Fairlight Station

Fairlight Station is a Savanna Fire Management carbon project located on the Cape York Peninsula near Yarraden, approximately 70km west of Laura and 320km north of Mareeba in Far North Queensland. Registered in September 2014, the project covers an expansive 104,975.96 hectares. The region is predominantly utilised for large-scale cattle breeding and grazing operations.

Savanna fire management projects involve the strategic, planned burning of savanna areas during the early dry season. This standard requirement is designed to proactively reduce ground fuel loads, which decreases the risk and extent of highly destructive, high-intensity wild fires in the late dry season. By effectively managing the timing and intensity of fires, the project successfully limits greenhouse gas emissions.

The Cape York region falls under a tropical high rainfall classification. The local environment features a mix of river and creek flats, which run into undulating ridge country and hilly, broken terrain. The soils across the project area are highly variable, typically ranging from loams on the river and creek flats to yellow clay and red-brown ridge soils, with some sandy soils extending to the north. The landscape is heavily timbered with native species including ironbark, bloodwood, gum, box, messmate, and tea tree.

Interestingly, Fairlight Station is one of the oldest cattle stations on the Cape York Peninsula and boasts a 35km frontage to the permanent Palmer River. The property was established with a 25-year carbon agreement for this specific savanna burning initiative. In early 2024, the station was put up for auction and passed in at $7.25 million, attracting widespread market interest. Administratively, the project underwent a methodology variation in 2017 to transition to the updated 2015 methodology determination, and a change in proponent name from Country Carbon Pty Ltd to Terra Carbon Pty Limited in May 2022. Furthermore, it is noted that the Clean Energy Regulator accepted an enforceable undertaking from the former proponent, Country Carbon Pty Limited, with effect from May 2020.