Watson River Station

Watson River Station is a Savanna Fire Management project located in the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, approximately 140km south-east of Weipa by road. Registered in August 2015, the project spans an expansive 89,379.39 hectares.

Savanna fire management projects involve the strategic and planned burning of savanna landscapes during the early dry season. This methodology reduces the natural fuel load, which minimizes the risk of intense, uncontrolled wildfires during the late dry season, ultimately avoiding significant greenhouse gas emissions.

The region surrounding the project is heavily utilized for cattle grazing, with the station itself historically running Brahman Cross breeding herds. The environment is classified as a high-rainfall savanna, receiving approximately 1,500mm to 1,600mm of rain annually across distinct wet and dry seasons. The local soils, common to this forest country, are an acutely phosphorus-deficient mix of sandy and mostly clay types.

Watson River Station has a rich operational history; it was owned by the Quartermaine family for 35 years before being purchased in September 2022 by Paniri Agricultural Co., the agribusiness arm of the project proponent, Corporate Carbon Group. The project emphasizes collaborative land management and involves ongoing negotiations for an Indigenous Land Use Agreement with the traditional owners, the Wik and Wik-Way people. In a significant environmental milestone, over 57,000 hectares of the station were officially declared a Nature Refuge by the Australian and Queensland governments in December 2025 to protect threatened species and the local river catchment.