Wombah Regeneration Project

Wombah Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located at Wombah Station in the Paroo Shire of Southwest Queensland. The project area spans approximately 55,000 hectares and is situated roughly 30 kilometers north of the border town of Hungerford, or about 170 kilometers northwest of Bourke. Registered in March 2017, the project operates within the Mulga Lands bioregion, an area traditionally utilized for the grazing of sheep and cattle.

The project employs the Human-Induced Regeneration methodology, which involves changes in land management to facilitate the regrowth of native forest where it has been historically suppressed. Key activities at Wombah include the management of grazing timing and intensity, as well as the humane control of feral animals such as goats, which are known to strip vegetation. By reducing these suppression pressures, the project allows native species, predominantly Mulga (Acacia aneura) and associated woodlands, to regenerate from in-situ seed sources, rootstock, and lignotubers.

Environmentally, the region is characterized by a semi-arid climate with irregular rainfall. The landscape features red earth soils, sandy loams, and clay pans. A notable ecological feature of the property is Lake Wombah, an episodic saline lake fed by the Paroo River system. This lake and its surrounding wetlands provide critical habitat for waterbirds and invertebrates during inundation events, highlighting the project's potential co-benefits for local biodiversity alongside carbon sequestration.

An interesting aspect of this project is its contract history. While originally securing a carbon abatement contract (CAC683087) with the Australian Government in April 2017, the project is noted as having completed this contract by early 2022. Public records indicate the contract status as "Lapsed/Terminated" with zero volume delivered, which typically suggests the proponents utilized the "fixed delivery exit" arrangements introduced during market reforms. This maneuver allows project owners to exit fixed-price government contracts to sell their Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) on the open market, where prices have historically been higher.