York Downs Station

York Downs Station is a Savanna Fire Management project located approximately 40km inland from Weipa on the Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland. It was registered in July 2015 and covers an area of 129,384.31 hectares.

Savanna Fire Management projects involve the strategic, controlled burning of savanna areas during the early dry season. By safely reducing the fuel load early, the risk and intensity of catastrophic late dry season wildfires are minimized, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Cape York region is well known for extensive cattle grazing operations and large-scale bauxite mining. The project area is considered a high rainfall tropical savanna region, and local soils generally consist of red and yellow kandosols, sandy clays, and lateritic bauxite soils.

This project is closely integrated with the property's Brahman cattle grazing operations, managed by the Witherspoon family. The additional income generated from the carbon project has enabled the station to upgrade grading equipment for creating fire breaks, and to plan a transition from diesel generators to solar power. Furthermore, the reduction in uncontrollable wildfires has reportedly led to healthier populations of native fauna, including lizards, echidnas, kangaroos, and wallabies. In 2020, Country Carbon entered into an Enforceable Undertaking with the Clean Energy Regulator, and in 2023, the project saw a variation transferring participation to Terra Carbon Pty Limited.