Challa Station Regeneration Project

Challa Station Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration project located at Challa Station, approximately 60km east of Mount Magnet in the Murchison region of Western Australia. It was registered in May 2018 and covers a massive 190,065.88 hectares.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects involve establishing permanent, even-aged native forests through assisted regeneration from in-situ seed sources, such as rootstock and lignotubers. The standard requirements dictate that this regeneration occurs on land that was previously cleared of vegetation and where regrowth was actively suppressed for at least 10 years prior to the project commencing. For this specific project, the main activity to facilitate forest recovery is the active management of the timing and the extent of livestock grazing.

The Mount Magnet area and the broader Southern Rangelands of Western Australia are well-known for their extensive pastoral operations, focusing predominantly on cattle grazing and historical sheep farming. The environment is considered semi-arid, characterised by low and highly variable rainfall. The soils in this harsh rangeland environment typically consist of red earths, sandy loams, and claypans.

Interestingly, Challa Station had been managed by the Dowden family since 1888. It successfully operated as a wool-producing sheep station until 2006, when an influx of wild dogs severely impacted the local wool industry, prompting a transition to cattle by 2014. The carbon project underwent variations in December 2020 and February 2021 to remove certain areas from the initial project boundary. In March 2026, the project's proponent shifted from Ashley and Deborah Dowden to Samphire Wild Pty Ltd, a sustainable cattle operations company operating under the Forever Wild Initiative. Today, the station is managed as a hybrid landscape that balances regenerative Santa Gertrudis cattle production with high-value biodiversity conservation aimed at protecting rare and threatened species.