Blairmore Native Forest Regeneration Project

The Blairmore Native Forest Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located approximately 75km east of Cunnamulla in southwest Queensland. Registered in May 2018, the project spans a significant area of 16,514 hectares within the Paroo Shire. The surrounding region is deeply remote and dominated by rangeland agriculture, primarily sheep and cattle grazing, which operates across vast pastoral leases.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects in this area focus on restoring native forest cover, typically Mulga (Acacia aneura) or Poplar Box woodlands, on land where vegetation has been historically suppressed. This project specifically employs management changes to the timing and extent of livestock grazing. By controlling grazing pressure, the project aims to allow suppressed seedlings and rootstock to regenerate into permanent forest cover, thereby sequestering carbon.

The local environment is classified as semi-arid to arid, characterized by red earth soils, sandy loams, and hard-setting clay pans typical of the Mulga Lands bioregion. Rainfall in this area is low and highly variable (averaging 300-400mm annually), meaning regeneration events are often pulsed and dependent on opportunistic weather patterns. The project relies entirely on in-situ seed sources, such as existing rootstock and lignotubers, rather than mechanical planting, ensuring the resulting forest is ecologically consistent with the surrounding landscape.