Conways Station (Revoked)

Conways Station (Revoked) was a savanna fire management project located at Conways Station, approximately 170km east of Katherine in the Roper region of the Northern Territory. It was registered in January 2015 and covered a project area of 96,866.44ha.

Savanna fire management projects involve the strategic and planned burning of savanna areas during the early dry season. Standard requirements involve conducting cooler, controlled burns using aircraft, vehicles, or hand-held drip torches to reduce accumulated fuel loads, which mitigates the risk and severity of destructive wildfires in the late dry season. Calculations of greenhouse gas emissions abatement for this methodology are typically performed using the Savanna Burning Abatement Tool (SavBAT).

The Katherine and Roper region is heavily relied upon for extensive cattle grazing and pastoral operations. The area is classified as a high rainfall zone, receiving over 1,000mm of rain annually, and features an environment of tropical savannas, riverine woodlands, red tippera soils, and black soil plains.

Before being officially revoked in September 2023 under section 29 of the CFI Rule, this project successfully generated 34,796 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). Interestingly, in October 2023, the larger 139,200ha Conways Station pastoral lease was acquired for $20 million in a joint venture by climate solutions investor Viridios Capital and agricultural asset manager WealthCheck. Following the revocation of the savanna fire project, the new owners shifted their focus to a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project called the Waterhouse River Carbon Project, which aims to regenerate native vegetation following decades of feral buffalo impacts and heavy cattle grazing.