Springvale Station (Revoked)

Springvale Station (Revoked) is an early dry season savanna burning project located approximately 40km southwest of Cooktown and 15km east of Lakeland in Far North Queensland. It was registered in January 2015 and covers a project area of 54,526.41 hectares. Historically, the regional land use across this remote area of the Cape York Peninsula has predominantly been large-scale cattle grazing.

Savanna burning projects involve the strategic and planned burning of savanna areas during the early dry season. This methodology relies on controlled burning to reduce natural fuel loads, which in turn mitigates the risk, extent, and severity of uncontrollable late dry season wild fires, effectively lowering overall greenhouse gas emissions.

The environment in this region features a tropical savanna climate with distinct monsoonal wet and dry seasons, bringing abundant seasonal rainfall. The property is traversed by the Normanby River catchment and is characterised by deep alluvial soils in the central river valleys. Due to the combination of intense seasonal rainfall, historically heavy cattle grazing, and vulnerable soil types, the area is highly susceptible to severe and established gully erosion.

An interesting fact about this project is the direct reason for its short lifespan. The carbon project was officially revoked in August 2016 under section 33 of the CFI Act. This revocation perfectly coincided with the Queensland Government's $7 million acquisition of the overarching 56,000-hectare Springvale Station property in mid-2016. The cattle station had been identified as a critical pollution hotspot, generating an estimated 40% of the sediment flowing into the Normanby basin and out onto the northern Great Barrier Reef. Following the purchase, the state government completely destocked the property and converted it into the Springvale Station Nature Refuge to remediate the eroding gullies and protect the reef's water quality.