Barney Gumble Reforestation Project

Barney Gumble Reforestation Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located approximately 75km northwest of Charleville in South-West Queensland. It was registered in August 2018 and covers a vast 28,000.92 hectares.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects involve regenerating native forest by altering land management practices. For this project, standard methodology requirements involve ceasing the mechanical or chemical destruction of regrowth and carefully managing the timing and extent of livestock grazing. This allows native vegetation to recover from in-situ seed sources, including rootstock and lignotubers, to eventually achieve a mature forest canopy cover.

The South-West Queensland region is predominantly used for extensive cattle and sheep grazing. The area features a semi-arid climate with low, highly variable rainfall, and the soils are typically sandy loams, cracking clays, and red earths characteristic of the Mulga Lands bioregion.

This project was established on land that had been previously cleared of vegetation, where regrowth was actively suppressed for at least 10 years prior to the project's commencement. Interestingly, corporate sustainability reports show that Woodside Energy retired 11,785 carbon credits from the Barney Gumble Reforestation Project to help offset their Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions for the 2021-22 period. Furthermore, the project underwent a participant variation in April 2024, changing from Tacora Agri Pty Ltd to Prove Pastoral GP Pty Ltd. This transition notably followed a series of commercial legal proceedings between the two entities in the Supreme Court of Queensland throughout 2023.