Blue-Leafed Mallee Project A

Blue-Leafed Mallee Project A is a permanent mallee planting vegetation project located in the Lachlan Shire, approximately 100km west of Parkes in central-western New South Wales. It was registered in March 2013 and covers an estimated 3,037 hectares of land that was previously cleared and used for agricultural purposes.

Mallee planting projects involve establishing permanent native mallee tree species, specifically Eucalyptus polybractea (Blue-leaved Mallee) in this project, to capture and store carbon in their biomass. Under this FullCAM environmental planting methodology, the trees must be planted in blocks or belts at a sufficient stocking density to eventually achieve forest cover, which is defined as a minimum of 20% canopy cover and a potential height of at least 2 metres.

The Lachlan area is well known for broadacre dryland agriculture, primarily cropping wheat and canola alongside sheep and cattle grazing operations. The region experiences a semi-arid to temperate climate characterised by moderate to low rainfall (typically 400-500mm annually) and soils that are generally composed of red-brown earths, sandy loams, and clay loams.

This project is managed in partnership with major carbon developer CO2 Australia and holds an active carbon abatement contract (CAC298752) to deliver Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) to the Commonwealth. A notable piece of the project's regulatory history occurred in October 2015, when the Clean Energy Regulator issued a notice requiring the proponent, Blue-Leafed Mallee Pty Ltd, to relinquish 6,237 ACCUs. Following this, the project successfully transitioned to the 2014 FullCAM Mallee Plantings method via a methodology variation in September 2022.