Stirling Lotus Vale (Revoked)

Stirling Lotus Vale (Revoked) is a savanna fire management project located at the Stirling Lotus Vale cattle station in the Gulf of Carpentaria region, approximately 70km northeast of Normanton in Far North Queensland. Registered in July 2015, the project covers a vast area of 126,135.26 hectares. The broader Gulf Country region is heavily utilised for large-scale pastoral operations, specifically extensive Brahman cattle grazing, and features low-lying alluvial plains, cracking clay soils, and sandy earths. The environment is defined by its monsoonal climate, falling within the savanna low rainfall zone which typically receives between 600mm and 1,000mm of annual precipitation during the intense summer wet season.

The project was registered under the Savanna Fire Management (2015) methodology. Savanna fire management projects involve the strategic, planned burning of savanna woodlands and grasslands during the early dry season. By introducing cooler, patchy fires early in the year, the methodology reduces available fuel loads, thereby mitigating the risk and severity of massive, high-emission wildfires that typically devastate the landscape during the late dry season.

There is an interesting administrative history behind this project. While it successfully secured a carbon abatement contract (CAC463217) with the Commonwealth in April 2016, the contract lapsed or was terminated by January 2017, reportedly due to challenges in satisfying eligible interest consent requirements for exclusive possession native title land. Ultimately, the project was officially revoked under section 33 of the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) Act in May 2017. Furthermore, the Clean Energy Regulator subsequently accepted an Enforceable Undertaking from the project's proponent, Country Carbon Pty. Ltd., which took effect in May 2020. Outside of its brief carbon project history, the Stirling Lotus Vale property remains a significant agricultural asset; originally established in 1883, it currently operates as a steer-fattening and Brahman stud facility within the massive one-million-hectare Gulf Coast Agricultural Company portfolio.