Southwell Station

Southwell Station is a Savanna Fire Management project located on the remote western Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, approximately 200km from Pormpuraaw. It was registered in July 2014 and covers an extensive 145,914.67 hectares.

Savanna fire management projects involve the strategic and planned burning of savanna areas during the early dry season. The standard methodology requirements involve applying patchwork cool burns early in the year to break up the fuel load. This practice limits the spread of high-intensity, uncontrolled wildfires that typically ravage the landscape in the late dry season, directly reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions.

The Cape York region is renowned for cattle grazing and rugged outback pastoral operations. The environment is classified as a high rainfall area with a tropical savanna climate, characterized by extreme wet seasons followed by dry seasons where local waterholes drastically shrink. Soils in this region are generally typical of the area's dry grasslands and bushlands, consisting predominantly of sandy earths and clay soils.

This project plays a crucial role in protecting 32 hectares of threatened regional ecosystems located on the property, providing essential refuge for one federally-listed and two state-listed threatened fauna species, as well as state-listed threatened flora. The revenue generated from carbon credits helps the land managers fund protective fire breaks and improves feral animal and invasive weed management. The project transitioned to the 2015 Methodology Determination in February 2017, and the proponent name was officially updated from Country Carbon Pty Ltd to Terra Carbon Pty Limited in September 2022. Due to its extreme isolation, the station is generally accessible only by 4WD or light aircraft during the dry season and is virtually inaccessible during the wet season.