Yaloak Estate Environmental Plantings #2 Project (Revoked)

Yaloak Estate Environmental Plantings #2 Project (Revoked) was a large-scale environmental planting project located at the historic Yaloak Estate, approximately 12 kilometers south of Ballan and 60 kilometers west of Melbourne, Victoria. Registered in March 2015, the project encompassed a significant area of 5,741 hectares. The surrounding region of the Moorabool Shire is traditionally utilised for broad-acre livestock grazing and cropping, situated within Victoria's high rainfall zone.

The project operated under the Reforestation by Environmental or Mallee Plantings-FullCAM methodology. This type of environmental planting project involves establishing permanent native forests on land that has been clear of forest cover for at least five years. The standard requirements for this methodology generally mandate planting native species at a density sufficient to achieve "forest cover" status, defined as a canopy covering at least 20% of the land and reaching a height of two meters.

Environmentally, the Yaloak Estate area is characterised by a rainfall average exceeding 500mm per year. The local terrain features a specific soil profile known as duplex sodosol, consisting of fertile basalt clay-loam topsoil overlying heavy sodic clay. This soil structure is known to hold moisture well but can present challenges such as waterlogging and hostile subsoils for deep root growth.

An interesting aspect of this project was its specific selection of tree species; registry records indicate the planting of Eucalyptus cladocalyx (Sugar Gum) and Corymbia maculata (Spotted Gum). The project was revoked in March 2018 under Section 33 of the Carbon Farming Initiative Act 2011, which refers to a voluntary revocation of the project declaration by the proponent. This suggests the project was withdrawn at the proponent's request, potentially to align with different land management strategies or methodology transitions at the estate, which also hosted soil carbon projects.