Trilby Native Forest Protection Project

Trilby Native Forest Protection Project is an avoided deforestation project located at Trilby Station, approximately 125km southwest of Bourke near the village of Louth in western New South Wales. Registered in November 2014, the project covers 61,213 hectares of the larger 129,500-hectare pastoral lease. The station lies on the banks of the Darling River, a region characterized by semi-arid rangelands, red earth soils, and floodplains supporting vegetation such as Mulga, Coolibah, and Black Box.

The project operates under the Avoided Deforestation methodology, which involves protecting native forest that was legally approved for clearing (typically Invasive Native Scrub) to convert the land for agricultural use. Instead of clearing this vegetation to improve grazing capacity for Merino sheep and rangeland goats, the proponents manage the forest to store carbon. This generates carbon credits while allowing the property to maintain a diversified income stream through carbon farming, traditional grazing, and a well-known farm-stay tourism business.

Trilby Station is owned by the Murray family, who have been pastoralists in the district for seven generations since 1860. The property was historically part of the million-acre Dunlop Station, which is famous for being the first shed in the world to complete a mechanical shearing in 1888. The carbon project is managed in partnership with GreenCollar (via Terra Carbon) and has facilitated infrastructure improvements, such as new fencing and water points, which assist in rotational grazing and drought resilience.