Northern Savanna Project

Northern Savanna Project is a Savanna Fire Management project located at Kalpowar Station on the Northern Cape York Peninsula, approximately 150km northwest of Cooktown and five hours north of Cairns in Queensland. It was registered in November 2016 and covers 192,516.01 hectares. The surrounding region is predominantly used for Aboriginal freehold conservation and traditional land management. The project is situated in a high rainfall savanna zone that receives roughly 1,000 mm of annual rainfall, where soils are typically sandy, lateritic, and alluvial.

Savanna Fire Management projects involve strategic and planned burning of savanna areas in the early dry season. By deliberately reducing the ground fuel load, these controlled burns mitigate the risk, intensity, and frequency of destructive late dry season wildfires, significantly reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that would otherwise be released by uncontrolled hotter fires.

Managed by the Traditional Owner-led Alka Bawar (Kalpowar) Aboriginal Corporation, the project applies traditional cultural fire practices that have been passed down for over 60,000 years. It provides substantial co-benefits to the region, including supporting local Indigenous employment, funding ranger training programs, protecting cultural sites, and conserving local biodiversity. The project had a Commonwealth contract (CAC903889) that was completed in November 2022. Additionally, in mid-2025, Gondwana Carbon became the project's natural carbon advisor after Kurrajong Partners Pty Ltd was removed from the registry as a participant. This partnership ensures the community continues to maintain control and transparency while maximizing the environmental and financial outcomes of their Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). Large corporate buyers, such as IAG and Brickworks, have historically purchased ACCUs from this project to support their Reconciliation Action Plans and climate goals.