Limbunya & Maryfield Stations (Revoked)

Limbunya & Maryfield Stations (Revoked) is a savanna fire management project located across two vast cattle stations in the Northern Territory. Limbunya Station is situated approximately 650km southwest of Katherine, while Maryfield Station lies 45km north of Daly Waters. Registered in February 2016, the project covered an expansive area of 671,179 hectares. The region is known for large-scale pastoral operations, specifically Brahman cattle breeding, grazing, and backgrounding.

Savanna fire management projects involve conducting strategic, controlled burns early in the dry season (typically between April and July). Standard requirements for this methodology dictate that these cool, patchy burns are used to reduce the fuel load, which prevents high-intensity, uncontrolled wildfires late in the dry season and significantly lowers the emissions of greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide.

The project area spans the transition between the tropical savanna high rainfall zone (over 1000mm) and the semi-arid low rainfall zone (600–1000mm). The environment is geographically diverse; Limbunya features rugged gorges, natural valleys, and spinifex country, while Maryfield is characterized by flat terrain, fertile red earths, and black cracking clay soils known as Vertosols.

Interestingly, this carbon project had a brief operational lifespan. Despite securing a carbon abatement contract in April 2016 for 111,000 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), the contract lapsed and the project was formally revoked under section 33 of the Carbon Farming Initiative Act in August 2017. Additionally, the Clean Energy Regulator accepted an Enforceable Undertaking from the proponent, Country Carbon Pty Ltd, in May 2020. Following the project's revocation, both properties have remained prominent agricultural assets and were notably acquired in 2022 for over $65 million to support vertically integrated beef production.