Walling Rock Station Regeneration Project

Walling Rock Station Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration project located approximately 80km west of Menzies in the Goldfields region of Western Australia. It was registered in May 2018 and covers a substantial area of 153,383.87 hectares.

Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) projects involve establishing permanent, even-aged native forests by removing or suppressing activities that prevent the regeneration of native vegetation. This methodology's standard requirements stipulate that regeneration must come from in-situ seed sources (including rootstock and lignotubers) on land that was cleared of vegetation and where regrowth was suppressed for at least 10 years. For this project, the core activity is managing the timing and the extent of livestock grazing to allow the native forest to recover and flourish.

The broader Menzies and north-eastern Goldfields region is primarily known for pastoral leaseholds, predominantly sheep and cattle grazing, as well as extensive mining operations and commercial sandalwood harvesting. The area is classified as semi-arid with low and erratic rainfall. The characteristic rangeland soils in this environment consist mainly of deep earthy red sands on sandplains and shallow red earths overlying hardpan.

An interesting note about this project is its proponent, Keith Charles Mader, who has managed the Walling Rock pastoral lease for over 27 years. A vocal advocate for rangeland conservation, Mader previously organized a petition to the Western Australian Parliament calling for a Royal Commission into the environmental damage and land clearing caused by the Forest Products Commission's sandalwood harvesting practices on his station. Additionally, the carbon project successfully completed its initial Commonwealth carbon abatement contract (CAC540320) in January 2022. In August 2022, a variation was approved to remove certain areas from the overall project boundary, which is a common occurrence in the WA Goldfields when carbon farming properties overlap with active mining exploration tenements.