Colac Beltram Munberry Haredean (CBMH) Regeneration Project

The Colac Beltram Munberry Haredean (CBMH) Regeneration Project is a significant Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located approximately 60km east of Quilpie in South West Queensland. Registered in August 2015, the project encompasses a massive area of 121,378 hectares, covering the aggregation of four pastoral stations: Colac, Beltram, Munberry, and Haredean. The project is situated within the Paroo and Murweh Shire regions, an area traditionally dominated by sheep and cattle grazing operations.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects in this context involve implementing land management changes to facilitate the regrowth of native forest where it was previously suppressed. For CBMH, the primary activities involve cessation of mechanical clearing and the strategic management of grazing timing and intensity. By reducing pressure from livestock and feral animals, the project aims to allow native rootstock and lignotubers, suppressed for at least a decade prior to registration, to regenerate into permanent even-aged native forest.

The environment surrounding Quilpie is characteristic of the Mulga Lands bioregion, defined by a semi-arid climate with highly variable rainfall averaging around 350mm annually. The landscape typically features mulga (Acacia aneura) woodlands on red earth soils and sandy loams, interspersed with clay soils along channel country. These conditions make the region well-suited for carbon farming projects that rely on the hardiness of native acacia species to sequester carbon in dry conditions.

Originally developed involving SLM (ALF) Quilpie Pty Ltd, linked to the Australian Livestock Fund and sustainable investment manager SLM Partners, the project demonstrates the integration of carbon finance with large-scale agriculture. The project has generated significant volumes of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), some of which have been utilized by major corporate entities, such as Woodside Energy and food importers like FTA Food Solutions, to meet their climate offsets and carbon-neutral certification obligations.