Sturt Meadows Regeneration Project

Sturt Meadows Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located at Sturt Meadows Station, approximately 40 kilometres northwest of Leonora in the Goldfields region of Western Australia. It was registered in May 2018 and covers a massive 226,261.71 hectares.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects involve establishing permanent, even-aged native forests by altering land management practices to allow native vegetation to regenerate. Under this methodology, proponents must cease activities that historically suppressed forest growth. For this project, the primary activity is managing the timing and extent of livestock grazing. This allows native forests to regrow through assisted regeneration from in-situ seed sources, including rootstock and lignotubers, on land where vegetation was previously cleared and regrowth suppressed for at least 10 years.

The Goldfields region around Leonora is characterised by a semi-arid climate with low rainfall. The local environment is predominantly open country dominated by mulga scrub, saltbush, and cotton grass, which grows in the region's typical red dirt, sandy earths, and clay floodplains. Land use in this region has historically been heavily focused on pastoral leases and gold mining operations. Sturt Meadows itself is a historic pastoral lease that originated as a booming sheep and wool enterprise in the late 1890s. However, severe wild dog attacks forced the property to transition entirely from sheep to cattle by 2004, a management shift that aligns well with their current grazing and carbon regeneration strategies.

An interesting note about this project is that it underwent a variation in February 2021, where certain listed areas were removed from the original project boundaries. Additionally, the project secured an abatement contract (CAC333111) in June 2018 for over 530,000 tonnes of carbon abatement. This contract was concluded in January 2022 via Fixed Delivery exit arrangements with zero volume sold directly to the Commonwealth, indicating the proponent opted to sell their generated credits on the open private market instead. The project is managed by Victory Creek Pty Ltd, with Select Carbon Pty Ltd also acting as a participant.