Tambua Regeneration Project

The Tambua Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located at Tambua Station, approximately 50km west of the township of Cobar in western New South Wales. Registered in August 2015, the project covers a substantial area of 57,460 hectares. The region is situated within the Cobar Peneplain bioregion, an area heavily utilized for rangeland grazing, specifically for Merino sheep and beef cattle, which aligns with the long-standing agricultural history of the property.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects focus on establishing permanent native forests through assisted regeneration rather than planting. This methodology requires landholders to cease suppression activities, such as mechanical clearing or uncontrolled grazing, to allow native vegetation (like Mulga and Poplar Box) to regenerate from in-situ seed sources, rootstock, or lignotubers. A key requirement is achieving "forest cover," defined as trees reaching at least two meters in height with a canopy cover of 20%. The specific activities for this project include the humane management of feral animals, likely targeting goats which are a primary threat to regenerating saplings in the Cobar shire.

The environmental setting for the project is classified as semi-arid, characterized by unreliable rainfall averaging around 390mm annually. The terrain consists of undulating low ridges and plains with soils that are predominantly red earths, loams, and lithosols. These soils can be fragile, and the region historically struggles with "Invasive Native Scrub" (INS), a phenomenon where native woody species thicken to the point of reducing grazing utility, making carbon projects a viable alternative or complementary land management strategy.

An interesting facet of this project is the deep connection of the proponents, the Evans family, to the land. The family has operated Tambua Station for over a century, receiving an Australian Century Farm and Station award in 2015. They run the Tambua Poll Merino Stud and Tambua Park Brahman Stud on the property. The family's history includes managing the land through severe droughts, such as the 1982 dry spell, and significant bushfires, highlighting the resilience required to manage carbon regeneration in this landscape.