Hillview Biodiversity Project (Revoked)

The Hillview Biodiversity Project (Revoked) is an environmental planting project situated in the Gutha District of the Shire of Morawa, Western Australia. The project area is located approximately 25 kilometers north of the town of Morawa and roughly 350 kilometers north of Perth. Registered in July 2015 by Auscarbon Pty Ltd, the project encompassed a significant land area of 748.75 hectares. The site forms part of the Yarra Yarra Biodiversity Corridor, a strategic regional initiative designed to reconnect fragmented landscapes across the northern wheatbelt.

The project operated under the Carbon Farming (Quantifying Carbon Sequestration by Permanent Environmental Plantings of Native Tree Species using the CFI Reforestation Modelling Tool) Methodology Determination 2012. This methodology involves the establishment of permanent native vegetation on land that has been clear of forest cover for at least five years. The project required planting a mix of species native to the local area, typically including Eucalyptus, Acacia, and Melaleuca species, at a density sufficient to achieve forest cover status (generally defined as a potential height of at least 2 meters and 20% canopy cover).

Environmental conditions in this part of the Northern Agricultural Region are characterized as semi-arid to Mediterranean, with an average annual rainfall of approximately 300mm to 350mm, occurring predominantly in winter. The soil profile in the Gutha and Morawa districts typically consists of red loams, sandy earths, and yellow sandplains, which support the broadacre wheat and sheep farming operations common to the area.

Notably, the project was revoked in February 2018 under section 30 of the CFI Rule. This section pertains to voluntary revocation by the proponent. While the carbon project registration was withdrawn, monitoring reports from 2020 indicate that the physical revegetation on the Hillview property remained in place and was assessed as providing habitat for native fauna, suggesting the revocation may have been administrative or related to the aggregation of project areas rather than a failure of the planting itself.