Byrock Station Regrowth Project

Byrock Station Regrowth Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located near the small village of Byrock in north-western New South Wales, approximately 75km south-east of the major regional town of Bourke. It was registered in March 2015 and covers an extensive 11,688.90 hectares.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects involve establishing permanent native forests by changing land management practices to encourage the regrowth of native trees. This specific project achieves this through assisted regeneration from in-situ seed sources, such as existing rootstock and lignotubers, on land that had been previously cleared and where vegetative regrowth was suppressed for at least 10 years. To meet the methodology's requirements, the project actively manages the timing and extent of livestock grazing and undertakes the humane management of feral animals.

The Byrock region is a predominantly pastoral area, heavily utilized for broadacre sheep and cattle grazing. The local environment features a semi-arid climate, experiencing a relatively low average annual rainfall of approximately 400mm. The soils across these north-western plains are typically red chromosols and kandosols, which generally feature sandy loam topsoils over clay subsoils.

An interesting note about this project is that Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) generated here have been purchased and retired by major corporate entities, such as Viva Energy Australia, to meet their corporate climate targets and Climate Active carbon neutral certifications. Additionally, the project's spatial boundaries underwent a variation in September 2015 to remove certain areas from the originally registered project area.