Yerilla & Menangina Station Regeneration Project

Yerilla & Menangina Station Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration project located in the Goldfields region approximately 105km north-northeast of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. It was registered in May 2018 and covers a vast 475,882.90 hectares across the Menzies and Leonora local government areas.

Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) projects involve changing land management practices to allow native vegetation to naturally regenerate and achieve true forest cover. This methodology typically targets land that has been cleared and where regrowth has been suppressed, requiring regenerating trees to eventually reach at least 2 metres in height with a minimum canopy cover of 20%.

The Goldfields region is known for extensive pastoral grazing, which has historically focused on wool but has largely shifted to cattle farming in recent decades due to wild dog predation. The area has a semi-arid climate with a very low average rainfall of roughly 210mm per year. Local environmental features include internal drainage into salt lake systems, and the soils are typically sandy and gravelly red dirt.

This project establishes permanent native forests through assisted regeneration from in-situ seed sources, including rootstock and lignotubers. To achieve this, the proponent, D. & C. Geraghty Pty Ltd, actively manages the timing and extent of livestock grazing to remove suppression pressures from the regenerating vegetation.

An interesting fact about this project area is that Menangina Station is a highly notable scientific site for finding "australites", which are dark, glassy tektites created by ancient meteorite impacts, uniquely preserved by shallow burial in the local sandy soils. Additionally, the project underwent a boundary variation in March 2022 where some previously listed areas were removed. The project also successfully completed its initial fixed-delivery carbon abatement contract (CAC185102) with the Australian Government in February 2023.