Watson River Station

Watson River Station is a savanna fire management project located in the Cape York Peninsula, approximately 140km south-east of Weipa in Queensland. It was registered in August 2015 and covers 89,379.39 ha.

Savanna fire management projects involve the strategic and planned burning of savanna areas during the early dry season. This helps to reduce the risk and severity of late dry season wildfires, thereby reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions.

The Cape York Peninsula area is predominantly known for cattle grazing and pastoral operations. The area is considered a high rainfall zone, receiving around 1,500mm to 1,600mm annually. The region's soils are generally a mix of sandy and clay soils on forest country, which are known to be acutely phosphorus deficient.

The station operates as a Brahman cross cattle breeding enterprise and is recognised for developing an innovative wet-season phosphorus feeding program to overcome the region's nutrient deficiencies and improve herd performance. The carbon project originally operated under a 2013 methodology before transitioning to the 2015 savanna fire management emissions abatement determination in February 2017.

In 2022, Corporate Carbon purchased the station for $12 million, and in 2023, the project's proponent was formally updated from Country Carbon Pty Ltd to Corporate Carbon Holdings Pty Ltd as trustee for CC Stage 2 Agricultural Trust. Following the acquisition, Corporate Carbon commissioned anthropological research on the property to engage and foster collaborative relationships with the local Native Title holders, the Wik and Wik-Way people. Notably, in December 2025, over 57,000 hectares of the property were officially declared the Watson River Nature Refuge by the Australian and Queensland governments to protect threatened species and the Watson River catchment.