'Moombidary Forest Regeneration Project

Moombidary Forest Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located on Moombidary Station, approximately 55km west of Hungerford and 115km south of Thargomindah in south-western Queensland. It was registered in August 2015 and covers an area of 153,207.35 ha.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects involve restoring permanent even-aged native forests by addressing factors that suppress tree growth. The standard requirement for these projects is that the regenerating native vegetation must show the potential to reach native forest cover, which is defined under the ACCU scheme as achieving a minimum of 20% canopy cover and a height of at least 2 metres at maturity.

The south-western Queensland region is well known for large-scale cattle grazing and pastoral operations. The area experiences a hot, semi-arid to arid climate with low, highly variable rainfall, and features vegetation and soils typical of the Queensland Mulga Lands. Because surface rainfall is often scarce, the local environment and agricultural operations rely heavily on pristine sub-artesian groundwater drawn from the Great Artesian Basin.

This project establishes native forests through assisted regeneration from in-situ seed sources on land where regrowth was previously suppressed for at least 10 years. The proponent, Weemabah Pty Ltd, achieves this through the cessation of mechanical clearing and by carefully managing the timing and extent of grazing by their Shorthorn cattle herd. Interestingly, the carbon project has facilitated a strong partnership between the property owners and the Kullilli Bulloo River and Budjiti Aboriginal Corporations, the Traditional Custodians of the area. This collaboration has allowed Traditional Owners to regain connection to their traditional country and has supported the surveying and mapping of cultural sites. Furthermore, Weemabah Pty Ltd has actively advocated for the environmental protection of the region, notably making a formal parliamentary submission to strongly oppose a proposal by Glencore to pump waste liquid carbon dioxide into the Great Artesian Basin, citing the catastrophic risks the CCS trial posed to the pristine water source their cattle and local communities depend upon.