Orient Regeneration Project

Orient Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located on Orient Station, approximately 70km west-north-west of Thargomindah in South West Queensland. Registered in November 2017, the project is massive in scale, covering a total area of 261,947 hectares within the remote Bulloo Shire.

The region is characterized by extensive beef cattle grazing, which remains the primary land use alongside carbon abatement activities. The environment is semi-arid to arid, with highly variable rainfall averaging between 200mm and 290mm annually. The landscape straddles the Mulga Lands and Channel Country bioregions, featuring a mix of red sandy loams on the ridges and grey cracking clays across the floodplains of the Bulloo River catchment.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects involve changing land management practices to allow native vegetation to regenerate into forest. Standard requirements for this methodology dictate that the land must have been subject to suppression mechanisms, such as mechanical clearing or unmanaged grazing, for at least 10 years prior to the project. By ceasing these suppression activities and managing grazing timing, the project aims to restore permanent native forest cover from in-situ seed sources like rootstock and lignotubers.

A notable feature of this project is its social impact; the proponent, Usher Pastoral Company, has established a benefit-sharing arrangement with the Kullilli Bulloo River Aboriginal Corporation, acknowledging the Traditional Owners' connection to the land. Additionally, the project successfully completed a Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC407969) with the Australian Government in April 2020, delivering over 100,000 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs).