Leonard Springs Carbon Project (Revoked)

Leonard Springs Carbon Project (Revoked) was a soil carbon sequestration project located in the locality of Waratah North, approximately 10 kilometers south of Fish Creek and 20 kilometers southwest of Foster in Victoria. Registered in March 2017, the project covered 250 hectares in the South Gippsland region, an area renowned for its intensive dairy and beef grazing operations. The project operated for seven years before being voluntarily revoked in August 2024.

The project utilized the Sequestering Carbon in Soils in Grazing Systems (2014) methodology. This method required land managers to implement new or materially different management activities to build Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stocks, which are then measured through physical soil sampling. For Leonard Springs, the primary activity was pasture rejuvenation. Public records associate this project with the use of a "novel Australian invention" for pasture cropping, likely referencing the Soilkee Renovator, a technology often deployed in Gippsland soil carbon projects to disturb soil minimally while planting multispecies crops to boost soil biology.

Environmentally, the South Gippsland region is characterized by reliable, high rainfall (typically exceeding 900mm annually) and fertile soils, often deep loams or Dermosols. These conditions are considered ideal for soil carbon projects because moisture availability drives the rapid biomass production necessary to sequester carbon in the soil.

A notable aspect of this project is its administrative history. While the project is now revoked under Section 30 of the CFI Rule (Voluntary Revocation), the registry notes indicate that the associated Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC695911) was "completed" in July 2022. Registry data shows the contract status as "Lapsed/Terminated" with zero units sold to the Commonwealth. This specific combination of status codes often indicates the proponent utilized the government's contract exit window, effectively extinguishing their delivery obligation to the government, potentially to sell Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) on the higher-priced voluntary market or simply to exit the scheme without penalty.