Highlands Station Regeneration Project

Highlands Station Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located approximately 180km south of Longreach in central-western Queensland. It was registered in November 2016 and covers an area of 56,919.89 ha.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects involve regenerating permanent even-aged native forests on land where vegetation was previously cleared and its regrowth suppressed for at least 10 years. Standard requirements mandate changing land management practices so that native vegetation can recover to achieve a mature forest canopy, generally defined as reaching at least 20% crown cover and 2 metres in height. For this project, the specific activities undertaken are managing the timing and extent of livestock grazing and humanely controlling feral animals.

The Longreach region is heavily utilised for large-scale pastoralism, specifically cattle and sheep grazing on outback stations. The area is classified as having a semi-arid climate with highly variable, summer-dominant rainfall. Geographically, it is part of the Mitchell Grass Downs, which is widely known for its rolling open plains and deep, alkaline, self-mulching cracking clay soils (vertosols).

This project establishes permanent native forests through assisted regeneration from in-situ seed sources, capitalising on resilient existing rootstock and lignotubers. The project was originally established with Ian Allen as a participant and secured a Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC407433) committing 120,000 ACCUs to the Commonwealth. A project variation in December 2021 transferred participant status to Terra Carbon Pty Limited.