Ninghan Station Regeneration Project

The Ninghan Station Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located at Ninghan Station, approximately 50km south of Paynes Find and 80km north of Wubin in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Registered in May 2018, the project spans a massive area of over 197,000 hectares. The station sits at the ecological junction of the Yalgoo and Avon Wheatbelt bioregions, marking a transition from eucalypt woodlands to arid mulga shrublands.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects involve regenerating native forests on land where vegetation has been suppressed by activities such as unmanaged livestock grazing or mechanical clearing. By managing the timing and extent of grazing, often through installing fencing, trapping feral animals (like goats), and destocking, the project allows existing rootstock and seeds in the soil to regenerate into a permanent forest. Standard requirements for this methodology generally mandate that the land must have been free of forest cover for at least 10 years prior to the project, with the aim of achieving 20% canopy cover.

The region is characterized by a semi-arid to arid climate with erratic rainfall. The terrain features dramatic granite outcrops, such as Mount Singleton (Nyingarn), and soils that range from red earth and shallow loams to sandy plains and salt lake margins near Lake Moore. The project proponent, Pindiddy Aboriginal Corporation, has a long history of conservation on the property, having declared an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) on the station in 2006 to protect cultural sites and biodiversity. The project has successfully generated Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) and completed a carbon abatement contract with the Clean Energy Regulator in 2021.