Woodleigh Station Regeneration Project

Woodleigh Station Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located at Woodleigh Station, approximately 160km south-southeast of Carnarvon in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. It was registered in May 2018 and initially covered a massive 415,526.10 ha, though a variation in May 2024 removed some areas from the project. The Shark Bay and Gascoyne area is predominantly known for extensive pastoral land uses, primarily cattle and sheep grazing. The region is characterized by an arid to semi-arid climate with low, variable rainfall, and soils are generally sandy, red earth, and limestone plains.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects involve regenerating native forests by changing land management practices on properties where vegetation has previously been suppressed. This typically requires ceasing activities that actively halt tree growth to allow native vegetation to reach forest cover. For this specific project, the primary activity is managing the timing and extent of grazing. This enables the establishment of permanent native forests through assisted regeneration 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 prior to the project commencing.

The project is operated by proponent Richard Edmund Fenny in partnership with Select Carbon Pty Ltd. A carbon abatement contract (CAC852979) was secured with the Australian Government in June 2018 and was successfully completed in January 2022. Interestingly, the project's property sits directly over the Woodleigh impact structure, a massive buried meteorite crater estimated to be between 60km and 160km in diameter, making it one of Australia's most significant unexposed impact craters.