Watheroo (Revoked)

Watheroo (Revoked) is a permanent mallee planting project located near the towns of Watheroo and Moora, approximately 200 kilometres north of Perth in Western Australia. It was registered in July 2015 by the proponent Regenerate Australia Ltd and covers an area of 765.03 hectares. The project is situated in the state's Wheatbelt region, where the surrounding land use is predominantly agricultural, heavily focused on dry-land cereal cropping and sheep grazing.

The project was established under the Reforestation by Environmental or Mallee Plantings (FullCAM) Methodology Determination 2014. Environmental and mallee planting projects involve establishing permanent plantings of native tree or mallee eucalypt species to sequester atmospheric carbon. To meet standard methodology requirements, these plantings must occur on land that was predominantly used for agricultural purposes for at least five years prior to project commencement, at densities sufficient to eventually achieve permanent forest cover.

The local environment in the Watheroo area is characterised by a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and a low-to-medium winter rainfall pattern, typically receiving around 300 to 450 millimetres of rain annually. The regional soils are typically sandy or sandy loams, which naturally possess low clay content and low soil organic matter.

In a notable administrative action, this project was officially revoked on 18 September 2017 under Section 33 of the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011. Section 33 empowers the Clean Energy Regulator to enact a unilateral revocation of a project's eligible offsets declaration, a measure typically reserved for instances of non-compliance, eligibility loss, or a failure to fulfill required project milestones.