Maddingly LFG Project

Maddingly LFG Project is a landfill gas project located at Maddingley, a suburb of Bacchus Marsh, approximately 50km west of Melbourne in Victoria. It was registered in June 2018 and covers an unspecified area size within a broader industrial precinct.

Landfill gas projects operate under the Waste methodology, which involves installing a new or upgraded landfill gas collection system. These systems actively capture and combust methane gas generated by the decomposition of legacy and non-legacy organic waste. By flaring the gas or using it to generate electricity, the project prevents methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, from freely venting into the atmosphere.

The Bacchus Marsh region sits in a valley traditionally known for market gardens, orchards, and dairy grazing, though the specific project site is an active industrial and resource recovery facility. The area experiences a relatively temperate, semi-arid climate with lower rainfall than surrounding regions due to a local rain shadow effect. Soils in the immediate project vicinity are heavily characterised by deep brown coal (lignite) seams and alluvial clays.

This project takes place at the Maddingley Brown Coal site, a location with a rich industrial history. Originally opened in 1948 as a coal mine to supply boiler fuel for Australian Paper Manufacturers, the mine's massive void was converted into a landfill starting in 1967. The Calleja Group acquired the site in 1990. The project's proponent, IGAS OPERATIONS PTY LTD, has been actively expanding the site's resource recovery capabilities; in 2018, the company received state government grants to develop a new Waste-to-Energy facility capable of processing 100,000 tonnes of timber, plastic, and construction waste annually. In recent years, the broader landfill facility has been a focal point for environmental campaigns, most notably seeing local protests over proposals to accept PFAS-contaminated soil from Melbourne's West Gate Tunnel project.