Young’s award winning ‘Grassy Woodlands’ series this exhibition re-imagines 19th century human experience in light of Australian mammals that have become vulnerable or extinct. Young explores the question of who inhabits the woodlands across time through still life photographs of mammals, plants, insects and artefacts. Inspired by the work of ecologists Young set out to find intact grassy woodlands, the wildflowers within, and evidence of animal inhabitation. Her findings are shown in large still-life colour photographs and a series of cyanotypes.

In early 2018, during her Creative Arts Fellowship at the National Library of Australia, she sought to learn more about the mammals that once so abundantly inhabited the woodlands of Eastern Australia. Her key reference was the exquisitely illustrated book, ‘The Mammals of Australia’, published in 1863 by naturalist John Gould. Upon arrival to Australia Gould found himself, “...to be surrounded by objects as strange as if I had been transported to another planet”. The text and illustrations contained within this book provided the starting point for her studies of woodland mammals using the 19th century photography cyanotype process. Inhabiting the Woodlands is Young’s first solo exhibition at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery and will present a new body of work.