Highbury Station

Highbury Station is a Savanna Fire Management project located in Far North Queensland, approximately 170km northwest of Chillagoe, spanning across the Cook and Tablelands local government areas. Registered in September 2014, the project covers a vast 187,848.75 hectares across the Highbury Station pastoral lease, which is primarily used for cattle grazing. The region is classified as a high rainfall savanna zone and is generally characterised by a mix of sandy loams and clay soils typical of the Mitchell River and broader Cape York Peninsula region.

Savanna Fire Management projects involve strategically shifting regional burning practices to the early dry season. The methodology standard requires proponents to conduct planned, cooler, and patchier burns early in the year, which reduces the fuel load that typically feeds destructive and highly emissive late dry season wildfires. By doing so, the project generates abatement through the overall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions released by wild fires.

In February 2017, the project officially varied its registered method, moving from an earlier 2013 methodology to the updated Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative-Emissions Abatement through Savanna Fire Management) Methodology Determination 2015. Interestingly, the Clean Energy Regulator accepted an Enforceable Undertaking from the project's proponent, Country Carbon Pty. Ltd., which took effect in May 2020. The project occurs on a historic frontier property that has operated as a remote cattle station for well over a century.