Vergemont Regeneration Project (Revoked)

The Vergemont Regeneration Project (Revoked) was a large-scale Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located at Vergemont Station, approximately 110km west of Longreach in Central West Queensland. Registered in January 2018, the project covered a massive area of 271,093 hectares within the Longreach Regional Council area. The region is historically dominated by cattle grazing and opal mining, situated in the Channel Country bioregion which feeds into the Lake Eyre Basin.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects involve regenerating permanent native forests on land where vegetation growth has been suppressed for at least 10 years, typically by domestic stock or mechanical clearing. To generate credits, the project proponent must cease these suppression activities, for example, by removing cattle or installing fencing, to allow the forest to regenerate from in-situ seed sources like rootstock and lignotubers.

The environment in this region is semi-arid to arid, characterized by hot summers and irregular rainfall. The landscape features significant riverine systems, cracking clay soils, and stony downs, providing critical habitat for rare species such as the elusive Night Parrot and the Opalton Grasswren.

This project was voluntarily revoked in May 2021 under Section 30 of the CFI Rule. Interestingly, the property itself, Vergemont Station, later made headlines in 2024 when it was acquired by the Queensland Government to become a National Park. The acquisition, supported by a record-breaking philanthropic donation to The Nature Conservancy, aims to protect the area's high biodiversity value. The revocation of the carbon project three years prior to the sale suggests the carbon rights were cleared from the title well before the transition to conservation tenure.