Tuncoona Forest Regeneration Project

The Tuncoona Forest Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located on Tuncoona Station, a pastoral property approximately 65 kilometers north-northwest of Bourke in outback New South Wales. Registered in June 2016, the project spans a massive area of over 40,000 hectares within the Mulga Lands bioregion. The property is situated near the small locality of Enngonia and lies along the flooding Warrego River system.

The project operates under the Human-Induced Regeneration methodology, which differs from environmental planting by relying on existing soil seed banks and rootstock rather than manual seedling planting. To generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), the proponents must suppress activities that previously prevented regrowth, specifically by managing the timing and extent of livestock grazing and controlling feral animals (such as goats). The goal is to allow native vegetation to regenerate naturally until it achieves "forest cover" status, defined as trees reaching at least two meters in height with 20% crown canopy cover.

The region is characterized by a semi-arid climate with a mean annual rainfall of approximately 350mm. The terrain features a mix of landscapes including sandy red loams, fragile sandy soils, and clay-rich floodplains associated with the Warrego River. Vegetation in this area typically includes Mulga (Acacia aneura), Bimble Box, and River Red Gums along watercourses.

Tuncoona Station has a deep historical connection to its proponents, the Ridge family. Historical records indicate the family has run stock on the property since the early 1890s, making them long-term custodians of the land. The property has also been the subject of geological surveys exploring the Tuncoona Graben, a basement structure beneath the Great Artesian Basin sediments, which confirms the presence of complex metamorphic basement rock beneath the sandy surface soils.