Gumtree / 桉

2026 / 13 min 21 sec / Completed documentary / China-Australia cross-national project

A completed China-Australia documentary project tracing eucalyptus across Australia and southern China, between ecology, industrial cultivation, scientific breeding, and more-than-human perception.

Logline

Gumtree follows the migration and development of eucalyptus between its native ecological landscape in Australia and intensified plantation systems in Guangxi, asking how a living species becomes resource, controversy, measurement, and future projection across two national contexts.

Director's Statement

The project began through fieldwork rather than a fixed thesis. In Australia, eucalyptus appeared as a dominant presence within a native ecological system, shaping atmosphere, memory, and landscape. In Guangxi, the same species appeared inside another reality: large-scale plantations, breeding experiments, industrial supply chains, and persistent public debates around water, soil, fertility, and environmental pressure. As a China-Australia project, Gumtree approaches this contrast through observational documentary, using restrained digital translation only to widen attention to plant movement, spatial memory, and technical mediation.